Obama and Education: Pass the Remote

[Smarmie Doofus]

>>>>Let’s go back in time. It’s 1971; young Barack Obama has just moved back to his native Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, Madelyn (“Toot”) and Stanley Dunham. Barack has just completed fourth grade in Indonesia and has left his mother and half-sister behind in Jakarta. “It was time for me to attend an American school” (Dreams from My Father, p.54).

Emerson said, “There is properly no history; only biography.”

Passing on the local Honolulu public school system, young Barack uses “Gramp’s” connections to cut a long wait list and enrolls in the posh Punahou Academy, a renowned “incubator for island elites.” Toot’s salary (she’s a bank vice president) and a partial scholarship keep him there through high school.

Private schooling served Mr. Obama well. He compiled a dazzling record of accomplishments … climaxing in his now famous stint as first-ever African American editor of the Harvard Law Review. People took note. The rest is history.

That’s what we gained; what we lost was the chance to elect in 2008 a president with first-hand knowledge of American public education. >>>>>

http://riverdalepress.com/stories/Obama-never-learned,50180?page=1&content_source=

[elleng]

1. Unfortunate in that education's his most failed 'program,' imo,

not that his approach would have been different had he attended public school; definitely no guarantee there.
Fortunately he obtained a first class education, throughout, as he, and all, deserve, and his daughters are doing the same.

[NYC_SKP]

2. True. But, paradoxically, had he stayed in the public school system we might not have...

...him in the White House now.

[elleng]

3. Right, exactly.

Very sad, and concerned about my future grandkids' educations. (Our daughters went private.)

[Smarmie Doofus]

4. It's not just Obama. It's a whole privileged class-based ignorance of how ....

... public education works.

Eventuating in faulty analysis.

Terminating in "solutions" that worsen the problems.

[elleng]

5. Sorry, and I don't mean to aggravate the conversation,

but it seems to me today that public education does NOT work, certainly not very well, and few know how to remedy that tragic fact. (I attended public schools throughout, up to law school, and received excellent pre-college educations; this was 50+ years ago. (College was OK, not 'excellent.'))

During the past ?# years, we've miserably failed to recognize the many necessary features of good education, beginning with funding; states have not recognized need for or had the guts to provide fair, across-the board funding, and how to do it. We've spent years and huge amount of resources trying to sort that one out. Funding based on local taxes results in inferior resources in other than 'privileged' areas, and we're still fighting that fight.

And then the 'testing' game began.

Its all miserable, imo.

[BlueIris]

7. +1. nt

[GeorgeGist]

6. Pray tell ...

who was that candidate

'with first-hand knowledge of American public education.'

that we failed to elect?

[Tarheel_Dem]

8. What is this? Reverse snobbery? We also had a chance to elect a former POW as CIC.

Would you say that only an ex prisoner of war, with an extensive military background should be allowed to run for POTUS? Should that be the new criteria? You see how silly that sounds? Get over yourself.

You talk as if education were the only issue we were facing in '08. Guess what? It wasn't.

[Luminous Animal]

9. We don't elect CICs. We elect Presidents.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. That's a curious reaction.

The article doesn't say that Obama shouldn't have been elected. ( And it certainly doesn't say that he shouldn't be "allowed to run".)It says that, having been elected and charged with formulating federal educational policy... about which he knows very little... he is struggling unsuccessfully to come to grips with educational issues.

Furthermore, it points to a solution: if you're weak in an area, appoint someone to guide you who is STRONG. Alas, he picks Mr. Duncan... who appears to know even less than the president... which is to say less than ZERO... about public education.

And nowhere does the article imply that ed is the only issue. But it's pretty friggin' significant if you have to use public schools. A lot of us don't have the luxury of pretending that it's not.

[Tarheel_Dem]

12. When's the last time everyone was satisfied with the state of our education system?

I thought so. It's an ongoing issue, and will be in perpetuity. Every Education Sec is pilloried for not "fixing" the system. I think we're fortunate so far that the Teanutters haven't abolished the DOE.

Quite frankly, I don't think the president could have chosen anyone that his detractors would have been satisfied with, which is why they've kicked about every appointment he's made, with the possible exception of Hillary.

I, and tens of millions, voted for Pres. Obama, not "Smarmie Doofus". Guess whose judgement
I trust more? Go on, guess.

[TheKentuckian]

11. Very essential though. Nothing to be smug about or make light of.