Reply #14: Public education [View All]

[H2O Man]

is under attack today, by the lack of federal funding. In my area, it is sad to see some of the school boards consider the public to be their enemy, rather than a government that is betraying their trust.

I think that public schools offer a potential, so to speak, but a lot of it falls on the individual student. Each high school student, for example, makes choices which will determine if they are molded into a cog that will fit into a factory -- though that is not as assured a position as it was in the pre-Reagan days -- or of they will move in some other direction.

Text books still say that Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. These are what Ibsen called the "ageing truths" ("All the truths belonging to the majority are like ancient rancid bacon or rotting green ham; and from them comes all the moralscurvy which is eating itself into the life of the people around us.") Those students who say, "Well, I don't care what the textbook says; I want to know your opinion," will stimulate their teachers to provide a better education. And they will be less likely to listen to the Dick Cheney's they encounter in life.