School Time, Part 1 (Redistribution)
As I stated in my last blog I am going to be writing about our public education system in this country. Now while I can’t speak for all the local Boards of Education in this nation, I can reference what I know from mine. I am planning on writing this in a series not just one long winded post. It will probably have no rhyme or reason to the order that I put my posts in and I can almost guarantee you that I will repeat myself. If you are a betting man, know that you will find spelling and grammatical errors in my posts as well. I did graduate from a public school.
Today will be a quick blog on the picture that is posted to the left. This is the school supply list for my youngest child. As I peruse the list of the typical items a first grader would need something strikes me as odd. All young kids need glue sticks, crayons and tissues. Lord knows some kids produce snot on a daily basis no matter the weather conditions.
However, the part that grabbed my attention was the short paragraph from the teachers to the parents. It reads as follows:
Dear Parents,
The above items are classroom supplies. Any donations will be greatly appreciated, but are not mandatory. We will be sharing these supplies as a class, so there will be no need to put your child’s name on the items.
Thank you,
For most people that sounds pretty straight forward and simple, but for me it is anything but that. My first thought was disgust and then contempt. How dare they tell me that the money I spend to buy supplies for my child is gathered by a central figure and then redistributed to the class as a whole. That while I spent the extra money for a 24 pack of markers that everyone is entitled to those because we wouldn’t want someone to just have a 12 pack. That wouldn’t be fair or equal. Sounds a familiar doesn’t it. It’s amazing that a government school would espouse government ideology.
I heard this point made on one of my favorite right wing hate speech talk radio shows one morning, aka Neal Boortz, and it made perfect sense. I hope I don’t butcher it to much. When you send your kid to a Catholic School you expect them to learn and follow the teaching of the Catholic Church. When you send your child to Islamic School you expect them to learn and follow the teachings of Mohammed and the Muslim faith. So what do you expect when you send your child to a Government School?
I hope real world examples like this help wake everyone up. It is only going to get worse. It may be easy to be lazy now, but will be hard work to fix later.
Until next time.
