Organization: Virginia Department of Health
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.christia
Date:         Wed, 16 Dec 1992 21:43:19 EST
From:         "Michael A. Kline" <MKLINE@VDH.BITNET>
Subject:      Children of the Rainbow-6

    Children of the Rainbow, Part 6
    Education Activity in New York City Schools, and later yours? ------>

    This is from the Rush show that ran 12/14 in our area but said to be
Friday's show. Rush and some call in people talk a bit more out
education. I think it pertinent for us parents to know what is going on.

    I mentioned earlier this week that we had a segment coming up on
Liberal logic. This is it. Time has come for Liberal Logic.

    Liberal Logic is not logic. That's the whole point. If you think
about Liberalism logically, you got nuts. You get confused, you go crazy.
It doesn't make any sense. Because again, Liberalism is what? Symbolism
over substance. Also this week we have concentrated a lot on education,
and part of our liberal logic section here involves some more wacko
education news, as resulting from liberal control of the curriculum.

    Now just to go in order. This is from the New York times, a story, we
touched on this earlier in a different show about the same kinds of
things going on, I think in New Hampshire. This is a story about what's
going on in Manhattan, Kansas, and other places. It's about report cards.
Just listen to this.

    "A school in Manhattan, Kansas has now replaced report cards with
triangular parent, student, teacher conferences, in which the children
set their educational goals, and then assess how well they've done."
Okay, so you bring a kid in, and don't misunderstand, but a student, by
definition is ignorant. Not stupid. Not dumb. But ignorant. And I don't
know how in the world you let someone who is being taught set the
standards.

    You know I had a conversation once, this past summer with a young
woman, 25 years old. I'm 41. We got into an argument, that I thought at
first was just semantic, but it actually was more substantive than that.
I'm talking about how when I was in high school coach, and a lot of
teachers, pushed me. Pushed me to be better than *I* thought I could be.
Pushed me to exceed my own limitations.

    And if you think back to the teachers that you had in school. I bet
you that your favorite teachers, or the ones that you thought were really
good or through out any walk of life, the people who should you that you
could get more out of you than you thought. The people that helped you do
that, those are the people that you admired. Those are the people you
think back and fondly remember. Now they may have been tough. They may
not have been nice. But they certainly did get more out of you.

    This young woman said "No, no. We don't need to push kids. We need to
UNDERSTAND. We need to understand." and I said "Well that's not going to
accomplish anything." If you have someone who is educated, and somebody
who is advanced, trying to understand somebody who is not. What good does
that do to somebody who is not? They have to be pushed. EVERYBODY has to
be pushed. That's what makes people good. The pursuit of excellence.

    Well now, in Manhattan, Kansas apparently, you know what else is
going on with this outcome based education? We didn't touch on that
enough this week. What's going on in some people's minds is that the
curricula is being established so as to hide poor teaching skills. And if
you have an outcome based plan, where there are no grades, and where
there are no judgements on how well somebody's done, then you can't blame
somebody for not teaching them very well.

    MAKS> Virginia wants to pass "Outcome Based Education" this next
year. The home schoolers are being asked to fight it.

    Rush: And at the same time you can say "We're being fair. If Johnny
knows that 2+2 = 4 but Fred doesn't know, we shouldn't penalize Fred for
not knowing. And so, 2+2 may not = 4 if Fred doesn't know it." I mean
that's the kind of idiocy that's going on in schools today. It really is.

    Now there's more here. "Chicago, Newart, and other cities have tried
forcing parents to come to school to pick up report cards. But sometimes
parents who hated school when they were children simply stay away. So
they don't know how their kids are doing. Pass/Fail experiments often
sent students the unintended message that nobody really cared if they did
well. The most controversial part a new report card," moving on to a
different part of the story here, and we told you about this one earlier,
and this is worth reminding you of, "Under no circumstances," a warning
on report cards in several school districts today, "under no
circumstances, should this document be considered as a basis for drawing
broad based conclusions about, or result in negative actions, especially
physical, on the learner." In other words, don't beat your kid.

    The assumption is, if your kid doesn't do well, you're going to beat
him, all parents abuse their kids and that's why we've got to give kids
the right to sue. It really is an example, folks, of just how the
education system in this country is falling apart in many places.

    Now the New York City public school controversy? As you know, there's
a school board that does NOT want their kids to be taught anal sex in the
first grade or the 6th grade. They don't want alternative lifestyles
advocated, and they don't want their kids being given condoms. The
school's chancellor says "It doesn't matter what you parents think,
you're irrelevant. We are here to educate your kids the way WE want to do
it."

    Take a look at this from today's USA Today. This is Mitchel Moss, New
York City Urban Center, commenting on the controversy with Joe Fernandez,
he is the school chancellor in New York: "Fernandez is a charismatic
leader, who has been handicapped by a board of education, which has a
tendency to meddle."

    The board of education is only elected. They are the elected
representatives of the parents. They're supposed to meddle when things
aren't going right. Parents should have a say in what cultural values
their kids are taught.

    MAKS> Oh... Got to break. I try to keep this at 100-125. There's at
least one more part from this segment. Later.... :-)

    In His Love,
    Maks
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