Obama & McCain on Education
Oct 20, 2008 14:50 Filed in: Education
The San Francisco Examiner ran an article today comparing the positions of Obama and McCain on education.
Big differences in candidates' education plans
The main difference between the candidates’ plans is in pre-school support. McCain would add less that $1 billion to education. He would give principals more say over funds while redirecting spending to online schools, home schools and tuition vouchers. Obama, on the other hand, would devote most of his increased spending to preparing children for kindergarden on the premise that children who enter school 2 years behind seldom catch up.
I wish that the candidates would spend a little time discussing the content of education. I’m convinced that generations of American students have been dumbed down by a curriculum that teaches little history, literature, economics, geography, or logic, and the results have been catastrophic. If you don’t believe me, show a teenager a map of the world and ask them to locate Venice, Baghdad, New Delhi and Beijing. Ask your teenager if he or she can identify Horatio, Brutus, Marcus Aurelius and Alaric. Ask him or her one thing that the Federal Reserve does and why. Finally, ask your teenager to name one American Nobel Prize winner in literature.
More pertinently, ask your teenage to name the three branches of the federal government and briefly explain the roles of each.
None of these questions are on the level we call “rocket science.” I was taught the answers to most of the foregoing questions at Mary Lee Boyd Elementary School on Northside Drive, here in Jackson, between 1950 and 1956.
Several years ago I reviewed a book by John Taylor Gatto, The Underground History of American Education: a schoolteacher’s intimate investigation into the prison of modern schooling, that related the whole sorry story of compulsory education in America. The book is well-worth reading and pondering. Gatto regards the educational system not as a failure but as a resounding success when judged in the light of its original purpose.
Big differences in candidates' education plans
The main difference between the candidates’ plans is in pre-school support. McCain would add less that $1 billion to education. He would give principals more say over funds while redirecting spending to online schools, home schools and tuition vouchers. Obama, on the other hand, would devote most of his increased spending to preparing children for kindergarden on the premise that children who enter school 2 years behind seldom catch up.
I wish that the candidates would spend a little time discussing the content of education. I’m convinced that generations of American students have been dumbed down by a curriculum that teaches little history, literature, economics, geography, or logic, and the results have been catastrophic. If you don’t believe me, show a teenager a map of the world and ask them to locate Venice, Baghdad, New Delhi and Beijing. Ask your teenager if he or she can identify Horatio, Brutus, Marcus Aurelius and Alaric. Ask him or her one thing that the Federal Reserve does and why. Finally, ask your teenager to name one American Nobel Prize winner in literature.
More pertinently, ask your teenage to name the three branches of the federal government and briefly explain the roles of each.
None of these questions are on the level we call “rocket science.” I was taught the answers to most of the foregoing questions at Mary Lee Boyd Elementary School on Northside Drive, here in Jackson, between 1950 and 1956.
Several years ago I reviewed a book by John Taylor Gatto, The Underground History of American Education: a schoolteacher’s intimate investigation into the prison of modern schooling, that related the whole sorry story of compulsory education in America. The book is well-worth reading and pondering. Gatto regards the educational system not as a failure but as a resounding success when judged in the light of its original purpose.
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