I don't think, given the things you've ascribed to me, that you're in a position to complain about someone creating "straw men."
You announced that public school children in this country aren't being educated, a pretty sweeping, hyperbolic statement. You went on to declare that public school children aren't learning to read (not true of the many, many public school children I've encountered) that they aren't learning critical thinking skills (public schools have tried to introduce that as a subject. They are frequently stymied by paranoid conservatives) and they "aren't ready for the workplace." (You seem to be blaming our current high unemployment on a the public schools not properly preparing students for the workplace.)
For the record -- if the issue is whether or not someone is capable of working a paid job, employers today and in the past have had no trouble with using grammar school age children as full time workers. There was a lot of resistance to the passage of child labor and compulsory education laws, and it wasn't because employers considered children to be incompetent workers. They can lift, they can carry, they have small hands that can reach through machinery, and get into mine shafts adults couldn't and they have a lot of energy. They were considered quite employable. What children are less able to do, however, is foresee long-term consequences, which made them even more desirable and controllable to employers.
Now, I'm not sure in what sense you believe public school students are not learning employable skills. Can you be specific? This business about students not learning to read is hokum, so don't even bother trotting out that one. No doubt there are cases of people who come out of the system unable to read, but let's not pretend that's the rule. Critical thinking? Some schools can teach it, some aren't allowed to (and a rule it's not liberals who form committees to prevent it.) And as far as I know, most public schools still require their students to follow directions on assignments, arrive for class, and do the required reading.
What specific working skill do you feel is not being taught?
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Date: 3/4/13 16:16 (UTC)You announced that public school children in this country aren't being educated, a pretty sweeping, hyperbolic statement. You went on to declare that public school children aren't learning to read (not true of the many, many public school children I've encountered) that they aren't learning critical thinking skills (public schools have tried to introduce that as a subject. They are frequently stymied by paranoid conservatives) and they "aren't ready for the workplace." (You seem to be blaming our current high unemployment on a the public schools not properly preparing students for the workplace.)
For the record -- if the issue is whether or not someone is capable of working a paid job, employers today and in the past have had no trouble with using grammar school age children as full time workers. There was a lot of resistance to the passage of child labor and compulsory education laws, and it wasn't because employers considered children to be incompetent workers. They can lift, they can carry, they have small hands that can reach through machinery, and get into mine shafts adults couldn't and they have a lot of energy. They were considered quite employable. What children are less able to do, however, is foresee long-term consequences, which made them even more desirable and controllable to employers.
Now, I'm not sure in what sense you believe public school students are not learning employable skills. Can you be specific? This business about students not learning to read is hokum, so don't even bother trotting out that one. No doubt there are cases of people who come out of the system unable to read, but let's not pretend that's the rule. Critical thinking? Some schools can teach it, some aren't allowed to (and a rule it's not liberals who form committees to prevent it.) And as far as I know, most public schools still require their students to follow directions on assignments, arrive for class, and do the required reading.
What specific working skill do you feel is not being taught?