Posted by
King Vinyl on Wednesday, January 21, 2009 11:04:53 AM
I have an interest in providing school choice for my child but all to often I think these things get held up because of the religious component that some place on these issues. My opinion is that the Social Science function of the public shool system has itself become a religious matter entirely. Math, Spelling, Reading, and Science can all be proven as fact. Science promotes exploration of theory as a way to prove undiscovered truths. But Social Sciences has become a theological witch hunt based on faith in assumptions brought about through scientific theory, and good intentions despite fact. Faith is a function of religion which should not be involuntarily taught to our children in public funded schools.
School choice will never come about if the alternate plan for children is primarily a religious environment. We will always loose the arguement if we continue to pull the religious card. We need to approach this from an economical point and break down the figures. All children have a right to the same educational provisions as collected and dispersed from our collective tax dollars. Private education in the free market would provide parents the ability to better regulate the environment their children are educated in.
Public education has no right in the un-education of our children by teaching them beliefs contrary to the ones we teach them in our homes and churches. These belief practices constitute a sudo- religion that degrades the morals we are trying to instill in our children. These beliefs include all theory that has no proven benefit to a childs education. They include lessons on diversity, global warming, sex, drugs/alcohol and other political speak.
The fact that private schools can run on half the budget of public education is also a huge factor. But what is even greater is their ratios on GPA, drop-out levels, teen pregnancy rate and the percentage of their graduates who attend higher education. The problem however is most of these schools have specific religious components to their ciriculum which are not shared by all no matter what their religious backround.
If we were to promote private schools as that met the same educational standards without the theological component as a financial solution to our failing public systems our needs could be better served as a whole. Not to say there is anything wrong with a Catholic, Lutheran or other perocial school environment. But these are not a match for everyones personal belief systems just as the public school's anti-religious views are also distasteful to us.
We need to inact a form of civil disobeidience in the name of protecting the future of our chilren. The Boston Tea Party was such an act brought about for the same reasons. We have no representation in the taxation we provide to our state to prop up the failures in schooling our children. To those without children in the system; you have a right to see the young minds of your fellow citizens are not poisoned. It is money we all spend every year to provide children a quality learning environment not a camp of political or religious indoctrination.
If we represnt the facts and leave our beliefs out of the equation we can succeed in this endeavor. But we must attack this as a matter of facts and point out the unsubstantiated beliefs in those who appose us. At the moment it seems we are at a stale mate because of the 'he said, she said' content of the discussion.