> > Date: Fri, 10 Oct 1997 18:36:50 -0600
> > From: Nathaniel Hall <natehall@worldnet.att.net>
> > To: virus@lucifer.com
> > Subject: virus: Socialism first, cancer second.
> > Reply-to: virus@lucifer.com
>
>
> Did you go to public school, Nateman? I may not be the brightest in
> the world, but I learned to read and write and they pointed me in the
> direction of the Library. I'm not saying there aren't problems, I
> just can't see throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
As a matter of fact I did go to the public schools. Let me tell you a story. I was in California when they
were just starting the "look see" method of teaching to read. (phonics is much better, beats me why they wanted
to use something else). Any ways me and my younger brother managed to get a copy of the "Dick and Jane" book
that that the school was using. You may have heard of it: "see Dick run. See Jane run" etc. . We knew even at
our young age (having already learned to read on our own) that this was B.S. We preceded to mark up the book so
that Dick and Jane were doing much more interesting things than running after Spot. ( I've been a nasty little
boy for quite some time you see! ) Mom found out. When she told Dad at dinner we thought nothing less than that
our lives were in danger! Dad said instead:" If I had to read crap like that I would have done the same thing!"
(Must have got my good sense from Dad) The point of the story is that public schools operate at the level of
the least common denominator. If one is bright intelligent and promising it usually ends up crushing one's
sense of curiosity about the world because you are consistently held back to the level of whoever the dumbest
kid is. I got used to doing hardly any work to get my grades, it was too easy and too boring. I did manage to
keep my sense of curiosity about the world but I believe it severely crippled my drive. This list does a good
good of keeping you on your toes and the challenges I've faced in life are helping to repair that drive, but
once your mind in set in it's ways it is a very difficult thing to undo. Much easier to wire a house before the
walls are put in than afterwards: The mind is no different, and I find myself having to rip up and unlearn all
the junk and bad habits that the public schools have poisoned me with. No so with the marketplace. The
Internet is a prime example of the beauty of the market. No government organization ever planned on it becoming
what it has become. The possibilities for education are tremendous! Students don't even have to be in the same
country to be in the same "class" for training! If the market were allowed to function at this point who knows
how far education could go! Instead we are made to pay for a bunch of bureaucrats who deaden any chance for the
market to take effect because they offer their services at no extra cost. Notice I said "at no extra cost" .
You pay for these public schools regardless if you have kids or not, regardless if your putting your kids
through some other kind of schooling or not, regardless of how good a job the public school performs or not.
If that's the "baby" we are throwing out with the bath water then good riddance !
>
>
> Rampant gangs where your children fear for their safety.
> > High school grads who cannot read or write. Socialism taught as gospel
> > truth.
> You pay too much attention to Peter Jennings, et. al. More people
> are reading and writing in this country than at the turn of the
> century. Inner city schools may have some trouble, but in general, I
> think kids are learning. How many people do you know personally who
> cannot read or write?
None. But I know plenty how are very poor at it. Compare the requirements for graduation now with that of many
years ago: It's been downhill all the way. And of course the cost per student (adjusted for inflation) has been
spiraling. In short: a failure and only getting worse.
>
>
> If schools were private with this kind of record do you think they
> > would stay in business for long? The public schools however use their very
> > failure as an excuse to pour even more money down their festering rat hole!
> Rat hole???? Exaggerating a bit, aren't we. I refer you to my
> comment above. Why don't you use that brilliant mind of yours to
> think of a specific solution to specific problems. Maybe inner-city
> schools are past hope, maybe not. If you do nothing, surely it isn't
> going to get better. If you turn all these gansters out into othe
> street with no way to make a living, what do you suppose they are
> going to do?
The best answer for now is vouchers. The best answer in the long range is to get government out of the
education business permanently. Can you think of anything the government does and does well?As for gangs that
is something I think is more related to the drug war, but do your really want gangsters bundled up with your
children just to keep them "off the street" ?
>
>
> > It really doesn't take that much to educate a child: Home schoolers here
> > in the U.S. fed up with the poor quality of public schools do a pretty
> > decent job of educating their young even though they are made to pay the
> > taxes for the public schools which they have chosen not to use.
>
> I have known quite a few people who have home schooled. Most of them
> did it so they could teach Christian values and debunk Darwin. I
> certainly can't don't blame them for that. I would never teach my
> children that they crawled out of the primordial slime.
You make my case for me. By sending your kids to a state school you will get them indoctrinated with state
values. Their YOUR kids and YOU should have the chance to teach them in the way YOU think is right. I may not
agree with your values but a morality of the mind means people must be allowed to THINK for themselves : even
if that thinking is faulty. By it's very nature you will not get that with public schools. The only thing your
going to get is the disharmony of various interest groups fighting for their brand of indoctrination to be on
the states agenda. A sure recipe for blandness if nothing else.
> The teachers
> > union fearing rightful extinction responds by trying to make home schooling
> > illegal! Just another example of the tyranny and failure that will always
> > result from socialism.
> I agree with you that no one should be FORCED to send their children
> to organized schools. I recall a case of a man in Washingston State
> (I think) who was shot dead in front of his children by a U.S. Marshall because
> he refused a court order to put his kids in schools. I guess they
> learned a lesson ok: if you don't do as you are told, your government
> will kill you. Government very often gets out of
> control and people react violently because they do not have the funds
> and resources to successfully launch a defense. Then again, a U.S.
> Marshall has to enforce a court order. Terrible tragedy.
A tragedy that could have been avoided by selling off the public schools or at least by providing for
vouchers.The Nateman