Rethinking 7

"The danger is that public schools may be left with uninterested students, while parents who want to give their children a good education avail themselves of home schooling, private schools and learning centers." Page 106

After Lyndon Johnson got schools integrated during the 1960's this has been goiung on in the South ever since.  But, public schools did not end up with disinterested students.  A student body is a social dynamic that does not depend on racism or income class.  That's why I am not inclined to think the authors concerns have much merit.  However, I know a couple in central Wisconsin who are both graduates of Colorado State University.  Their 3 children are all home scooled, work in the family business and behave more like young adults than any students I encounter in public schools. Based on this comparison, public schools fail because I rarely feel respected by the students.  This is true of all 4 districts I work in.  There must be a way to get discipline back so that education can improve.  All of this talk about how the Koreans and Chinese are so far ahead of us and there is no talk about how they compare in discipline.

"Education will be directed more toward what people want to learn, and hence, will be more excited and drawn to learning."

I agree if the authors are talking about video games.  But, if they are talking about academic content, I say, "Dream on, Jack".  For adults after war, yes.  For spoiled children, no.  Maybe this will be true when the children have to suffer without food and stuff.  But, our kids are so naive regarding the realities they will face in the future that they have no vision for it.  How do we make them wonder how they will eat when their parents either kick them out or die?

 "But people are not going to learn much unless they take responsibility for their own learning." Page 111

 After WW II and Korea, people came back to civilian life and entered educational institutions with personal missions to learn so that they could develop their careers.  There was a general belief that education was the way to get there.  It was.  They did it with a vengance.  They became the new leaders of major political and educational institutions.  They had military discipline and military styles.  I worked for those people and when they retired and/or died my job became less by a magnitude.  Those who replaced them couldn't come close.  Col. Tom Hansbrough flew corsairs in the south Pacific and helicopters in Korea.  He would never speak of Korea.  Col Hansbrough met Jimmy Doolittle once.  His kidneys failed about 2 years ago.  Paul Burns fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He still calls and e-mails me.  Paul is 90 and still plays tennis usually beating the 80 year olds in competition.  I can't remember where Dr. Efferson served but we named a building after him at Louisiana State University.  These men came out of the Great Depression and wanted the education they had earned by their military service.  Those administrators who replaced them couldn't shine their shoes and my job satisfaction went south. Do we need to take the welfare safety net away to make education respected by today's students?  The students who ask me for a little money or to play catch with them are the needy who never seem to be disruptive or disrespectful.  Interesting thought.

This was a short chapter and getting toward the end of the book.  I felt that the authors were searching for something to say and were suffering from writing fatique.  Chapter 8 is similar but has a couple of thought provoking ideas.