Daily Dose of Common Sense

I don’t agree with everything Bill Maher says, but in this particular case, I think he nails it.

Maher just wrote a piece on Huffington Post called, New Rule: Let’s Not Fire the Teachers When Students Don’t Learn–Let’s Fire the Parents. It’s a long title, but a great read.

A struggling high school in Rhode Island fired every single teacher recently. Certainly there might be bad teachers in that group, but ALL of the teachers? That sounds reactionary and drastic. And, more importantly, it’s not putting a big chunk of blame where it should be placed: the parents.

From Maher’s piece:

According to all the studies, it doesn’t matter what teachers do. Although everyone appreciates foreplay. What matters is what parents do. The number one predictor of a child’s academic success is parental involvement. It doesn’t even matter if your kid goes to private or public school. So save the twenty grand a year and treat yourself to a nice vacation away from the little bastards.

Teachers make a pittance of what they should and most of them work incredibly hard to make our kids better people. Yet, we continue to set them up as the fall guys. A speech pathologist friend of mine said, “There are many more factors to consider as to why these students are failing: learning disabilities, parent responsibilities of making sure homework is done and kids are on time and in school EVERY day, a stable home environment etc.” In other words, it’s not always the teacher’s fault.

So, give teachers a hand and spend some time helping your kids learn.

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Some Texas conservatives are looking to rewrite textbooks for elementary, middle school, and high school students in order to push their political agenda. The State Board of Education is holding hearings on proposed changes, and will take a preliminary vote this week. There are seven conservative members on the fifteen-member board, and they hope to change textbooks to, “portray conservatives in a more positive light, emphasize the role of Christianity in American history and include Republican political philosophies.”

Here is a proposed change:

There have also been efforts among conservatives on the board to tweak the history of the civil rights movement. One amendment states that the movement created “unrealistic expectations of equal outcomes” among minorities. Another proposed change removes any reference to race, sex or religion in talking about how different groups have contributed to the national identity.

“Unrealistic expectations?” Oh, Texas. Please come to your senses and don’t rewrite history with your crazy theories.

But, wait! There’s more:

References to Ralph Nader and Ross Perot are proposed to be removed, while Stonewall Jackson, the Confederate general, is to be listed as a role model for effective leadership, and the ideas in Jefferson Davis’s inaugural address are to be laid side by side with Abraham Lincoln’s speeches.

I guess Texas wants to make sure the kids learn racism and never find out about independent political candidates.

How about just sticking to the facts? The unbiased, neutral, mostly historical facts?

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