Blind Followers
Here is an excerpt from a Facebook conversation concerning the Matt Lauer's Sept. 27th interview with Obama. A friend of mine was concerned about her toddler's education following the interview- and rightly so. Here is a truncated segment of her post (name have been reduced to intitials) that highlights her posts (CC), my responses (TK) and a friend of hers (ML) who decided to chime in. Authors comments are in italics.
CC: Just watched Matt Lauer's interview with President Obama on education. Makes me (remember, I'm a high school teacher) want to home school Collin, as I simply can't trust public schools to educate my child through the years.
Sorry for the negativity! But you should watch the interview and decide for yourself.
ML: The public school system has been in trouble for a long time. This isn't someting new.
Thank you for that insightful observation, Captain Obvious.
CC: ML - I haven't been a parent and a professional educator for a long time, now that I understand what is at stake, I can make decisions for whats best and/or feasible for my son.
ML: I'd rather not get into political debates.
Remember this comment.
TK: This problem isn't limited to a political party. Both sides share the blame. Even if the schools had surplus money there would still be problems. The system sucks.
CC: I was mostly surprised when he was saying that he's expanding the teacher workforce and wanting to increase the school year by a month, but teachers are continuously getting laid off (or being asked' to retire) and states are enforcing furloughs... It doesnt make sense!
TK: It doesn't have to make sense. Obama is going to tax us into prosperity.
Casting out the bait.
ML: The damage Cheney did in 8 years is why we're in the crap we're in today.
Bam- hook line and sinker! He opened his Obama handbook to page 1: "No matter what happens, it's all Bush's fault, it has been, and it will be."
TK: For not wanting to get into a political debate you opened one up for that broad stroked remark. Although Bush/Cheney's ill-planned and poorly executed war cost us billions, Obama has greatly contributed to that debt in his short time with programs that were failed from the start, further sinking us into debt.
Again, it is very convenient to pin this on one administration- but it is not accurate.
ML: That's right, I can't stay quiet when I disagree with certain things, basically everyone in Orange County complains non stop about Obama.
Orange County population: 3,010,759
People that compalin about Obama: 3,010,758
People who don't: 1
Obama is trying to fix the problem, but the republicans have no patience. I took 8 years to get us into this mess, so it's gonna take more than 2 years to fix it.
TK: That is an empty argument. What programs have really helped reduce our debt, stimulate the economy and bring jobs back? Who would thought that the
Cash for Clunker program would help anyone? Obama did.
This next sentence is the coup de gras for ML "2 year" argument. Unfortunately, it goes right over his head.
It doesn't matter how long it took to get into this mess if the policies we are using now to get us out are doomed from the start. The sooner people can realize that and stop swinging off Obama's bag the better off we'll be.
ML: Nobody complained when Reagan raised taxes or when the first Bush said "read my lips, no new taxes" and then raised them anyway.....where were the complainers then?
This is good. Make something up, believe it and then treat it as fact (Obama handbook). I don't even know why this guy is talking about Reagan- ML graduated high school im 1997 making him about 3 or 4 years old when Reagan was succeeded by Clinton. I let that one slide.It does matter what happened the 8 years under the Bush Administration cause that's why it's taking Obama a while to fix it.
He didn't read my previous post. It doesn't matter how much debt was accrued if the processes by which we are trying to reduce that debt are failing.
People fail to see that. I also like what Obama is doing with the education reform cause the U.S. falls way behind other countries which is sad to me.
Another piece of trivia about ML: He is unemployed and has a degree in French. Yes, French. I am glad that he is sad about the poor education Americans are getting. I am not sure if he just proved his own point.
CC: Lol. Awesome. Keep at it you two, I'm entertained!
Anyways, my post was simply to raise awareness on the state of our current education system now that im in a position to truly care. I didn't say Obama isn't 'trying' I just don't see how those ideas are going to develop in the current system that is in place.
CC gets it.
States are already breaking federal mandates by being in session for less days
than required, but can't do anything about it because the schools have no money to stay open. That's not even including the federal academic content standards that they want to create and implement.
Great points! Well thought out, articulate and valid.
They're all fantastic ideas, but how is he going to put them in place? How are the schools going to accommodate it? I just don't see it happening.. Hence my decision to try to homeschool if I don't have to work.
She is forcing the Obama supporters to nut up or shut up.
TK: Short answer, CC, is that they won't work. Simply extending the shcool year a month but keeping the same infrastructure will result in just one more month of furlough days for the teachers.
Another example of the defunct leadership of this administration.
(Fanning the flames)
ML: My comments are NOT asinine.... Obama has to do that in order to get things back in order.
Bingo! He revealed the Obama Administration's hidden agenda- to get us all in order. Next comes a play from page 2 of the Obama Handbook...
You're never gonna understand because you've already got it in your mind that everything Obama does is wrong. I'm done with this argument since we're never gonna agree.
This really means "I am running out of made-up facts to support my weak and comically false assertions". Now I lay into the real root of why I don't like Obama-
TK: You are done because you cannot understand that you have a President that ran as a visionary but leads like a politician.
Please explain to me how bailing out the car companies with the C4C program stimulated our economy? It hurt us even more as the Americans had to foot the bill in taxes to help bail out ineptly run car companies. This is my point. He has programs that do not help, regardless of how long it took us to get to this point. His policies are not reducing the amount of debt- they are increasing it.
ML: I won't cause you won't see it anyway.
Translation: "neener neener!" I try to bait him one last time by pulling out a play from his own handbook.
TK: I win.
ML: hhahaahahah
21 hours ago · Unlike Like · 1 person You like this.
Yes, I "liked" his hahaha comment out my sophmoric need to have the last word.
CC: Just watched Matt Lauer's interview with President Obama on education. Makes me (remember, I'm a high school teacher) want to home school Collin, as I simply can't trust public schools to educate my child through the years.
Sorry for the negativity! But you should watch the interview and decide for yourself.
ML: The public school system has been in trouble for a long time. This isn't someting new.
Thank you for that insightful observation, Captain Obvious.
CC: ML - I haven't been a parent and a professional educator for a long time, now that I understand what is at stake, I can make decisions for whats best and/or feasible for my son.
ML: I'd rather not get into political debates.
Remember this comment.
TK: This problem isn't limited to a political party. Both sides share the blame. Even if the schools had surplus money there would still be problems. The system sucks.
CC: I was mostly surprised when he was saying that he's expanding the teacher workforce and wanting to increase the school year by a month, but teachers are continuously getting laid off (or being asked' to retire) and states are enforcing furloughs... It doesnt make sense!
TK: It doesn't have to make sense. Obama is going to tax us into prosperity.
Casting out the bait.
ML: The damage Cheney did in 8 years is why we're in the crap we're in today.
Bam- hook line and sinker! He opened his Obama handbook to page 1: "No matter what happens, it's all Bush's fault, it has been, and it will be."
TK: For not wanting to get into a political debate you opened one up for that broad stroked remark. Although Bush/Cheney's ill-planned and poorly executed war cost us billions, Obama has greatly contributed to that debt in his short time with programs that were failed from the start, further sinking us into debt.
Again, it is very convenient to pin this on one administration- but it is not accurate.
ML: That's right, I can't stay quiet when I disagree with certain things, basically everyone in Orange County complains non stop about Obama.
Orange County population: 3,010,759
People that compalin about Obama: 3,010,758
People who don't: 1
Obama is trying to fix the problem, but the republicans have no patience. I took 8 years to get us into this mess, so it's gonna take more than 2 years to fix it.
TK: That is an empty argument. What programs have really helped reduce our debt, stimulate the economy and bring jobs back? Who would thought that the
Cash for Clunker program would help anyone? Obama did.
This next sentence is the coup de gras for ML "2 year" argument. Unfortunately, it goes right over his head.
It doesn't matter how long it took to get into this mess if the policies we are using now to get us out are doomed from the start. The sooner people can realize that and stop swinging off Obama's bag the better off we'll be.
ML: Nobody complained when Reagan raised taxes or when the first Bush said "read my lips, no new taxes" and then raised them anyway.....where were the complainers then?
This is good. Make something up, believe it and then treat it as fact (Obama handbook). I don't even know why this guy is talking about Reagan- ML graduated high school im 1997 making him about 3 or 4 years old when Reagan was succeeded by Clinton. I let that one slide.It does matter what happened the 8 years under the Bush Administration cause that's why it's taking Obama a while to fix it.
He didn't read my previous post. It doesn't matter how much debt was accrued if the processes by which we are trying to reduce that debt are failing.
People fail to see that. I also like what Obama is doing with the education reform cause the U.S. falls way behind other countries which is sad to me.
Another piece of trivia about ML: He is unemployed and has a degree in French. Yes, French. I am glad that he is sad about the poor education Americans are getting. I am not sure if he just proved his own point.
CC: Lol. Awesome. Keep at it you two, I'm entertained!
Anyways, my post was simply to raise awareness on the state of our current education system now that im in a position to truly care. I didn't say Obama isn't 'trying' I just don't see how those ideas are going to develop in the current system that is in place.
CC gets it.
States are already breaking federal mandates by being in session for less days
than required, but can't do anything about it because the schools have no money to stay open. That's not even including the federal academic content standards that they want to create and implement.
Great points! Well thought out, articulate and valid.
They're all fantastic ideas, but how is he going to put them in place? How are the schools going to accommodate it? I just don't see it happening.. Hence my decision to try to homeschool if I don't have to work.
She is forcing the Obama supporters to nut up or shut up.
TK: Short answer, CC, is that they won't work. Simply extending the shcool year a month but keeping the same infrastructure will result in just one more month of furlough days for the teachers.
Another example of the defunct leadership of this administration.
(Fanning the flames)
ML: My comments are NOT asinine.... Obama has to do that in order to get things back in order.
Bingo! He revealed the Obama Administration's hidden agenda- to get us all in order. Next comes a play from page 2 of the Obama Handbook...
You're never gonna understand because you've already got it in your mind that everything Obama does is wrong. I'm done with this argument since we're never gonna agree.
This really means "I am running out of made-up facts to support my weak and comically false assertions". Now I lay into the real root of why I don't like Obama-
TK: You are done because you cannot understand that you have a President that ran as a visionary but leads like a politician.
Please explain to me how bailing out the car companies with the C4C program stimulated our economy? It hurt us even more as the Americans had to foot the bill in taxes to help bail out ineptly run car companies. This is my point. He has programs that do not help, regardless of how long it took us to get to this point. His policies are not reducing the amount of debt- they are increasing it.
ML: I won't cause you won't see it anyway.
Translation: "neener neener!" I try to bait him one last time by pulling out a play from his own handbook.
TK: I win.
ML: hhahaahahah
21 hours ago · Unlike Like · 1 person You like this.
Yes, I "liked" his hahaha comment out my sophmoric need to have the last word.
The politics behind the school blame game are at the heart of the matter. We all agree the system is bunk. Parents are not held accountable because telling someone that they are not doing their job does not get one elected. Administrators take no responsibility because those PHD toting know-it-alls would never stake their reputations, let alone the fact they haven't had to run a classroom in decades.
ReplyDeleteSo the politicians blame the teachers, the administrators throw said teachers to the wolves and parents are happy to treat schools like day cares.
Teachers are bagged with all the responsibility and have no authority to discipline. Then when plans like furlough-Fridays turn out to be unpopular it's the same old script. Parents rag "lazy teachers", (lazy parents), administrators promise to "crack down", (they won't) and politicians keep telling the parents "There, there. It's not your fault your kid is a dipshit, it's the lazy teachers." And people wonder why teachers burn out.
It's the circle of life Simba.
Your first sentence says it all- the sooner we can get politics out of schools the better off everyone will be.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it seems this administration is dead set on maintaining the status quo in this badly overlooked area. I would much rather have seen some major reform for our school systems than the sham of a health care bill that was ram-rodded down our throats.
Oh, and some major inept parent reform would be nice too.
Dear uninformed prognosticators of educational brouhaha! This educational nightmare didn't happen with Republicans, nor did it happen with Reagan or Bush! It happened when a basketball sized orb began beeping in the heavens back in the 1950's...See Sputnik! Since then the Arts and Humanities have taken it on the chin! Now that the school districts have enforced Tenure, and the dorks are in control, and the generations X, Y, and Duh are now in power, and are teaching their psychobabble...See.."No child left behind!" there is nowhere but down for our educational system...And if you don't think that we are becoming a Socialistic society, think back when Khrushchev was in power, and he stated..."We shall bury you from within!"...See OBAMA...He is soooo close to being a Socialist Marxist, it is too scary to believe that Khrushchev is the modern day Nostradamus, for the future of the United States of Socialistic Bullshit!
ReplyDelete