Obama's New School Plan

Obama Proposes Longer School Day, Shorter Summer Vacation
President says American kids spend too little time in school, putting them at a disadvantage with other students around the globe. AP Sunday, September 27, 2009


Are you kidding me? As if teachers and students don’t have enough to do in the day, now we have to listen to the “messiah” and his education secretary preach to us about how we can’t keep up with the rest of the globe. Will he ever stop telling us how bad we are? Of course not. We haven’t met his standards yet.
I know what you are thinking: “How can he argue with making our students better at what they do? How can he argue with improving their quality of education?” Anyone ever hear of the old saying “less is more”? The people who went to school on the agrarian schedule of the 1940’s, 50’s, 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s-the schedule Obama says is outdated and no longer viable-put a man on the moon for goodness sake. And their kids enhanced that whole dot-com thing. They even gave us such things as aviation technology, the microwave, super glue, the laser, McDonald’s, the ATM, the computer, Microsoft Windows, the artificial heart, GPS, and the slinky.
If you want more proof that some old, out-dated stuff still works check out the early part of the 20th century: the first gas powered manned airplane, sonar, the Model T, the first talking motion picture, canned beer, and cortisone just to name a few. Heck, the 20th century even gave us guys like John Nash, Donald Glasser, William Phillips, Ray Crock, Henry Ford, and Vince Lombardi. How in the world did they ever make it? A lot of good those out fashioned school days did them!
As a teacher I take exception to a man who benefited from the old way of doing things telling me that my students can’t keep up. Sure, some kids do benefit from longer time in the classroom, but what about the kids that work after school? What about those that participate in athletics, piano lessons, drama, ballet, and Boy Scouts? Is Obama going to cut them slack? Will he provide for those that need money to pay for their car insurance? I doubt it, unless he raises taxes.
The U.S. already spends more time and money on kids than any other developed country and look at where we are. Will more time make a difference? Quantity doesn’t equal quality, at least not for the whole. How about we do this: let’s develop schools that specialize in all day training for students who want to work in jobs that are more oriented towards manual labor. You know how much a good mechanic can make, or a skilled welder? A heck of a lot more than a teacher, that’s for sure! Why do we force those kids to sit in classes all day where they tend to zone out, and in some cases create problems for teachers and other students? (Yes, they do need those liberal arts classes, but all day?) True, some of them won’t change regardless where you put them, so why don’t we set up schools that deal with their social issues before they wind up in jail? I guess that wouldn’t be politically correct, right? Can we not meet the kids where they are, while they are in school, instead of just adding more time at school to their day?
Now here is where some people will point the finger at me and call me selfish. Will we get a raise for our extra time? Teachers, especially coaches, already work 50-60 hours a week and in many cases it’s more than that. I have sacrificed time with my family to work with the kids in my school because I believe that time on the practice field can translate to better students and better human beings. (Notice that extra time is outside the classroom. It’s not in the classroom that our benevolent leader wants to turn into a laboratory.)
The Audacity of Hope? How about the Audacity of the Self-Righteous! If Obama can do better let him step down from his job where he is highly un-qualified and step into the classroom. Community organizing will get you nowhere in my room. Only high expectations, discipline, and creativity makes a difference here. Some kids reject it, and that’s too bad, but some of those kids could benefit from ideas I have already mentioned. The only scary thing about implementing those things is that the government will eventually try and stretch its tentacles into them somehow. Mr. President, shut up and focus on the nuclear threat from Iran. We can handle our students. We don’t need your “help” or your “hope and change”.

Special note: Instead of criticizing and bemoaning teachers and students, how about letting the parents of some of these kids have it? If they can’t read, tell them to get off their butts and learn to read. Tell those parents to stay together and expect their kids to behave, work hard, and be productive. And while you are at, stop supporting the unmitigated slaughter of innocent children. If we had some of those defenseless kids who were murdered here with us we might have had the next Alexander Graham Bell on our hands. Or, if we are lucky, we might get another Ronald Reagan from those yet to see the light of the day. Lord, how we need the Gipper now!