I will protect your pensions. Nothing about your pension is going to change when I am governor. - Chris Christie, "An Open Letter to the Teachers of NJ" October, 2009

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Why We Need Real Education

I'm going to go way off the reservation here and comment on something I am completely unqualified to talk about:

If this debt ceiling deal is really going through, it signals, to me, the end of reason in our American dialog.

If we are so willing to ignore economics and history, why should we pay attention to science and civics? Why care about any endeavor of the human mind? Why believe that democracy has a chance?

Nothing is more important to a democracy than a populace capable of critical thinking - exactly the kind of thinking that is denigrated and ignored in a regime of high-stakes testing. We are now seeing the price to be paid for the dismissal of thought: a political elite that is simply incapable of understanding the dire consequences of what they are doing.

My only hope right now is this: the bulk of America has been disengaged from politics up until now because of the widespread belief that their voices do not matter. Hopefully, this idiotic debate will be finally make them say, "Enough."

Teachers, understand this: you are the last, best hope for an America that can govern itself. Our future rests on you. You cannot remain disengaged from politics any longer. You must hear the call.

All hands on deck.


Once again, here's America's last true prophet (sorry for the blue language, but maybe it's needed now to wake people up):

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