Say Goodbye To Cursive Writing

I remember it like it was yesterday. OK...it was actually 49 years ago. But there I was, sitting in Miss Hathaway's 3rd grade writing class learning to make a cursive "A". I thought it was so cool that I was actually learning to write. Oh, any baby could print. I was learning to write!

Say goodbye to it. Apparently, our teachers are so over-worked with their 9 months on, 3 months off schedule, and their "heavy" class load, that they've decided to drop cursive writing from the curricula at most schools. If yours is still teaching your kids writing, you're a rarity....it will be a thing of the past shortly.

One more reason the National Education Association and Federation of Teachers should be banned. Teachers don't need to be unionized. They need to be better educated on what it takes to be a good teacher. Take a look at what has happened to American students. It was released this week that America's students ranked no better than 20th in core subjects, and were below average in math on a world-wide basis. That's appalling. Yes, you can (and should) blame parents for not sitting down with their kids at night and helping them with their homework. But the blame lies squarely on the teachers. If a kid isn't getting it, why are they passing him/her? It's because they're on the 13 and out program when it comes to education. Rush them through, don't hold them back, and then by God, get them out of your hair and let them become society's problem. Well, it's become society's problem.

The dumbing down of our children has taken generations. But it's succeeded. Yes, I said succeeded. See, a liberal agenda, like the ones professed everyday in our schools and universities, requires that we not think about things too much. In order to do that, you've got to take away the natural curiosity that kids have. And you've got to fill it with something else...an agenda. That's what the NEA and the FoT have done. They've replaced Readin' Writin' and Rithmatic, with women's studies, revisionist history, and gender-neutral studies that don't train a kid for anything.

I've got a relative who went to the University of Miami in Oxford, Ohio. Great school. When I was in college, we used to say when kids from Miami came to root on their football team, the first thing they'd ask was, "Which way to the library". It was a tough school to get into. Apparently, not anymore. She majored in Philosophy. Then, she went to DePaul to get her Masters and PhD. She did...in women's studies.

Of course, that prepared her for (wait for it....wait for it)...a life of teaching at colleges and universities in women's studies...and nothing else. It took her something like 10 years to complete the Masters and PhD programs, in part because she could be a teaching assistant, and not have to "work" for a living...all the while staying on university campuses.

When she did get a job, she was beaming from ear to ear (as she should have). She got a job, at a community college. Now, I don't want to know community colleges, but I've taught at them for years, with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Pretty much anyone with experience in a field can walk in off the street and teach.

The whole point here is we've dumbed down our kids to the point we think women's studies (it could be men's studies for all I care...I'm not being sexist), is a viable major. Instead of turning out economists, scientists, and business tycoons, we are graduating politicians, lawyers, and computer hackers.

It starts with dumbing down our kids so they'll be able to accept an agenda that allows the teaching of a philosophy that no "smart" person would accept. I mean, cradle to grave care for 300 million people just by taxing the rich? Have these people even bothered to run the numbers? It just doesn't work. It hasn't worked anywhere in the world....ever! Look at Europe, that bastion of liberalism. They're falling like domino's over there. The bailouts make GM and BoA look like a third grader's allowance. And we want to follow that?

There's nothing wrong with helping others less fortunate out. In fact, most conservatives are already doing that better than any liberal does. But you can't think that government is the answer to everything. That's how dictators are born.

We need to start concentrating on better education in this country. It doesn't start with throwing more money at the problem. It starts with eliminating the problem and moving forward. Disband the unions, pay the teachers $100,000 a year, and make sure you've got a washout program in place that only allows the best teachers to have a job. The others? Train them in women's studies????