Tea Parties and the Left

Why is the liberal wing of this country so derisive about the tea parties held across the country. Isn't the essence of liberalism to espouse tolerance??? The left wing media has openly attacked those people who took part in the tea parties. Some of the media outlets ignored the parties all together (i.e. New York Times). Believe me, if the parties has been advocating pro-choice or any criticism of this country, the coverage would have been immense. Why are liberals so intolerant of the opposition? Why are liberals so opposed to any open discussion of ideas? Why are the liberals, the so-called defenders of the little people, showing so much disdain for those little people who don't agree with them? To paraphrase President Hoover, the only problem with liberals are liberals. If you want a prediction, the liberal wing of this country will enable a conservative comeback. They will so poison the moderates that they will eventually move back to the right. The sooner the better.

Wal-Mart and Thomas Jefferson

If anyone wanted any indication of why TJ was wrong, simply visit your local Wal-Mart or better yet, the DMV. For a democracy to work, what is required is an informed, intelligent electorate. After all, it is that very electorate which will decide the future issues of the government. After visiting the local Wal-Mart and seeing the people therein, we are in big trouble. It is quite scary that not only are we entrusting these people with a voice in deciding who will be the next president, but we are also entrusting them to raise their children, drive motor vehicles, and pay their bills. These people can not figure out that the express lane is only for customers with fewer than twenty items. Maybe Alex had it right, maybe our common man is not intelligent enough to make these decisions. One wonders what would TJ say if we could resurrect him and see what he thinks about his product. All men are created equal, they are endowed with certain inalienable rights. I imagine that among those rights is the right to be stupid. God Help America!!!!!

Are We Setting Students Up For Failure??????

The education community is currently engaged in a new, democratic vision. We now believe that all students should graduate from high school. In fact, the state of Alabama has mandated that every incoming freshmen should begin in the Advanced track. These are admirable notions but I will put forth an old idea, some students are supposed to fail. We have set a goal of a zero dropout rate. I will maintain that this is a false pretense. Education, by its very nature, is supposed to be elitist. The best and brightest are passed to go on to higher goals while those "left behind" will fill other necessary segments of society. We allow students in Alabama to take the graduation exam up to five or six times. We have lowered the passing scale for math to a grade of 44% while science is at that difficult level of 48%. Additionally, ninth grade students who have passed Algebra I or Biology I can take (and probably pass) the math and science portions of the exam. This should set off warning bells everywhere. Is the logical conclusion that these ninth graders do not need any higher math or science classes (since they have attained the minimum required knowledge for competency in that area)? The result is we have more college students than ever before. This has set off a tremendous wave of back-patting and congratulations. The problem is that more and more incoming college students are having to take mandatory study skills classes which involves the ancient art of outlining and taking notes. I will suggest a strange idea, maybe these students are not meant for college! Maybe it's time to start raising the bar on the middle and high school levels. Maybe we should work to make the high school diploma actually count for something again. I don't hear any "wailing and anguish" of teeth from the educational community about the dropout rate on the collegiate level. Maybe it's time to return college to the elitist notion of the "best and brightest" rather than this democratic ideal of everyone going to college. I would suggest that this would be a better deal for our students as opposed to this "new" idea of encouraging all kids to go to college. Right now, the only people who benefit are the college board (designer of the ACT) and colleges who profit from all of these collegiate failures. Maybe it is time to truly start preparing our students for the future. Of course, the liberal left (from whence these democratically inspired educational ideals originated) will scream bloody murder, but the ones who will benefit will be our students and our society.