Why Are So Many Down On Public Education, You Ask?

Interestingly enough, my wife and I had already begun leaning toward home-schooling years before we actually had children. At the time we initially discussed the subject, early in our marriage, our concern was over the breakdown of discipline among the students in the schools. The simple fact was that teachers didn’t seem to be able to actually provide an education because too much of their time was spent dealing with “problem children” whose parents apparently did not see fit to teach them respect for authority and the need to learn. In other words, teachers couldn’t teach.

Understand, before I go on, that it’s not that I believe that that particular problem in the schools has gone away. But as time has progressed, we have only become more firmly committed to keeping our kids out of the public schools. Because now, on top of the problem already mentioned, all too often where teachers do feel they can teach, what they are teaching is not what most parents put their children in school to learn.

Case in point: The eighth-grade science teacher at West Limestone High School in Alabama, who also happens to be a candidate – Democrat – for the state House of Representatives. Did I mention that he is a science teacher?

Steve White has been placed on administrative leave following complaints from some parents over his decision to show, in his science class, a filmstrip, set to music, whose sole purpose seems to be to insult and denigrate prominent conservatives in the political sphere. Among others, the film includes images of Ann Coulter, Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfield, and, of course, George W. Bush, referring to them with a vulgar term that will not be repeated here. Apparently this same teacher has been known to require students to say “John Kerry rocks” before allowing them to leave his classroom.

Training to recite opinions does not prepare students to deal with reality and facts, because facts aren’t required to form opinions. But all too often, that’s the type of training that students at the nation’s public schools and colleges are receiving in lieu of an actual education. Of course, perhaps in fairness, we should note that that this is probably what Mr. White himself received in lieu of an actual education.

This type of indoctrination – as well as the use of vulgarities, the acceptance of which surely reveals the teacher as a product of public education himself – would be abhorrent if it was a government or civics class that was used to press his agenda. That it was in a class where the students are supposed to be taught science only lends further credence to the argument against letting this intellectual lightweight back into the classroom. I can’t help but wonder what type of excuse this “educator” would offer up, were it revealed in the next round of standardized tests, that his students are grossly sub-par in their science skills.

As an interesting side note, I personally find it fascinating that this very teacher is a candidate for the state legislature. I am intimately familiar with Limestone County, Alabama, having gone to high school there myself, and still living only a few miles away, over the Tennessee line. This is an extremely conservative county, both politically and religiously. George Bush outpolled John Kerry there 67% to 31%. The fact that Mr. White felt comfortable in showing this filmstrip gives the voters of his district a good idea of how in touch they can expect him to be with their values. If they are interested in a Representative who will actually be interested in what they have to say, this episode doesn’t speak very well for his “political ear,” or bode well for his political aspirations.