Students are Responsible

When education worked, students were responsible for their own education.  Many, like Abe Lincoln accepted this responsibility; they hired tutors, borrowed books, took apprenticeships and managed to learn enough to enter an occupation and earn a living. 

Parents and teachers can’t help students who aren’t interested in learning, so these students need to as least be willing to learn the minimum required to function as an adult. Students who demonstrate a lack of interest need to be in special classes unless and until they decide to take responsibility for their own education.  Then they might be able to apply for and be accepted in other forms of schooling aimed at their interests.

GA Education Bills

You will find lots of education bills that nibble at the edges of different problems, but they won’t do much because the Legislature has failed to establish who is responsible.  They are looking for someone to blame for public school failures. None of this thrashing around will help.

Lessons from Homeschooling

Homeschoolers are proving the value of tutoring at an early age, which is what they actually do. They are able to adopt learning to the differences in each student.  This gives the students the freedom to take responsibility for their own education.  The time saved in homeschooling is used to develop other skills and interests.

Lessons from the One-Room Schoolhouse

When communities were large enough to build a one-room school house and hire a teacher, older students were taught to tutor the younger ones. Teachers kept this going until the curriculum was very advanced.  Tests from this era (1800s and 1900s) were much more advanced and comprehensive.  The curriculum was “classical”.

20% Failure rate

The 20% failure rate has always been with us.  The farm family in the 1800s with 5 kids invariably had 1 kid who didn’t learn math or reading easily.  Not being good at it, this 1 kid worked farm chores and remained on the farm.  Many of these early failures eventually learned more than enough to function as adults.

Government’s Unconstitutional Grabbing

Education is not one of the enumerated powers granted to the federal government in the US Constitution (as written). The federal government needs to end its meddling and leave it to the States and the People. The People should decide how to go forward from there. Public schools could survive if they can be funded and controlled by parents, teachers and Principals. This could take a while to get the cost of education down to reasonable levels and maintain forward motion for students in the system.

Corporate Interests

Businesses who hire students and graduates need to stay engaged, but their responsibility is to hire the best employees they can find. 

Corporations who are in the “education business” have offered little, are not necessary and should be suspect.

Corporations who fuss over graduation rates should be encouraged to consider hiring the other 80%.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader