Ironic, isn’t it, that the more our politics move to the right, the worse our schools get. Schooling is not testing. It is about learning. We do not care about learning in this country. People who read non-partisan books or ask probing questions to get at the heart of the matter and not a personal agenda are shot down as heretics. It’s easy to dismiss sources because they don’t support your world-view. The anti-intellectualism in the country is coming home to roost. As long as we disrespect intelligence, we will have these issues.

Marketing experts will tell you that marketing to kids is some of the most lucrative marketing out there. We care about kids as long as we can make money off of them. But when it really comes to caring about raising kids to be curious, thoughtful, insightful, creative people, we, as a culture could care less.

Raising children is expensive. Schooling is expensive. It is far from a perfect system, but for all of the money that’s wasted on corporate welfare and tax breaks for the wealthy who are not creating jobs I think we should be barking up a different tree. Teachers and principals are trying to make kids poorer students, they are doing the best with the raw material they are given. Now it is up to communities to step it up and create a supportive, encouraging climate for kids to grow up in. It is not about “me and mine”, it is about all of God’s children. So step up or shut up.

I’ll whop your young hide if ye were my boy! Ye know nothin’! If’n my young’uns wuz still in skool, I’s gladly use ‘em. Hits my damn monie dat they took from me!

Yer problem, sur, is dat ye lov’ gov-mint moore than libertie.

Be a man an’ take ‘sponsibility fer yer own life an’ stop tryin’ to force yer yankee ways on da rest of us who still believe in da pricniples of ’76 (an’ ’61, fer that matta).

Ye ought t’ be ashamed to insult a man o’ my age!

Yer Linconian, new south, flag wavin’, arse kissin’, serf mentalitie is as small as, well, you knows where I’m a goin’, ye Scalawag! Lern som’ manners…

John C. “Cooter” Brown

In doing this, I think we need to figure out ways to get more prospective teachers through the door….making it “easier” to get certified. Not easier in the sense that we want poorly prepared teachers, but easier in terms of having fewer hoops to jump through. I think SC is working toward this on some fronts, but it seems to me that more should be done.

Civil War history aside, is that little bit of American history not being taught in our schools?

I have almost ten years experience teaching in other states, more PRAXIS exams scored in the national top 1% on my resume than most teachers in this nation have ever taken, and I can teach under a provisional license in Virginia in a high-demand subject. I cannot, however, teach in a SC public school. Why? Because my degrees are not in education.