Reinforce success, not failure

Public schools are as American as apple pie. That some fellow Americans with agendas have tried to assert their politics on our children is a fact, most would say. That the amount of time devoted to the 3R’s has shifted towards more indoctrination courses at the expense of the 3R’s is also a conceded fact in too many school districts and systems (after all there are only so many days and hours in the curriculum). That they have decades of impacts which already affect our grown children and elections is too often a conceded fact, also. Whoop de doo. The pendulum is swinging as always.

Some school systems and the adults who vote and run them have held to the basics in educating young people as the first priority. Call it mission first. These systems and their parents and political and teacher leaders should be applauded for giving their young people an advantage in life. Good on them! All is not gloom and doom. Public schools (and even many private schools today) are not all the generalized “government schools”, unless we local people want them to be adjuncts of some older peoples’ political beliefs. So I do not buy the different surveys and polls about the “dumbing down” effects of government schools as a “national” trend. Not that one may discount all going on, but perhaps the results are on purpose for the commissioners of the poll and how the questions were asked.

Many Americans vote with their feet and move to a “good” school district to enhance their kids educational opportunities. This is pretty normal. Some stay (as in not moving) and politically fight to change what their tax monies are doing to give their kids an educational advantage. The whole story is that much good to educate and give our kids an advantage in life is going on in so many places in our vast land. All is not gloom and doom. The “government schools” complaints and concerns are valid, but only at local places. There is not a national trend, and we have American citizens to thank just for being Americans and parents. Good on ‘em.

So on to our children’s future and ability to lead and compete. As the title suggests, reinforce success, not failure. And recognize and promote all the good local things going on. There is much! A lot of atta-dads and atta-moms should be recognized and promoted. Many don’t have to invent good ideas, just borrow or plagiarize them from other Americans who have figured it out in their local area. Just get on the phone or internet, and talk.

And the converse is true, too. All the losing ideas of the recent past (mostly well intentioned one hopes) will be recognized as adverse to our kids futures, and flushed down as these ideas should be.