Goodluck Jonathan became the 14th President of Nigeria on the 16th this month (Nigeria, the largest country on the African continent). Goodluck, a Christian, was born in the Niger River delta area to canoe builders, he has degrees in Zoology, including a Ph.D from the University of Port Harcourt.
Once on the banks of the Niger River, I watched a donkey sink into quicksand. The donkey was struggling to extricate himself, natives were pulling and prodding trying to get the animal loose from the sinking sand. Finally, after struggling for so long, the donkey fell over dead, but it was not because the donkey did not struggle, the natives did not do everything they could to loosen the donkey from the quicksand.
Success is not usually a matter of luck, do not confuse luck or celebrity with success, think of Helen Keller and Madonna. One may win the lottery, be heir to a large estate, be unusually talented or physically beautiful, but for most of us it is a matter of struggle, self-denial, self-discipline.
The movie Waiting For Superman depicts the failures of American education. In the movie, students attempt to win a lottery for admittance to a charter school. Education is America's greatest failure. Today, only 38% of public school students read on their grade level.
Educators, we know your product; for over 50 years as a totally blind, 100% disabled, service-connected medical officer veteran it has been necessary for me to hire people to work for me, driving, assistance in my businesses, assistance with every area of my active life. I am sickened to tell you just how poor the product of our education system is. Money has nothing to do with it, gender has nothing to do with it, the school house from which they came has little to do with it. As college officials have told me, over and over, students are simply not prepared, just passed like a herd of animals from one stable to another. No efforts to improve the conditions of the concentration camp. Much time is spent at every college and university on remediation.
Excellency in education started with Christians. Please explain to me why Christian parents would spend their time, talent, treasure to casually send their precious child to a public school to fail AND on top of that, pay the taxes supporting such school sand not be concerned with their failures. Not only is education the greatest failure in the American experience, but the most unfair taxation in America. Now, you can understand why so many parents choose (as did our colonial ancestors, before even the one-room school) to home school.
Parents who choose not to send their children to public school, to take the financial losses of home-schooling, must pay the same taxes as those who put their children on public schoolbusses. At the public schoolhouse, where failure is almost assured, a child can learn more meanness in two minutes than you can teach them rightness at the home in one day. Every person I encounter with small children, the first words out of my mouth are, “do not send your precious child to a public school, we love your child too much.” One of my secretaries, working for me on weekends, educates her five children at home, they excel in every way. You can always spot a home-schooled child.
Comparing the mental accomplishments of a home-schooled child is like comparing a wading pool to the ocean. Now, we all know there are exceptions, my parents' children went to a country public school with marvelous teachers. My own son, my two grandsons, have never spent one hour in a public school, and we are all university graduates. But, I am convinced that my son, my grandsons were much better prepared for university after being home-schooled than those of us who were “public-schooled”.
There is a difference in learning and schooling. I know the difference, I know what is wrong and have been talking about this for many years...but the professionals do not want to hear. Failures in schools is in direct proportion to the increase in television watching. Reading, listening, speaking are all involved in the learning process. I have never known a person who attended a school for the blind who did not excel in learning; because at the schools for the blind, the student must listen and speak.
I am a vision specialist, I know what is involved in the reading process, transmission to the learning centers of the brain. I know about the importance of listening, not just because as a child I was extremely nearsighted. It was necessary for me to walk up to the chalkboard to read anything, so I listened intently to everything that was said. I can still listen to several radios, several conversations at once and tell you everything that was spoken. Note, I said, “listen” and “tell”, the person who learns can talk. Television, constantly on in the home, has caused the child to disregard what is being said, not only on this idol of Satan, but everywhere else.
As pre-medical student at UNC Chapel Hill, not knowing if I would ever complete any course of study because of finances, I decided to get a teacher's certificate. This way I would always be able to get a job teaching science. I got to know the great educators of North Carolina: Guy Philips, Frank Graham, Walter Spearman, et cetera.
While student teaching, I was given a class of low IQ tenth grade biology students. Each had come from an abusive background, abused at home, the school, the playground, everywhere. These students (and you find them in every school) are not expected to excel even though they are often the greatest students there. This was the biggest challenge for the student teacher.
I used methods unknown in the scholastic world: strictly talking, they had to listen; then, the class became like an athletic competition, the student could score only if having listened, they could answer a simplified question with a simplified answer. But, at the end of the day, at the end of the course, they knew more than the other biology students. Dr. McCuskey, famed educator at UNC Chapel Hill, never stopped talking about what she had when evaluating me. I used this method in physics, chemistry, every course. I even used the same method in the pulpit and on stage. Nothing replaces reading, but even for the illiterate, listening and speaking excels every time. Television treats everyone with disrespect; you learn to ignore most of it. You only learn to listen when you push yourself, whether at the school house, church house, or your house.
Marcus Aurelius (161 AD), the world's wealthiest man, in his Meditations says that the fundamentals of education enhanced by natural ability have brought more men to glory than anything else.
Every year, the Alexis de Tocqueville award is given to an American educator. Alexis de Tocqueville writing in 1835 said, “America is good because America stresses learning.” (So impressed was he by our mailing of newspapers, even into the hinterlands in 1792)
Next year, we will observe the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic. Our education is sinking because it has hit the iceberg of indifferent educators, profiteering unions, and casual parents. The mighty hand of concern, directed by an omnipotent, sovereign God can keep the ship of American education from sinking. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9:10)
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