There is a special beauty in a life well-lived, and no life can be better spent than teaching. Teachers transform lives as very few others can. They are there at the moments in all our childhoods when new horizons beckon.
The moment mere shapes on a page suddenly become living words, with a gripping story to tell. The moment a child who has struggled to make sense of a jumble of figures suddenly grasps the mystery, and beauty, of maths. The moment a pupil who says she's never seen the point of books -- or, for that matter, school -- sits enraptured by a performance of Hamlet.
These moments are the gifts that teachers give and I believe no gifts are more precious. So, let everyone know - we honour the work our teachers do, we salute the sacrifices they make, we applaud their commitment to our children. Under David Cameron's leadership, Tories are now the party of the teacher, the party of higher standards, the party that is driving the reforms which will make our education system a world-beater once again.
The purpose of education is to train young people how to use their minds, to use their capacity to think and reason. A proper education provides students with knowledge of the facts, and more importantly, knowledge of how to gain new facts in order to live and pursue values.
Public education, by definition, cannot meet the goals of a proper education. Because the state funds public schools, it not only provides the facilities housing the students but it determines the content taught in them. As such, children in such schools learn what the state determines they should learn, with all of the ideological biases that advocates of public schooling endorse. Under state-subsidized schooling, students don't necessarily learn facts, and how to acquire new knowledge; they learn state-sanctioned facts, and state-sanctioned methods of acquiring knowledge.
Public schools are controlled by the government and subject to all ills of government bureaucracy and power. Private and home schools are run, in varying ways, by parents. Private schools are dependent upon the satisfaction of parents in order to remain in business. They do not control the children in their care. Instead, families retain their authority and hire the schools for certain aspects of raising their children.
Basil Venitis favors ending government involvement in education. Any influence by the state over education corrupts its goals, and therefore the ability of its graduates to think and reason. Only a full separation of education and state allows for parents to choose how best to equip their children to function in the world. Anything less is a violation of the parents', and child's, rights.
National standards and testing cannot overcome the deficiencies of schooling, which are rooted in the public education system's power and incentive structure. National standards would strengthen government power over education while weakening schools' direct accountability to parents and taxpayers. Centralized standard-setting will likely result in the standardization of mediocrity rather than establishing standards of excellence. While proponents of national standards point to the variation in local standards, the rigor and content of national standards will face pressure to scale down toward the lowest common denominator, undercutting high quality standards.
Venitis points out Fourth Reich is standardizing mediocrity. Some argue that Fourthreichian standards are necessary because state standards vary in quality. But the same pressures that detract from the quality of many state standards are likely to plague Fourthreichian standards and would be entrenched in a less-responsive and less-accountable Fourthreichian bureaucracy. As a result, the rigor and content of Fourthreichian standards would tend toward the average among states, undercutting states with higher quality standards like Germany and UK.
Curricula is typically designed around standards and tests. With the Eldorado of Corruption now backing Fourthreichian standards and tests through Fourthreichian funding, Brussels is becoming increasingly involved in what ultimately determines curriculum. As a result, Fourthreichian standards would increase conformity in education, which would fail to meet the diverse learning needs of children.
Some argue that standards are necessary so that parents can understand how their children compare to other students across Fourth Reich. But the meaningful information that parents need is already available. What has been missing in some cases are clear reporting of data to parents and the ability of parents to act on it. Information is useful to parents only when they can act on it. Empowering Fourthreichian parents to hold schools accountable through school choice is a crucial element in improving educational outcomes.
Basil Venitis asserts that a real public school is not defined by who owns it, but by universal access and accountability to the public for results. It matters little whether public schools are run by a school board, a group of parents, a teachers union, a company, or a church. Once public money flows to private schools, they are no longer really private. The government's hooks will be firmly set to brainwash and dumb down the kids, in the name of public accountability. Vouchers open the door to government control of private schools. Private schools are already regulated by every State, but they are not as regulated as public achools. If the voucher plan is ever embraced in a big way, we can expect elaborate criteria for determining which schools may accept vouchers.
Public schools dumb down the curriculum, in teaching pseudoesteem over knowledge, in challenging Graecoroman notions of truth and virtue, and in convincing children that their parents are not to be trusted. It is an insidious bargain that encourages young people to stop thinking for themselves in exchange for living in a statist world in which they will never be held accountable and will never be expected to care for themselves.
The principles of sexual health education are not based on the hard sciences. Sex education is animated by a specific vision of how society must change, and because of this, sex ed curricula omit critical biological truths and endorse high-risk behaviors. The priority for SIECUS, Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States, Planned Parenthood, and Advocates for Youth is not the health and well-being of young people. These federally funded organizations are fighting repression and intolerance, not AIDS, herpes, or syphilis. But when sexual freedom reigns, sexual health suffers. Our children are being taught that you can play with fire, and we are obligated to inform them of the risks they face and to teach them biological truths, even when they are politically incorrect.
The principles of sexual health education don't rest on what's seen under the microscope. Sex education is animated by a dream, a specific vision of how society must change, and because of this, sex ed curricula omit critical biological truths and endorse high-risk behaviors.
A girl's cervix is more easily infected by sexually transmitted infections than a woman's because it has yet to mature. Boys and men don't have a corresponding area of vulnerability in their reproductive system. The neurobiology of teen girls is unique, and it makes a girl's developing brain more vulnerable to stress, especially the stress of failed relationships.
The adolescent brain functions differently from an adult's. The area responsible for reasoning, suppression of impulses, and weighing the pros and cons of one's decisions is not fully developed. Furthermore, under conditions that are intense, novel, and stimulating, teens' decisions are more likely to be shortsighted and driven by emotion. You would discover that oral sex is associated with cancer of the tonsils and throat. The human papilloma virus infects those areas just like it does the cervix.
When sexual freedom reigns, sexual health suffers. You're teaching my child what? Our kids are being taught that you can play with fire, and the waiting rooms of doctors and therapists are filled with people who've been burned, inside and out. Is every young person going to postpone sex? Of course not, but we are obligated to inform them of the risks they face and to teach them biological truths, even when they are politically incorrect.
Loverboys are young pimps who captivate schoolgirls and then send them out on the streets, young men who meet teenagers outside public schools, and who then make them dependent on their attentions, their affection, and drugs, until it's too late and the girls belong to them. These girls are not from broken homes and socially deprived environments who are sliding into and disappearing in the underworld, but girls from all strata of society. They work as prostitutes for years before anyone even notices.
Classrooms are filled with note-passers and texters, who casually ignore teachers struggling to make it to the end of the 50-minute period. Smart kids are bored, and slower kids are left behind. Anxiety about standardized tests is high, and scores are consistently low. National surveys find that parents despair over the quality of education — and they're right to, as test results confirm again and again.
Venitis asserts the public school monopoly has to be ended, and genuine competition has to be restored. The National Education Association's #1 priority isn't quality education. It is its members' financial and political power. American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker, who was one of this century's best labor union presidents, once openly admitted, "I will begin to care about the quality of children's education in this country when they start paying union dues." Now, this may shock you, but it really shouldn't surprise you.
Education, like any other service, is best provided by the free market, achieving greater quality and efficiency with more diversity of choice. Public schools should be managed locally to achieve greater accountability and parental involvement. Recognizing that the education of children is inextricably linked to moral values, venitists would return authority to parents to determine the education of their children, without interference from kleptocrats. In particular, parents should have responsibility for all funds expended for their children's education. Government should stay out of education.
Venitis declares Eton is the best school on Earth, a paradigm for all schools to follow. Eton, is a British private lyceum for boys. All students board. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI. Eton has a very long list of distinguished alumni, including twenty former prime ministers. Traditionally, Eton is the chief nurse of England's statesmen and the most famous school in the world. No other school can claim to have sent forth such a brigade of distinguished figures to make their mark on the world. Etonians include Premier David Cameron of UK and Mayor Boris Johnson of London.
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