EDUCATION - TO BE OR NOT TO BE!

I have come to appreciate the wisdom of men and women of the past. Those who have created and written classical music hundreds of years ago, yet the classics never grow old; great poets whose rhyme and rhythm continue to inspire and inventions that have made our lives more comfortable and discoveries in science and medicine that have saved millions of lives over the centuries. It is a reminder of the quality of education and training that our forefathers received.

Recently there was an e-mail floating around that contained an eighth grade final examination used in 1895. It was given to students in Salina, Kansas. It took five hours to complete. I believe that college graduates today would have trouble passing this exam. I read recently that a high school student in the year 1900 had a better education than college graduates today.

There seems to be a trend over the past 100 years to "water down" public education. Over the past 50 years we have seen the growth and demand for private schools in America. What has happened? Has the public government school become a political football? What has happened to the old work ethic? Have we become complacent? Have we forgotten the importance of learning and gaining knowledge and wisdom? Have we replaced reading, writing, and arithmetic for a "feel good" child and replaced failure by passing everyone to build self-esteem? Can we turn the curve around?

                                                         What to do!
*Pray for teachers.
*Better training for teachers.
*Raise the bar on teacher training and require higher expectations.
*If the quality of the classroom teacher is raised, the quality of the student
     will improve.
*Get back to basic in the classroom: reading, writing and arithmetic.
*Teach students the facts of history and not the facts of life.
*Put patriotism and loyalty back in the textbooks.
*Put the Ten Commandments back on the classroom wall.
*Get back to moral values in and out of the classrooms.
*Parents! Wake up. Train your child. Teach your child. Discipline your child.
*Get back to teaching moral standards and values.
*Teach young people that there are moral absolutes, and it is not situation
      ethics.
*Teach young people that they are created in the image of God.
*Tell them that evolution is still a theory not a fact.
*Get back to teaching the principles that made this country great, by refreshing
     students of the importance of the Constitution of the United States.
*Pray.
*Put God first.