Date: Sat Nov 05, 2005 3:37 am. By: Guest
Dan posted:
"How about that bridge to nowhere in Alaska? It is not just the politicians, it includes all their buddies that constructed that bridge."
It's exactly the same thing Dan, but that doesn't make it right, It remains a diversion of public moneys from the real needs to politicians and contractors pockets. We have the same thing going on here in Chelmsford, MA, where the taxpayers are going to be hit with the cost of equipping a local highschool with a full, broadway stage in the hope that it will "encourage the performance arts"...(and I add) while lining the pockets of a few local politicians, contractors, and consultants. Gimme a break. It is precisely things like this that cause me to doubt the intelligence of the average, public highschool educated, citizen -- who unfortunately gets an equal vote on matters that tax us all.
One wonders what will come next. Maybe a sports stadium of major league class, so even the kids forced into playing Little League Baseball will have a place to excel for their parents gratificiation, before moving into the dull and pointless life of a factory worker.
The opportunties for promoters and exploiters to turn a fast buck on the "needs" of the children is nearly endless. Likely this is permitted by our society because somehow we have become victim to the silly notion that expending public funds on the wants of of those that lack promise is somehow more important than nurturing the needs of the promising!
Dan, what people today fail to grasp is that the shakers and movers of tomorrows society will be the little kids in the playgrounds of today. I was a child of the forties, but today as then, our public and school libraries lack the textbooks needed to fuel knowledge sucking young minds and, for the most part, the ability of teachers in the public schools is equally limited, because gaining employment in public education even today remains a political option without regard to the qualifications and abilities of the teacher.
This is not conjecture on my part, it is personal experience. Because I came from a lower middle-class family of limited financial means, I was automatically assigned to vocational agriculture when I reached highschool, at least until one teacher recognized that I had unusual abilities in science and mathematics. He fought and eventually had me reassigned to an academic carrer path. He urged me not to attend the New Jersey State Teachers College, because he already knew that would be a waste. Subsequently I applied to Drexel, MIT, and RIT, and was accepted at all three. I graduated in physics from Drexel, and went on to earn a masters at Princeton. That teacher was fired the year after my highschool graduation, but went on to become the director at the Fels Panetarium at the Franklin Institue in Philadelphia, PA.
That's an example of how the administration of public education in the US works, and why it is such a miserable failure.
I recount this tale for only one purpose, to illustrate how poorly resources made available to public education are productively exploited, along with the subtle, liberal mentality that allows this SHIT to be permitted.
Harry C.