God in the Classroom?

[ebacon]

There's a clue in that all of you are blaming someone else for the problem.

Education is a community effort. I did volunteer work for Detroit City Schools. Those kids are not dumb. They are not inherently mean. What they are are dejected.

Bill Cosby was on a rant a few years ago. He basicly was urging the black community to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Easier said than done. At the time Dr. Cosby gave a speech in Detroit. Afterwards I was listening to a local black FM station and they talked to student. What he said literally made me cry. They asked him about the physical condition of his school and he said that he never gave it much thought until he visited a school in the suburbs. Then, he said, the condition of his school made him feel like he was worth less. Once a kid gets hit with that kind of dejection it is hard to pull him out.

I firmly believe that white flight, largely enabled by easy mortgage credit, has done more damage to our educational system than any other policy. We simply live too far apart and our tax dollars are spread too thin to provide a meaningful community in which to learn.

On top of that we are teaching kids stuff that they are not interested in --- but that's a different issue.

As for religion in schools, I think that should be left for each school to decide. They can get feedback from parents. Personally I am a fan of teaching kids about different religions so that they are not afraid of them, but that's just me.