Thomas Frank: What's the Matter with Liberals?

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Re: the failings of American educational systems:

In my school, it was possible to get a good education...if you took the 'honors' or 'enriched' level classes, that is. (If you took the 'regular' level classes...eh.)

Know what the local liberals are doing here? They're eliminating all of the honors and enriched classes and forcing everyone into regular classes. They claim it's so that the rest of the students can benefit from the same level of education, or that all students will have the same level of education, or some dippy left-wing theory of the local lefty College of Education. What they will actually do, of course, is drag down everyone's level of education and make it so everyone is mediocre together.

You think it's bad now...

Those aren't liberals. You can stop your liberal bashing now.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Re: the failings of American educational systems:

In my school, it was possible to get a good education...if you took the 'honors' or 'enriched' level classes, that is. (If you took the 'regular' level classes...eh.)

Know what the local liberals are doing here? They're eliminating all of the honors and enriched classes and forcing everyone into regular classes. They claim it's so that the rest of the students can benefit from the same level of education, or that all students will have the same level of education, or some dippy left-wing theory of the local lefty College of Education. What they will actually do, of course, is drag down everyone's level of education and make it so everyone is mediocre together.

You think it's bad now...

Those aren't liberals. You can stop your liberal bashing now.

Then who are they? It is the left-leaning members of the local school board who support this, and the local school unions who back this and the local College of Education are both very left-wing.

In your defense, the only member who comes out and says that this is idiotic is a moderate Democrat...

Well, I strongly support tracking, because I'm a meritocracy liberal.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Re: the failings of American educational systems:

In my school, it was possible to get a good education...if you took the 'honors' or 'enriched' level classes, that is. (If you took the 'regular' level classes...eh.)

Know what the local liberals are doing here? They're eliminating all of the honors and enriched classes and forcing everyone into regular classes. They claim it's so that the rest of the students can benefit from the same level of education, or that all students will have the same level of education, or some dippy left-wing theory of the local lefty College of Education. What they will actually do, of course, is drag down everyone's level of education and make it so everyone is mediocre together.

You think it's bad now...

Those aren't liberals. You can stop your liberal bashing now.

Then who are they? It is the left-leaning members of the local school board who support this, and the local school unions who back this and the local College of Education are both very left-wing.

In your defense, the only member who comes out and says that this is idiotic is a moderate Democrat...

Well, I strongly support tracking, because I'm a meritocracy liberal.

Ah, got it. Well, not your type of liberal is being referred to then...

If you're against meritocracy, you're not a liberal. If you're for a meritocracy you'd better be

1. For affordable education high quality education for students who are doing well, this includes college
2. For a large estate tax
3. Against inside connections/deals/trading/no-bid contracts

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  Like WMS and Jfern, I also think tracking is a fine idea, by the way.  jfern and WMS and I probably agree on other things as well, but polictical correctness, lack of critical thinking...

I'm not sure what 'tracking' is honestly, but if I had to guess I would say it is pigeonholing children into educational tracks very early in life.  I abhor this idea - the obvious result would be to close any hope of class mobility (though education is mostly a false hope).  Every little lower class child would be sent to mechanic's courses or taught how to obey orders and cook food or mop the floor, while the little upper-middle-class children (probably at a different public school) would be prepared for college.

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My point was that the predominant 'political correctness' of 2005 is  conservative and religious, not liberal or secular. 

Tracking shouldn't be determining everything about a child's future in life when they're 5. Tracking is allowing smarter students to take more advanced courses.