Why We Need Democratic Socialism to Fix Our Educational System

a reply to: Edumakated

It comes down to a values thing. The things I mentioned are symptoms and examples of the values.

Poor asian immigrants? They come here with a different set of values. Not everyone who is poor is in a gang or wants to be poor forever, I agree.

You can't deny that it's harder to see a brighter future from time invested in education when that reward seems far away. When you are poor your needs are immediate and hard to put off because you have "homework" to do.

It's often said that wealthy people are wealthy because they know how to plan and play a long-game. Poor people can't lift their heads up long enough (or are told they can't and believe it more likely) to do so.

It's hard to plan for and work for future goals when you're struggling in the present. It can be done, but we don't push that narrative and reinforce that as a value or achievable goal in American society.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I agree. It is a mindset.

But what gets me is that our "poor" are not that poor when compared to how people live globally. I recall when I was in graduate school, we tutored some kids at a school in Cabrini Green here in Chicago. The school was definitely run down by American standards, but it was a largely modern building.

One of my classmates was from Togo in West Africa. He couldn't believe these kids were considered poor. He brought in some pictures of where he grew up and went to school. Basically, dirt floor, one room school house. Yet, here he in America getting an MBA at one of the best business schools in the country. These kids had more in six grade in one of the worst housing project in America more than he ever had until he came to the US.

originally posted by: pirhanna
Our primary education system IS democratic socialism, so youre saying we need more of it to fix itself?

originally posted by: Wardaddy454
Ah another agenda apparatus making its way into ATS.

originally posted by: schuyler
Aren't public schools ALREADY socialist?

Hey, why don't we just throw some gasoline on a raging out of control fire.

Yeah that just makes SO much more sense than using water to put out a fire.

At least the site is appropriately named: Disinfo.com...

One only needs to look at communism's goals to see that the fire already has all the gas it needs to do it's job.

Communist Goals (1963) Congressional Record--Appendix, pp. A34-A35 January 10, 1963 [From "The Naked Communist," by Cleon Skousen]

Goal #17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

The Communist Takeover Of America - 45 Declared Goals

Goal 17: Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism...soften the curriculum. Get control of teacher associations.

Grinding America Down Trailer Transcript

They’d accomplished almost every single one of them! And nobody seemed to be noticing! For at least the last fifty years they’d been working actively behind the scenes, in the shadows, trying to move our people and our culture in a direction that was designed to destroy us!

AGENDA Grinding America Down Trailer

a reply to: Edumakated

I think...

I think that in 3rd world countries there isn't the same level of media-propagated values handed down to discourage poor people. In America we have movies, music ect that glorify "gangster life" and "ghetto culture". We also have conflicting "rags to riches" Horatio Alger myths mixed up with a real sense of futility and lack of confidence in a biased system.

I get a real sense that there is a definite agenda to keep the poor in America poor. I also get a sense that the propaganda machines that perpetuate this culture have done a great job at obscuring the real causes and reasons. People on welfare voting Republican, giving tax cuts to the wealthy and still believing in trickle-down economics.

a reply to: DisinfoCom

This link shows our spending, was a good read.
www.huffingtonpost.com...

a reply to: MystikMushroom

Oh, so you are another one of those "vote against your best interests" types.

Maybe I don't think about myself when I vote, but what I think makes the country itself stronger? A strong, prosperous country is one where I have a better chance to have the opportunity to thrive. And that is why I don't vote socialist.

In essence, it seems that the education system is great at cosmetic fixes, like raising the graduation rate, but poor when it actually comes to fixing the root problem of poor education.
If we want the next generation to be successful and well-equipped leaders, are parents going to have to take matters into their own hands and fill the many holes being left by today’s education system?
The U.S. seems to think It's a smart idea to compete with other Countries, such as Japan. The amount of pressure put onto young students today is unbelievable. Kids don't get to have fun anymore, because they need to pass yet another test or do 10 more pages of homework. What happened to those kids who want to be plumbers? Or girls that want to work with hair? Why does school nowadays try to force specific areas onto children, such as math? This needs to stop, NOW!

You FIX education by getting RID of the the testing and TEACH an individual.
It should be administered by the state,FINANCED by the government.

Only need to listen to the first 2:30 for the relevance to this thread.