Friday, May 27, 2005

The Idiotizing of California's Kids

"California Assembly Says Shorter Books Would Help Kids" (reprinted here from www.sacbee.com for your ease of viewing)

If you are considering moving to California, don't bring your kids. Leave them behind. Don't bring them to our schools. California has fallen under control of the absolute nut-ball wing of the Democratic party, and will soon be sliding off into the ocean.

The California Assembly has passed a bill, along pretty much partisan lines, to mandate shorter textbooks for California classrooms. Yes, mandate. When I read the article I was somewhat perplexed at why the California legislature would want to give our kids abridged editions of textbooks, seeing as how most textbooks in their current forms just barely touch on the subjects they purport to teach. But the argument is that textbooks with 200 or less pages (how did they arrive at 200?) will be somehow more digestible and more understandable by students.

Easier. Gentler. Kinder. Lighter. Whatever.

I wondered, who authored this legislation? The answer was somehow not shocking: Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, a Los Angeles Democrat, chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and well known left-wingnut in the California Democratic Party.

Ah-ha! I said to myself with sudden understanding. Once again, the California legislature, those paragons of education reform and experts in child rearing, are telling locals schools what it takes to teach their children. Once again, the experts in Sacramento (who apparently need to go back to their own schools, because they ALWAYS mistake $1 in income as being equal to $1.10 in spending) have taken it upon their Solomn-esque selves to solve the bedeviling issue of boring textbooks by taking out the boring facts!

Make them shorter! More kid friendly. Better yet, direct them to... gasp! The Internet for more information.

That last part left me ROFLMFAO. (Oh, that's Internet speak... ask your kid, they probably know what it means.)

So, they want to take the fact-checked, vetted, and usually fairly accurate textbooks that schools provide for children.... shorten them down, abridge the information to fit a mandated textbook size, then..... LOL.... this is where it gets really good.... direct kids TO THE INTERNET for more information.

GAAA-HAHAHAHAHAHA-OOOOHOOO... hoooweee.... heh....

(Ooops, sorry... I think I actually snorted milk out my nose with that one.)

So we're gonna direct kids to the Internet for education? Not even considering the innately inaccurate nature of the internet, and how easily distracting it is to even the most focused kids.... is Assemblywoman Goldberg going to let all the low-income kids in South Central LA who have never even touched a computer come to her house and use hers? Is she going to mandate the districts buy each child a computer?

Who's going to vet these "accurate websites"? How long until these websites, who suddenly are being relied upon by California educators, will be required to meet obscure, inane, and arbitrary California education standards set by... heh... sorry, I can't help but chuckle... the California Legislature?

The stupidity in California continues. Please... take your kids elsewhere for an education. Guatemala maybe. Or Laos.

I hear Mexico is losing students at a fast clip, maybe they'd like a few of our students to shore up their schools? Hmmmm

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