Thursday 17 May 2012

16/5 National's Plan for Education: Destruction

Meanwhile in New Zealand, National has announced its plan for education as it attempts to balance the budget.  While they claim to be focusing on quality, and introducing performance pay. Are we really looking at policies that have wrecked education systems everywhere they have been tried.
The most staggering example is USA, where  teachers teaching students to do well in standardised testing creates students incapable of graduating from high-school or are ill prepared for university or college education. Science Graduates from American Colleges are twice as likely to be overseas students than American citizens. It is not just poor primary and secondary education at play here of course, the influence of religion is important too, it eschews science or at least science that contradicts Christian myth.  Liberty University, founded by renowned bigot Rev Jerry Falwell is an embarrassment to American education as it teaches creationism even in it biology courses and noone can get even a janitorial job there unless they sign a document claiming that they believe creationism to be true.
If you want to create a population too stupid to challenge political spin, this is how to do it. After John Key took time to complain that the media were more critical since the election gave his team a second term. We could imagine today's announcement is his devious plan to ensure an end to real political criticism.
Let us take a look at where this is leading. This week a US State legislature heard public submissions on same sex marriage, When a women who experiences schizophrenia to the extent that she has been declare mentally incompetent offered her delusions as fact, only one man in the gallery is seen reacting to her ludicrous comments . There is some wrong when people can literally offer crazy talk and hardly anyone notices or at least bats an eye.

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