Feb 03 2010
We Don’t Need No Education…
At least, not if we live in Utah and we’ve made it through 11th grade. Cost savings for our strapped state budget? Let’s dump the senior year in high school, it never did me no good, and look, I’m a state legislator now!!!
Senator Chris Buttars (R) West Jordan, said, “You’re spending a whole lot of money for a whole bunch of kids who aren’t getting anything out of that grade. It comes down to the best use of money.”
His buddy Francis Gibson (R) Mapleton, said “Dramatic times deserve drastic measures“.
Save $102 million by dumbing down your populace, all the makings of the future good little dipshit boys and girls who don’t have enough brains to figure out all the lies they’re hearing on AM talk radio, so they vote Republican.
Long range planning for a devoted voter base. Another brick in the wall.
9 responses so far
You know, a few years ago I would have simply blown this off as a rant that was overblown, but nowadays (is that a word?) I just don’t have that luxury. There is just altogether way too much stoopid shit going on.
It’s just amazing, what’s happening out there. I’m finding it polarizing in another aspect…
One group that has never been politically active is waking up, and another that has been awake is wanting to crawl back under the blankets and sleep through it all. Some get charged, some feel drained, by all this “stoopid shit”.
You are all missing the point. I only had US Government left to take in my senior year. Move the core classes into the three years and leave that fourth year out, save big bucks and don’t waste everyone’s time.
I think it’s a great idea.
Why don’t we cut the University budgets. Most of the tax dollars for education go to the university and higher education. So they should be free for state residents or completely supported by donanations and fees. DUH
A lot of kids don’t have the luxury of having only one core class to pass their entire senior year. I think we would have even more kids ‘left behind’.
Why don’t we just spend all of our money on military ventures, forget about our social infrastructure, especially education (it’s overrated), become a veritable third-world country whose only interest is in blind patriotism and mindless entertainment, and call it good? Hell, it’s worked for other great civilizations.
I heard today on the radio that they are thinking that only the kids that could get out of school early and head to college with no ill effects would be the ones that would do it.
(That’s the way I heard it, please correct me if I heard it incorrectly)
I guess, put that way, it doesn’t sound quite as bad. If my son would have had the option to take solely core classes and graduate and head to college a year early, I have no doubt he would have tried to do it.
I guess another question that arises, however, is if the student decides to try this route, and fails, has he forsaken his high school education and therefore his diploma? Can they go back if it doesn’t work out?
I guess things have changed more than I realized. When I was in high school, there were career streams- a student could choose a curriculum from College Prep, Technical, Mechanical or General.
All the core classes were finished by the end of Jr. year. The Sr. year was spent in in advanced classes, such as 2nd year language (mine was Spanish), 2nd year science, advanced auto mechanics, hands-on tech- radio, tv, electronics, etc. The art department at I.F. had 3 sections- art, advanced art, and senior art. To get into the senior art class required at least a year in one of the others. The same went with the music classes- orchestra and band, and the vocal music classes, choir and chorus. Drama and debate also had senior only classes.
I went into college as an art major. I was so prepared that I entered sophmore and junior level classes at the U of I as a freshman. Of the 17 students in my sr. art class, I know of 10 who went on to careers in the field. There may have been others who I never connected with afterward.
Some of the kids I graduated with were trained well enough to go straight out to the site as beginning technicians. Many went to work as mechanics and carpenters.
We were well schooled by Idaho Falls back then. I took typing my senior year as a gut class, and it has proven to be as valuable a skill as any other I have.
The senior year is the one where kids learn to really think, and learn how to use the knowledge they’ve accumulated up to then. It’s also a year for maturing as a person. Dropping it would put a lot of 16 year olds out on the job market, where they’re simply not ready or old enough to do well.
16-17 is also too young to do well in college, where the maturity and discipline learned in the senior year really counts- college really puts an 18 year old freshman up against the wall, and one either performs or gets the boot.
I think dropping the senior year will effectively put a big bunch of kids out on the street, bored, loose and directionless. They’ll either pack up and run around, or will become basement mushrooms, playing games on the net all day. A few will have the internal drive and discipline to go on for more training, but for most, all it would create is a half-sharpened pencil, pulled out of the sharpener too soon.
High school is the end of education for most boys in Idaho now. Dumb it down further, and we’ll have a generation of men who won’t be able to provide well for their wives and families. The women will become the main breadwinners, and things will all slide downhill. Idaho can’t afford a generation of under-educated kids. The only thing that can come of this is more social problems, lower paychecks, and lifelong family instability.
With our terrible economy, it seems there is a lack of vision for the future, and only a knee jerk reaction to how to balance the budget NOW.