Sputnik moment...

[nadinbrzezinski]

first that was a nice allusion for the forty five and above crowd. I fear the thirty and bellow crowd went... Sput... what?

This is part of the problem actually. I was listening to NPR describe the strong, albeit centrally controlled. education in China. It included a very familiar and strong core curriculum, to those of us NOT raised in the US. What they described is nothing short of the... European model.

But do this... nope it ain't gonna happen...

There is no political will, and chiefly this costs LOTS of money...

In short, STRONG central FEDERAL control, in a core curriculum that is very demanding at all levels... no longer should we do things like allow kids to take just Algebra I and graduate... and chiefly the arguments about whether we teach Evolution or not, that needs to stop. Alas this will not happen.

This also costs money... it means writing a curriculum at a central level, yes doing what the DOE does not do...

Alas it will remain as a nice line in a speech... we don't have what it takes any more. When Sputnik was launched the country had the will. We don't. So Mr. President, with all due respect... nice speech writing... but good luck implementing that. Me... nope, ain't gonna happen... and as we continue down into that road of ex-super power some of us will go... Casandra was right, but as usual nobody listened to Casandra.

Oh and yes I am debating whether to actually sit down and write that damn letter to the WH pointing out this reality, or just saving myself a stamp. I know it will fall in the trash... and some will go... SEE we need more school choice... which is as far from the truth as we could get. What we need is a single, NATIONAL core curriculum... that ain't gonna happen... but hey, a gal can dream. Perhaps it is time to write a nice alternate history of the US where that dream, going back to oh Emerson, actually occurred.

ed for clarity... oy

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. kick

[renegade000]

2. you've hit the nail on the head

I burst out laughing when I read this line in Paul Ryan's GOP response: "We believe government's role is both vital and limited — to defend the nation from attack and provide for the common defense ... to secure our borders ... to protect innocent life ... to uphold our laws and Constitutional rights ... to ensure domestic tranquility and equal opportunity ... and to help provide a safety net for those who cannot provide for themselves."

Equal Opportunity?

So we can expect a nationally standardized education system as part of the GOP platform now? (Let's not even get into the absurdity of the GOP calling for a "safety net", given that the recent market-driven healthcare bill was decried by the GOP as being some big government, socialist travesty, and the fact they lambast European welfare systems as being the source of all economic woe).

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. Well after the fall of empire

worst case the US will break into successor states. A few will get that social democracy... a few will make Mogadishu look like a well run city.

And no, there will be no help coming from those who will have a well run government that CAN DO things, to those who prefer that "paradise"

Republicans have to be called on it. They are Radical Anarchists, who do not believe in government at all.

[renegade000]

4. radical anarchists or radical neo-feudalists?

I suppose it's hard to say, since no-government will simply lead to the latter state.

One of the best pieces I've read that succintly describes the insanity of the right-wing is David Brin's "Defending Enterprise from its 'Defenders'":
http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/brin20100703

Brin is a self-professed centrist libertarian. If only the majority of people who deem themselves "centrist" and "libertarian" saw things as clearly, and spoke so vociferously...

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. I say anarchists

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchism

They moved beyond neo feudalists a while ago... like fifteen years ago.

[GeorgeGist]

6. Camelot was the myth ...

that ended with Arlen's magic bullet.