re: "The biggest problem I see with public education is the NEA (teachers unions) and the fact that the public school system has become a minorities jobs program."
The biggest problem I have with it is that public education has become a liberal tool, pushing liberal views onto an audience of captive, impressionable kids.
My son had to write TWO essays this year on why black people are so wonderful. For the first, during National Black-American Month (February), he successfully challenged on the grounds that it was an offensive, discriminatory assignment. The teacher asked him if he'd prefer to select a person off of a list of women instead and he said "No. I'd rather take an 'F'." She left the room, came back in a few minutes, then changed the assignment to just writing about a famous American. (And told him privately that she actually agreed with him but the assignment had come down to her from higher up.)
I've shared this other story a few times, but I think it's a good one that's worth repeating. When he was in 3rd grade, my son's school had a "Field Day" toward the end of the year. The entire school would be outdoors for most of the day. Classes were to wear shirts of a certain pattern or color to help them stay organized.
For the second year in a row, my son's teacher chose PINK as her class's shirt color.
I wrote to the principal to object. "Not only will wearing pink make the boys appear effeminate and lead to taunting by the other children, I will wager that NONE of the boys currently own pink shirts, and that the shirts will never be worn again."
I questioned why the teacher had chosen the color, instead of letting the 3rd graders pick a color on their own.
The principal wrote back to let me know that she'd brought the issue to the teacher's attention, and the teacher had responded that the children were excited about their color. She said that no parent had ever objected to it before. (Now THAT says a lot, doesn't it?) And she said that she hadn't chosen pink for any political reason; it was just her favorite color.
But, she relaxed the requirement and told the class that they could wear pink OR green on Field day.
Guess what happened? On Field day, not a single boy wore pink. And half of the girls went green as well.
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