I went with MNS over the DUmpster because this is really more of an obsession or fixation with them. Facts be damn, it was those evil demons Nixon, Reagan, and Bush. Not the public unions, nor Big Ed and Special Ed, his little brother. Nope not that. Evil Republicans done it. We have been shoveling more and more money at education for years with no tangible results. Ditto the War on Poverty. DUmmies can't differentiate between systemic failure and their own political preference. And more's the pity.+
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10025594059TheMastersNemesis (4,131 posts)
School System Was Never Broken Until The Reagan Devil And GOP Broke It.
I went to school in the 50's and 60's and it worked just fine. It was not perfect but it worked. We put a man on the moon with slide rules and a 64K computer. Now we depend on the Russians to get to a space station. The moon program was government and private enterprise at its best. And the engineers were American engineers.
I had a great education that included critical thinking and a desire to keep learning for a lifetime. Now we have allowed billionaires like the Kochs to destroy our system because of pathological greed.
Note the bolded name.
Just take a quick peek at Quack Bill's response
quaker bill (7,495 posts)
18. I do not know how good the "schools" were, however I can state my experience.
I first attended in 1960. The first day of class the school gave out, books, paper, pencils, composition books, whatever you needed to complete the work. During the year, as assignments were given, supplies to complete them were handed out, to everyone, I was not living in poverty. There were art and music classes. My parents did have to rent my clarinet (in third grade we started music for band), otherwise everything was handed out.
There was vocational ed., but there was also what would easily pass as AP, as college bound seniors were generally taking calculus II before graduation.
Sure, it was the 1960s, so girls were not allowed to wear pants (only dresses), and there was very little diversity.
My experience was that schools were far better funded and resourced back then.
Of course in 1966 I moved south. A different story for sure, schools were poorly funded even in the wealthy mostly white enclaves, and it only got worse once integration was required because the politics were all about white flight to private schools and doing everything they could to deny tax funds for bussing and integration.
So I would say the schools were fine, perhaps even better in various places around the country, but clearly far far worse in the deep south, perhaps so in inner cities as well.
Bouncy? Or, just had to get a shot in at the south? Quacker Bill probably spent more time looking up the plaid, pleated skirt of Peggy O'Neil hoping to snatch a peek at her panties than at his history book.
ReRe (7,571 posts)
15. You're right, TMN
And in-particular, under RWR, the whole war on education was begun by none other than William Bennett. He was the Education Sec from Feb 1985 - Sep 1988. I remember my head almost exploding upon hearing him say he wanted to abolish the Education Dept. Click on this link and scroll down to "Political Viewpoints" and see for yourself who the godfather of school privatization was and really, what has happened to our school system since then:
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Bennett
I hate this self-righteous SOB.
Um ReRe and then MiniMe....
MiniMe (14,069 posts)
20. In general, educated people do not vote GOP unless they are in the 1%
So they are trying to keep people stupid and change the curriculum to dumb things down and change history to think this is good. Critical thinking breeds rebellion. I keep hoping for the rebellion
I fall into the demographic the op speaks of so I will share a bit of my experience here in New England where Maine was still solidly Republican Held Territory.
My eighth grade science teacher graduated from what use to be called a 'normal school' with a teaching certificate after two years and made $3,500 per year according to the town warrant which was published and distributed every year listing such things prior to the annual town meeting. Textbooks and paper were provided but you were on your own for everything else. Girls wore skirts and blouses, boys slacks and shirts with collars. Leather shoes were worn in school, no taps. We carried a bag lunch and bought our own milk. There were very few wealthy folk save the doctor's kids and the car dealer's kids but they weren't all that flush either.
