2010 Soap Box Archives

The Constant Tug Of War

For years there has been an ongoing battle between those who believe a child's education is enhanced by including our God and country's heritage in the curriculum the students are being taught and those who don't.

One side wants their children to be taught Judeo-Christian principles and the other side wants no mention of God's name and does not even want to allow a prayer at the beginning of a ball game.

While the anti-God alliance of atheists and agnostics is small it is admittedly loud and has a powerful ally in the American Civil Liberties Union and the major media of the nation, which blows the individual situations completely out of proportion and results in the tail wagging the dog.

In other words, the minority gets their way most of the time resulting in the parents who want the existence of Almighty God left in the curriculum being pushed out into the cold by a mere handful of unbelievers and their powerful allies.

This is not a conundrum; it shouldn't even be a problem to implement. Simply give each family a federal school voucher so they can send their children to whatever kind of school the think they should attend.

The Christian children can go to Christian schools, the Muslim kids to Muslim schools and so on and so forth and that would solve that problem in a nutshell.
All the schools would be required to meet academic standards in basic education, reading, writing, math, computer skills and so forth, but the criteria for spiritual education would be left to the individual schools.

This would accomplish a myriad of goals.

It would create competition, with public schools no longer being the only game in town; they would have to compete for students just like the other schools.
It would break the political power of the teacher's unions, a monolithic entity that gutless politicians kowtow to at the expense of America's children.

It would give more individual attention to students who need extra care, as class size would be smaller and more manageable.

Discipline could be instilled and demanded doing away with a major part of the bullying and violence on many campuses.

Kids in the inner city ghettos who are chained to inferior, crime-ridden schools could attend much better schools and reach their personal potential.

The capable teachers who really care would rise to the top and be sought after and by the rule of competition be paid the salary they personally deserve, not just what bad or mediocre teachers in the system make.

The educational system in this nation costs more and more and achieves less and less as America falls way behind many less prosperous countries that put a committed emphasis on educating their children to enter the global job market.

The students who attend the private Christian and other schools in America are on an average much better educated than their public school counterparts and the cost per pupil is about the same and in some places less than public schools.

There are many people who will tell you that a move like this would destroy the educational system in this country, but that is simply not so. It is already happening on a small scale now and working fantastically.

Competition does wonders.

What do you think?

Pay for our troops, and for our country.

God Bless America

Charlie Daniels

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