Comment Post

Again, my reply to a reader’s comment has dragged on a bit longer than I intended, so I’m going to turn it into a post unto itself. In this case, reader Elissa contributed a thoughtful comment on my rambling “Dream” post from yesterday, and I did my best to clarify. Not sure if it helped… 🙂

Elissa said:

…”The other thing that I wanted to comment on is your “dream.” I think you need to have a little more faith in the system. I think the problem is not just with one party, democrat or republican, but that their are corrupt people on both sides. Sometimes it only takes one bad apple to spoil the bunch and that is unfortunate. Also, you mention in your “dream,” not as many people will be pursuing higher education under Republican rule; how is this good? You yourself are pursuing a Master’s degree, so how can that be part of the ideal situation that you dreamt about? I’m confused!”

My reply:

Hi Elissa – as always, thanks for stopping in and leaving your thoughts, I appreciate it, particularly coming from someone with a teaching background.

I definitely agree with your comment re my “dream,” that the problem is massive corruption on both sides, not just with the Democrats. The Republicans have endless problems of their own with crooked politicians and a horrible lack of ethics. That’s one big reason why they have lost so much power so quickly. Not only are undecided voters moving left, but I certainly think that the Republican base is remarkably disenchanted with what’s happening within the GOP, particularly the massive spending and earmarks. So yes, it’s not just the fault of the Democrats.

Having said that, I think the problem gets that much worse with the current domination of Washington by liberals. At least under Bush we saw a decrease in taxes to spur growth, under the Democrats we’re getting both exponentially increased spending, and higher taxes on wealth producers and job creators to go with it. I cannot see how this will do anything but drive the economy into the ground. I hope that I am wrong on that, but history has shown repeatedly that increased government control, nationalization and regulation of private enterprise does not work. So I don’t see how it can work here.

My hope is, and this is where my dream comes in, is that the (in my mind) inevitable depression and loss of freedoms will prompt such a shift to the right that the GOP will be able to elect leaders that will be able to return this country to its ideological roots. I have no interest in bipartisanship anymore, I think that the Democrats have shown over the last few months that they have absolutely no interest in doing anything but advancing a liberal/socialist agenda, one which will destroy this country, and so I have no qualms about advocating a complete reversal of that if the GOP can return to power. I do have “faith in the system,” but only if we can change the people who are running the system. As it stands, I have zero faith in our current leadership to do anything but consolidate their power and enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us.

As for your final questions: The only reason I am pursuing a Master’s degree is because it is the most efficient and cost-effective way to achieve my goal of becoming a teacher. The government requires that I have a piece of paper saying that I am capable of teaching before I am allowed to teach in a public school. I am quite certain that I already possess the skills necessary to teach elementary school (or middle school, or high school). It would be much easier and more efficient for everyone involved if I were allowed to simply do a year as a student teacher to pick up the necessary classroom management skills and experience, and allow the school to evaluate me in a classroom setting. As I see it, the courses I am taking now are not much more than a means for me to be indoctrinated with liberal groupthink and to enable colleges and professors to get paid.

And I would apply this belief to most of the college educations that people receive in this country. A bachelor’s degree is so omnipresent at this point that it has become a basic requirement, rather than the exception. As a result, more people are forced to go to graduate school to get a “better” job. However, many of the jobs that people are getting with their bachelor’s or graduate degrees don’t require anywhere near the number of years of education that are currently needed to be eligible. Certainly, students wishing to go into a “hard” science or medicine or law probably need grad school. But for the majority of people out there, for the majority of jobs, people need real world experience, not costly and wasteful education.

People come out of college in this country with lots of debt and few real job skills. I understand that the traditional purpose of most of a liberal arts education is to teach students how to think and learn, rather than to teach them actual practical skills, but as ideologically one-sided as our colleges and universities have become, students no longer even get taught how to think. Instead, they are taught how they should think.

Sorry this got so long…thanks again for coming by, hope you return