To me, American progressives represented the view back in the late 1800s thru the mid 1900s that the benefits of burgeoning science and technology should be harnessed for to improve peoples' lives, not to make the very wealthy even wealthier.
I associate free public schools, a 40-hour workwe…
To me, American progressives represented the view back in the late 1800s thru the mid 1900s that the benefits of burgeoning science and technology should be harnessed for to improve peoples' lives, not to make the very wealthy even wealthier.
I associate free public schools, a 40-hour workweek, public health, standards on food quality and drugs, workplace safety, with progressives. Laissez-faire would not provide these outcomes. These were noble ideals that had to be fought for, which many of today's "conservatives" take for granted and have forgotten.
Today's progressives, certainly their leadership in the Democrat party, celebrate deviate behavior, and government coercion. And they do that at the behest of big capital, that owns them.
Is big capital monolithic? Perhaps not, some of it appears to support Trump. Trump himself is a money manipulator, but he's found a niche promoting many (certainly not ALL) common sense policies that appeal to people who work, pay taxes, raise families. But still, given a "choice", Trump's base chooses the lesser of the evils. Time will tell if Trump disappoints them, and by how much.
Public schools were a huge benefit for generations of American kids, from Brooklyn to Topeka!! Some of these kids went on to do great things, big and small, making America better. Public education gave them the keys to unlock their potential.
Most parents did not, and do not, have the means to send kids to good private schools.
Many (most?) public schools are failing now (actually since the late 60s, and the decline really started to accelerate in the late 80s) because of numerous factors, both external (society, lack of parental oversight and discipline at home, using public schools to indoctrinate rather than educate, SMART PHONES, expelling religion in general and Christ in particular) and "internal" (schools are too big, teachers unions, rewarding administration rather than teaching).
I don't have a quick good solution. However, private schools are probably not a good answer for people of modest means. Home schooling mixed with supervised interaction like sports and church?
Many of these "students" should not even be in high school. Let's face it, it's just baby sitting. They should be working in the fields and factories. Others could be getting vocational training and apprenticeships.
Most college grads will never open another book. High school was what college is now. People can't be informed beyond their level of interest and capacity. Very few should be voting. You liberal world view is pretty silly, actually. Take off your rose colored glasses.
But kudos on the old fashioned liberalism (which knew some of the above) and its sane humanism and commitment to unions.
All education must be moral. Not possible with anti-Christian government schools. There were no public schools in the South before the War Between the States. All were educated in private schools, or didn't need school. Patrick Henry was dirt poor and threadbare and was primarily self-educated. A private school need not be elite or expensive. If the government didn't confiscate so much of your money, in my state its property taxes that fund government schools, most people could afford modest private schools. Many don't need much beyond reading/writing and basic math.
People who want to learn, and have a cultural tradition of literacy, will read and learn whether they have formal education available or not, as with Patrick Henry and countless others. (Schools were forbidden to Catholics in Ireland for 200 years, but the people kept on reading anyway.)
But many people, maybe most people, are sort of "on the bubble"; they need encouragement and support systems, including the message that getting an education isn't a waste of time. That's where a basic "common school" (as they used to call a public school) had its place. And even if most of the students didn't get beyond the 8th grade, that didn't matter much, because they'd learned a lot in that time. A lot more than they'd learn now.
I was so impressed with the 8th-grade educations of all four of my grandparents, whoo were born from 1900 to 1906. And they were all bilingual. They seemed better-educated than the 1980s HS grad of my salad days.
Ireland has enjoyed universal literacy for hundreds of years because of the Catholic Church. Judging by the political and religious leanings of the modern Irish, I'm sure most of them will be illiterate in a generation or two.
Through the incessant din of atheistical and diabolical propaganda (the main driver of political movements for 500 years) it is often hard to remember that Christianity in general, and the institution of the Church, is the very integument that holds together the lifeboat of Western society and culture. (True even for those who sit in the boat and refuse to row.)
Yes, it becomes careers and ultimately, a grift. Thus it can't stop. Every one has to go to college! Every one is equal! Blacks are not only equal, but better!
Wait! I may be wrong about "progressives" today.
To me, American progressives represented the view back in the late 1800s thru the mid 1900s that the benefits of burgeoning science and technology should be harnessed for to improve peoples' lives, not to make the very wealthy even wealthier.
I associate free public schools, a 40-hour workweek, public health, standards on food quality and drugs, workplace safety, with progressives. Laissez-faire would not provide these outcomes. These were noble ideals that had to be fought for, which many of today's "conservatives" take for granted and have forgotten.
Today's progressives, certainly their leadership in the Democrat party, celebrate deviate behavior, and government coercion. And they do that at the behest of big capital, that owns them.
Is big capital monolithic? Perhaps not, some of it appears to support Trump. Trump himself is a money manipulator, but he's found a niche promoting many (certainly not ALL) common sense policies that appeal to people who work, pay taxes, raise families. But still, given a "choice", Trump's base chooses the lesser of the evils. Time will tell if Trump disappoints them, and by how much.
Public schools were/are a terrible idea.
Public schools were a huge benefit for generations of American kids, from Brooklyn to Topeka!! Some of these kids went on to do great things, big and small, making America better. Public education gave them the keys to unlock their potential.
Most parents did not, and do not, have the means to send kids to good private schools.
Many (most?) public schools are failing now (actually since the late 60s, and the decline really started to accelerate in the late 80s) because of numerous factors, both external (society, lack of parental oversight and discipline at home, using public schools to indoctrinate rather than educate, SMART PHONES, expelling religion in general and Christ in particular) and "internal" (schools are too big, teachers unions, rewarding administration rather than teaching).
I don't have a quick good solution. However, private schools are probably not a good answer for people of modest means. Home schooling mixed with supervised interaction like sports and church?
Many of these "students" should not even be in high school. Let's face it, it's just baby sitting. They should be working in the fields and factories. Others could be getting vocational training and apprenticeships.
Most college grads will never open another book. High school was what college is now. People can't be informed beyond their level of interest and capacity. Very few should be voting. You liberal world view is pretty silly, actually. Take off your rose colored glasses.
But kudos on the old fashioned liberalism (which knew some of the above) and its sane humanism and commitment to unions.
All education must be moral. Not possible with anti-Christian government schools. There were no public schools in the South before the War Between the States. All were educated in private schools, or didn't need school. Patrick Henry was dirt poor and threadbare and was primarily self-educated. A private school need not be elite or expensive. If the government didn't confiscate so much of your money, in my state its property taxes that fund government schools, most people could afford modest private schools. Many don't need much beyond reading/writing and basic math.
People who want to learn, and have a cultural tradition of literacy, will read and learn whether they have formal education available or not, as with Patrick Henry and countless others. (Schools were forbidden to Catholics in Ireland for 200 years, but the people kept on reading anyway.)
But many people, maybe most people, are sort of "on the bubble"; they need encouragement and support systems, including the message that getting an education isn't a waste of time. That's where a basic "common school" (as they used to call a public school) had its place. And even if most of the students didn't get beyond the 8th grade, that didn't matter much, because they'd learned a lot in that time. A lot more than they'd learn now.
I was so impressed with the 8th-grade educations of all four of my grandparents, whoo were born from 1900 to 1906. And they were all bilingual. They seemed better-educated than the 1980s HS grad of my salad days.
Ireland has enjoyed universal literacy for hundreds of years because of the Catholic Church. Judging by the political and religious leanings of the modern Irish, I'm sure most of them will be illiterate in a generation or two.
Through the incessant din of atheistical and diabolical propaganda (the main driver of political movements for 500 years) it is often hard to remember that Christianity in general, and the institution of the Church, is the very integument that holds together the lifeboat of Western society and culture. (True even for those who sit in the boat and refuse to row.)
Progressives don't know when enough is enough. They never know they've won the important battles and when to retire from the field.
Yes, it becomes careers and ultimately, a grift. Thus it can't stop. Every one has to go to college! Every one is equal! Blacks are not only equal, but better!
Well-said!