AAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!
Now that I've gotten that scream out of me I have a statement to make. I believe in slavery, or at least indentured servitude. There is a class of citizen who I don't believe should share the same liberties of mainstream society because they haven't earned it. That class of citizen is the willfully stupid.
I despise people who are uneducated because they don't want to be educated. I have nothing against those who have learning disabilities, or those who for whatever reason are denied an education. The people I can't stand are those who have the full opportunity to advance their knowledge but who choose to decline. I mean people who have a chance to learn but won't do it because it's too much trouble, or because their peers think it's stupid to be smart.
These willfully stupid types will of course continue to be a burden on their families or taxpayers depending on who they decide to cling to. They won't want to take minimum wage jobs because it's not enough money. Some might try to go on to college but will usually drop out because the teachers at universities actually have the nerve to demand that the student learn something.
So I say make them into indentured servants until they have proven they are ready to go to school and learn, or even to self educate. I'm willing to make an exception for those who want to make a fool of themselves for the amusement of the general public. These are the types who generally wind up on talk shows or in the tabloids. Sometimes they make it to the big time and become Hollywood train wrecks and in doing so provide an even greater amusement factor. If I want to bring back indentured servitude the least I can do is reopen the valued position of village idiot to those who make the effort.
You might be asking yourself what it is that made me decide to rant about this today. It's some information I read about in the paper. Here in Washington we have a test called the WASL. Starting next year it was going to be required that all students must be able to pass the WASL in order to graduate. They initially take the WASL in 10th grade so they have two years to make up whatever shortcomings that happen to stand out in their education. This was a decision that I had cheered over. It meant that the school system was no longer going to be able to turn out masses of uneducated leeches just because it was easier to pass them along to the next class than it was to actually teach them.
Our students do fairly well in most areas of the WASL with 85% passing the reading and writing portions. That's not great but it's still a workable percentage and shows which students need more work. However a large weakness for math and science has shown up in the school system with 44% of the students failing the math portion of the test and 64% failing the science portion. It seems to me that the answer to this failing is to focus more making sure the students are actually learning what they are taught. If they do fail those sections of the WASL then obviously they need to take summer classes to make up for it. Perhaps even stay an additional year in school. After all, the whole idea behind requiring them to pass the test is to make sure that they were actually qualified to graduate rather than just being given a diploma in order to get them out of the school.
But now Washington state government has figured out the solution to the problem on their own. If math and science are too difficult to pass then obviously the sensible thing to do is to drop those portions of the test. Instead they will have a requirement that students must pass algebra, geometry, and biology tests at the time that they finish each of those courses. Plus they are proposing a 3 year moratorium until even that requirement needs to be met.
God I hate stupid people and yet the school system continues to focus on more and more efficient ways to turn them out.
As a disclaimer. In case anyone wants to jump on me about how people who drop out of school can go on to have successful careers, allow me to preempt your assault. If somebody drops out of school and then goes on to have a successful career then they aren't willfully stupid are they? They just chose to learn things in a different manner than traditional education. It's only those who disdain knowledge who qualify.
I despise people who are uneducated because they don't want to be educated. I have nothing against those who have learning disabilities, or those who for whatever reason are denied an education. The people I can't stand are those who have the full opportunity to advance their knowledge but who choose to decline. I mean people who have a chance to learn but won't do it because it's too much trouble, or because their peers think it's stupid to be smart.
These willfully stupid types will of course continue to be a burden on their families or taxpayers depending on who they decide to cling to. They won't want to take minimum wage jobs because it's not enough money. Some might try to go on to college but will usually drop out because the teachers at universities actually have the nerve to demand that the student learn something.
So I say make them into indentured servants until they have proven they are ready to go to school and learn, or even to self educate. I'm willing to make an exception for those who want to make a fool of themselves for the amusement of the general public. These are the types who generally wind up on talk shows or in the tabloids. Sometimes they make it to the big time and become Hollywood train wrecks and in doing so provide an even greater amusement factor. If I want to bring back indentured servitude the least I can do is reopen the valued position of village idiot to those who make the effort.
You might be asking yourself what it is that made me decide to rant about this today. It's some information I read about in the paper. Here in Washington we have a test called the WASL. Starting next year it was going to be required that all students must be able to pass the WASL in order to graduate. They initially take the WASL in 10th grade so they have two years to make up whatever shortcomings that happen to stand out in their education. This was a decision that I had cheered over. It meant that the school system was no longer going to be able to turn out masses of uneducated leeches just because it was easier to pass them along to the next class than it was to actually teach them.
Our students do fairly well in most areas of the WASL with 85% passing the reading and writing portions. That's not great but it's still a workable percentage and shows which students need more work. However a large weakness for math and science has shown up in the school system with 44% of the students failing the math portion of the test and 64% failing the science portion. It seems to me that the answer to this failing is to focus more making sure the students are actually learning what they are taught. If they do fail those sections of the WASL then obviously they need to take summer classes to make up for it. Perhaps even stay an additional year in school. After all, the whole idea behind requiring them to pass the test is to make sure that they were actually qualified to graduate rather than just being given a diploma in order to get them out of the school.
But now Washington state government has figured out the solution to the problem on their own. If math and science are too difficult to pass then obviously the sensible thing to do is to drop those portions of the test. Instead they will have a requirement that students must pass algebra, geometry, and biology tests at the time that they finish each of those courses. Plus they are proposing a 3 year moratorium until even that requirement needs to be met.
God I hate stupid people and yet the school system continues to focus on more and more efficient ways to turn them out.
As a disclaimer. In case anyone wants to jump on me about how people who drop out of school can go on to have successful careers, allow me to preempt your assault. If somebody drops out of school and then goes on to have a successful career then they aren't willfully stupid are they? They just chose to learn things in a different manner than traditional education. It's only those who disdain knowledge who qualify.