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In My Humble Opinion
Jodi McDade
Last week there was an interesting letter to the editor from Lynne Taylor about government involvement in the media and education.
She questioned whether the problems in other countries could come to us here in America. I hate to say it, but IT’S ALREADY HERE. Education was not originally included in our Constitution as a responsibility of the federal government. Schools, like churches, were taken care of at the local level by the people of the communities.
The federal government stepped in during 1867 by creating the original Department of Education to collect information to help the states establish effective school systems.
That was the beginning. In 1890, the Office of Education took responsibility to support the new system of land-grant colleges and universities. Next was the 1917 Smith-Hughes Act that stepped in to the vocational education in schools. Then in 1946 came the George-Barden Act that instituted agricultural, industrial and home economics training in high schools.
In 1944, the “GI Bill” authorized post-secondary education and funding for the WWII veterans to attend college. In 1950, the federal government stepped in to help provide funding to communities that had military or federal installations in their areas.
Next, the National Defense Education Act in 1958 started the idea of giving loans to students who would concentrate on mathematics, foreign languages, science, and vocational-technical training. In the 1960s and 1970s came the anti-poverty and civil rights laws that were to provide a level learning field for all students. In 1965 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act brought in the Title 1 programs that provided federal aid to disadvantaged children in poor urban and rural areas.
These last couple of programs were the beginnings of desegregation in the schools – with the premise that the Black children were not receiving as good an education as the white children were, and they should be receiving an EQUAL level of learning skills. I never understood why education was separated to start with because I was not raised in a totally segregated environment. I graduated high school in 1970 and, from what I understood, the integrated schools did not bring UP the education level of the Black students at all.
The government “assumed” that Black children were incapable of learning at the level of white students, so they LOWERED the standards for all children. I know that I received a very good education, and I’d really like to hear from any Black readers who were educated at that same period on what type of education they were getting in the segregated schools.
Since I was raised in the South, I’ve always wondered if the schools in the North were also segregated to start with. The integration of the schools brought a lot of problems because, instead of people living together, they lived based on their race. Sad. Thankfully, things have changed, but there are unfortunately people on both sides who still live divided. Politics have played an influential role in how people base their beliefs.
In 1980 the final takeover came about. The Department of Education was elevated to a Cabinet level agency, and the federal government took charge. Since they were then funding much of all educational levels, they set the rules. They changed the standards, the curriculum, the types of elective courses that were offered, and took away the ability of teachers to hold students back if they were not passing the classes. Discipline was also changed, and paddles were outlawed. How has THAT worked out?
I know I have concentrated on the issue of government-operated education, but the media is also a problem because it now dictates and reports based on political bias. Add on the internet and social media that we are all bombarded by, and there is no way to know what the REAL truth is. News is not news – it is opinions of the “hosts” because there are very few, if any, real journalists.
Back in my day, the news was to include only who, what, where, and why. Just the FACTS! The major news outlets and print media can no longer be accepted as facts regardless of the lean to the left, the right, or even somewhere in the middle.
So, as you can see, I think life was so much better in many areas back in MY DAYS. So many things have changed – crime, lack of law and order, illegal immigration, etc – and NOT for the better. I feel sorry for the children who can’t grow up with the freedom, safety and education that my generation had. We rode our bikes everywhere, stayed out until after dark playing with our friends in the neighborhood and had mothers who didn’t have to work outside the home.
Lynne was correct on most of her letter – except she did not acknowledge that the federal government has already taken over education and the media in many different ways. I really wish there was a way to turn it around. The problems are already here!
Please pray for our great country – established under the guidance of God, with liberty and justice for all. We were not founded on the premise of equity. We were founded on the basis of equality!
