Politics and Education: Never the two should meet

Many of you will be aware of what has been happening in Texas, USA with their education curriculum (bbc article). First though a bit of background, education is considered a very local thing in the USA, Texas is one of the few states that has a state wide system; people are elected to boards of education around America just like people are elected to council office, state office and federal office. And here we have the problem; the public get to elect other members of the public! Up until recently the head to Texas' State Board of Education was a dentist who has been quoted as saying "someone has to stand up to experts!" in reference to teaching evolution.

So here we have a group of people popularly elected by the public deciding what children should and should not be taught. Many of you might not see a problem with this, afterall it's how we decide who runs our countries. However the difference is that the people we elect to run our countries, have experience in it, they are politicians, it is their career. Really the worst they could do is get us into a war or an economic recession the likes of we've never seen before... oh, I think that's already happened, many times, and we're still fine! Yet when we talk about the same process with regards to choosing what our children learn it is frought with strife. It is a much more dangerous situation than an economic meltdown or world war 3!

Why is it worse? Because quite simply our children are our future. It may be cliche to say it, but it is true. Without our children, the human species will disappear. When you start demanding that the children be taught things that are plainly wrong you set future generations up for a failure that we may not recover from. When a child's education is held to ransom by the whims of people who love the spotlight and whom have a persecution complex so vast it really needs a new name that child suffers. They will leave their education career, ready to embark upon higher education at Harvard, Yale, Oxford or any of the many fantastic education institutions around the world and will discover they have been let down. let down by their teachers, let down by their government and let down by their parents. They will discover that they have been lied to. And those that don't realise this (of which many won't, as what a child learns first is what stays with them for life) will go on to pull the rest of the world down to their undeducated standard.

What is the solution? It's simple really and I said it in my first blog post. Leave education up to those trained in the field! Let the teachers decide what is best for the students to learn. What is going to give them the best advantages they can have in a world where your education level is becoming the only thing with which to stand out from the pack. Let child psychologists determine what are the best methods for teaching children critical thinking skills, how to read, how to do mathmatics, how to comprehend, and how to poblem solve. Do not let the education of our children be governed by the whims of those people who know nothing about education.

This is the guy who might be our next Prime Minister?

This article in The Age today (Abbott-feels-heat-on-Jesus-claim) has sent my blood burning! I am passionate about education and passionate about free enquiry; however, I am also passionate about preventing children being told unsubstantiated facts by people without either a background in what they are talking about, nor a background in education!