A Country Of Illiterates

I'm often left wondering what's wrong in this country. Why do people think the way they do. Act the way they do and, especially vote the way they do. Vin Suprynowicz, noted libertarian, author and editor at the Las Vegas Review Journal provides me with some answers to my questions. In past editorials he has taken teachers, their unions and the American educational system to task for their obvious failures. His detractors amongst the teaching elite, and their supporters are quick to whine and attempt to deflect blame away from themselves. It's difficult to admit when you're wrong. Even harder to admit that you have been responsible for damaging untold numbers of children over the years, too.

"Abundant data exist from states like Connecticut and Massachusetts to show that by 1840 the incidence of complex literacy in the United States was between 93 and 100 percent wherever such a thing mattered. According to the Connecticut census of 1840, only one citizen out of every 579 was illiterate, and you probably don't want to know, not really, what people in those days considered literate; it's too embarrassing. ...

"By 1940, the literacy figure for all states stood at 96 percent for whites, 80 percent for blacks. Notice for all the disadvantages blacks labored under, four of five were still literate. Six decades later, at the end of the 20th century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks and 17 percent of whites can't read at all. Put another way, black illiteracy doubled, and white illiteracy quadrupled."

It's hard to argue with things like that, though people have tried to do so. The American "educational system" is broken and agenda driven and may not be able to be fixed at all. I live in a town that has a "good" educational system and even so I have noticed that there are teachers in it who can't spell, punctuate or create a grammatically correct sentence or paragraph. My sons third grade teacher was just such a one. She was, by any standard an example of a teacher who should not be allowed to "teach". Radical change is going to be necessary and it must come sooner rather than later if we are to avoid the inevitable slide into irrelevance as a first world nation.

Those currently in power have no intention, or interest in ever changing things. They are vested in the current system and applaud it's further degradation. It's much easier to rule the illiterate. They are at the mercy of those who can read and think and are much more likely to believe the words of pundits and populists. Just look at the last elections results. It also bodes ill for the literate, as well. When you're surrounded by those who can no longer think for themselves your lives and fortunes are also at risk. Easily manipulatable masses can be made to accept anything by the master manipulators who run politics in this country. We're losing generations of people to the current system and if we don't make changes, (other than throwing piles of wasted tax dollars at it) then we will be facing the direst of consequences, a populace that has lost the ability to think and reason.

The time is now. Not tomorrow.

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Education, Libertarian, Politics, Illiteracy

Take A Gun To School

.38 Special asks the right questions of teachers.

Lazy, Ignorant Americans

The anti-immigration crowd are quite fond of saying that there are no jobs that Americans won't do. Unfortunately, the facts seem to state otherwise. There are also jobs that Americans cannot do, as the CEO of AT&T has been finding out the hard way. He promised to insource 5,000 jobs to the US from call centre's outside the US. So far he's been able to find only 1,400 people to fill those jobs. These are simple customer service positions, too. No degrees necessary, no technical expertise needed. Frankly, I don't know why the poor man hasn't quit trying. No doubt there are plenty of under qualified people lining up expecting to get paid an exorbitant amount of money for sitting around, answering the phone and leafing through a manual to answer questions. A quick check at Monster.com tells you how little you actually need to know to acquire one of these jobs. Any high schooler should be able to get one of these positions.

The head of the top U.S. phone company said on Wednesday it was having trouble finding enough skilled workers to fill all the 5,000 customer service jobs it promised to return to the United States from "We're having trouble finding the numbers that we need with the skills that are required to do these jobs," Chief Executive Randall Stephenson told a business group in San Antonio, where the company's headquarters is located.

So far, only around 1,400 jobs have been returned to the United States of 5,000, a target it set in 2006, the company said, adding that it maintains the target.

Stephenson said he is especially distressed that in some U.S. communities and among certain groups, the is as high as 50 percent.

"If I had a business that half the product we turned out was defective or you couldn't put into the marketplace, I would shut that business down," he said.

Gee, it sounds as if he has run up against the very thing that libertarians have been saying for ages. The US government schools are a dismal failure and have managed to turn out a defective product, when they've managed to turn one out at all. Is it any wonder that businesses, large and small have turned to immigrant labour to get the jobs done that need doing? Is it any wonder that businesses have had to outsource to foreign countries to find qualified help at a decent wage? There's plenty of blame to go around here, but a large percentage of it can be lain at the doorstep of the failed government schools systems. These bastions of socialism have managed to inculcate a sense of entitlement without cause into generations of people. Now we can see concrete results.

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AT&T, Jobs, Libertarian, Education, Immigration