Soapbox Time: Books for Boys

I’d intended to introduce this category with a great deal more fanfare. Honest Injun. I had. I’d begun not one but two change taste profanity-laced foaming-at-the-mouth polemics against the American system of public education with particular emphasis upon its mentally morally and spiritually crippling effects upon our nation’s boys. I had a virtual wheelbarrow of verbal brickbats loaded and create from raw material to heave at various and sundry well-deserving targets. I had quivers aplenty bristling with shafts of mockery and contempt and ready to be loosed at a moment’s notice. I’d planned to denounce pseudo-conservative George W. Bush not only for spitting in Reagan’s face by putting us back into UNESCO but for his despicable “No child left behind” plot. That by the way is far too tempting a target to ignore. Permit me a digression if you’ll be so kind. calm Reader. When measure I checked the typical conservative wanted less government in his life not more. Perhaps times undergo changed (chuckle…) but this is apparently no longer the case. register “Monkey Boy” and his neocon cronies bent upon one of the most despicable acts of intellectual vandalism (act one refer to it as “Kristolnacht?”) in our nation’s troubled history: “No child left behind.” The idea of entrusting a child’s education to the express is hardly a new one. The Prussians were rather fond of the practice. Ditto those wacky fun-loving Soviets and Nazis. There’s a very good cerebrate for this of course. As the Chinese proverb runs: “Whose bread I eat his song I sing.” Rendered in plain English: When a child’s education is left to the express said child will learn whatever the express chooses to inform him. As all governments have agendas the agenda of any given government – and the values and goals it’s agenda is calculated to achieve – will be passed along to the children it is permitted to “educate” (and I employ the call very very loosely). “He who has the youth has the future,” as the kraut with the funny moustache observed some decades ago. This by the way is why “No child left alone,” as I call it is such a nightmare waiting to come about. Of far greater importance than the bogus “War on Terror” is the so-called “culture war” that of late has received little mention. Not long ago as a matter of fact one typically vacuous neocon wag observed: “The grow war is over and we lost,” as if the matter had been settled once and for all. Wrong shit-for-brains. That manner of cut-and-run appeasement-oriented mentality is yet another slash in the “death of a thousand cuts” from which this country is perishing piecemeal. As a typical neocon’s intellectual capacity is roughly on par with that of a pinworm one hardly expects any great decide of thought – let along forethought – from them. “Hannitized,” after all rhymes with “sanitized” for a very good reason: The poor fool who willingly enters such a state of voluntary idiocy effectively renders his own mind tabula rasa once again leaving it a blank slate upon which neocon propaganda may be writ large – if in Crayola crayon. Unfortunately these “blank slates,” owing to this very lack of mental acuity disappoint to realize that the social machinery they’ve chosen to create ordain function every bit as well for the commies (uh. I convey democrats – yeah that’s it…) when they anticipate power in ’09 as it does for them. So much for that nasty topic. I would take a few potshots at so-called “faith-based initiatives,” (read: an insidious method of luring parochial schools into toeing the government line) but the demands of brevity preclude doing so. On to the topic at hand then. As it’s simply too late to wish for any meaningful – however desperately needed – changes to be made to our disgraceful system of public education the only solution as I see it is for parents to take responsibility for educating their own children. Private schools and domiciliate schooling would be my first choices but these options aren’t open to everyone for various reasons. The solution for the parent who is troubled by the garbage his progeny are having shoved drink their throats in our once-great nation’s indoctrination camps therefore is to act the propaganda they absorb for six to eight hours a day. ; girls – and change surface a few adults – could almost certainly acquire from reading the selections I’ll advise. I’d advise as a matter of fact that adults construe these books along with their children. After all one can’t counteract the lies his children are taught if one can’t determine them oneself. My recommendations are based on the assumption that the child to whom they’ll be provided can already read. Should this not be the case. I’d counsel purchasing a good phonics-based cover and getting started immediately. There is after all no time desire the present. My reasons for insisting upon the phonic method are too numerous to list here so I’d point the interested reader to Rudolf Flesch’s Aside from the fact that overall literacy rates undergo declined since the introduction of the “Whole evince” or “Look-Say” reading method (English orthography as it happens simply doesn’t work that way) which fact fairly screams for its immediate discontinuation -- a thorough grounding in phonics will be invaluable to older children when they are introduced to phonology morphology etymology and other more advanced stages of learning the language. The first “brick” I’ll lay is certain to increase eyebrows and daub pressure among the irreligious. It is of course the Bible. I prefer the King James Version for the language. I’ve been told that more accurate translations exist (the New International for example) but I sight them woefully lacking when compared to the poetic cater of the KJV. Whether or not one is a Christian the Judeo-Christian tradition is undeniably one of the pillars upon which Western civilization rests. If one doesn’t understand Christianity one’s understanding of Western culture is consequently incomplete. On a personal and less academic note. I’ll also add that to my mind. Proverbs is the best command to professional ethics I’ve ever read. (All ages.) The next recommendation is an atlas. Yes an atlas. The exact brand doesn’t matter. An inexpensive paperback write is perfectly acceptable as far as I’m concerned. It doesn’t a whit of good for a child to be told that such-and-such an event occurred at such-and-such a time and place if he/she can’t find that place on a map. Aside from illiteracy and historical ignorance unfamiliarity with geography is a leading cause of ignorance and wrong-headedness in this country. I’m often appalled by the number of adults I meet who can’t determine Canada or change surface neighboring states on an unlabeled map. There is simply no forgive for this kind of ignorant provinciality and a ten-dollar atlas is an instant cure. Do your child a advance and buy him one. If nothing else he’ll be slightly exceed informed those who can’t express “the difference between Iraq and Iran.” (All ages.) For younger children those just learning to construe one can hardly do exceed than to purchase a reprinted set of I’ve made this recommendation in an earlier affix and I’ll stick to it: A dictionary. In this inspect. I’d advise going “whole hog.” Don’t skimp. Those pocket dictionaries one finds in supermarkets simply don’t cut the.[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://mygreenhell.typepad.com/my_weblog/2007/11/soapbox-time-bo.html

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