Loss of Privacy

The problem of America’s schools is a tough challenge to fix.  There are a myriad of problems that combine to the almost comical excuse that is education today.  Many people want to blame the teachers when, in fact, it isn’t always teachers that are the main problem in the system.

My husband is a high school teacher and I have had the “joy” of listening to the problems of the educational system on almost a daily basis.  There is not one single thing that will fix schools but there are many little things that can change the thought process of those that run education.

Teachers Are Not Always To Blame
Many would like to institute a policy of merit pay for teachers.  The theory is that this would eliminate lazy teachers and reward good teachers.  The problem with this lies in the fact that a teacher, good or bad, could, one year, get a group of students who do really well, have large amounts of support from parents, and have a general desire for learning.  The next year, they could have a group of bad students who don’t care about school and their parents are practically non-existent.  This can also happen within a school year for those that teach more than one subject.  A teacher can only do so much motivation.  If there is no parental support, it is more likely that the student will fail to achieve.  Merit pay would penalize teachers unfairly based on random additions of students in a given class.

Federal Intervention is Making Things Worse
The No Child Left Behind Act is unconstitutional.  All federal education programs, including the Department of Education is, in fact, unconstitutional.  Read your Bill of Rights.  The 10th amendment states that “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.”  Public education is a States’ rights issue.  Although the elastic clause allows the government to circumvent this, I strongly believe that education should have remained a States issue.  Every single time the federal government has gotten involved with education it has only made things worse.  Students get the shaft and are dumber with each new generation.  Right now, public education is only slightly above institutional babysitting.

Discipline Is All But Gone From Schools
In the past, discipline was not a problem.  There were clear cut rules to follow.  Some pushed the limits to see what they could get away with but there were far less discipline problems than there are today.  There were, of course, students who were expelled in the past, and there will always be students that will be expelled, but the numbers continue to grow as discipline decreases.  Children will do whatever they can get away with.  They know that there are no consequences for their actions so they continue to push the envelope as far as they can.  The more discipline problems you have, the less time there is for teaching and the easier tests must be made so that everyone, including the discipline problems, can pass the tests.  This is all in an effort to appear to be taking an interest in the students.  The logic, though faulty, follows that, if students pass the tests, they get more federal money, so make the tests easy, everyone passes and we get more money.

Emotions Rule in School
Public school administrators are more concerned with how a student feels than if they are actually learning something.  They’ve made the tests easier so that students can feel good that they passed a test but they really haven’t learned much more than cursory facts.  Schools worry about self-esteem more than understanding the concept of slavery and its role in history.  It’s better to think you are special than to understand how to write compound sentences.

Too Many Administrators Taking The Money
Public education spends more per student than most private schools because there are so many administrators that need to be paid huge salaries.  While some school districts aren’t big enough to warrant the number of administrators, the administrators are, unfortunately necessary most of the time.  This is because they spend a great deal of time tracking students’ progress and filling out report after report so that they can meet the goals set by the state and federal governments.  If public schools do not jump through these hurdles, then they do not receive funding.  These administrators make 2-3 times what a teacher makes, yet it is always the teachers who are blamed for getting paid too much money.

Favoritism
Despite the fact that this is supposed to be a professional setting where teachers are treated as professionals, there is immense favoritism in many schools.  This leads, again, to the problem of good teachers.  A teacher who may be good but doesn’t quite fit in with the current clique of teachers, can, and often does, get handed the problem students.  This is the traditional passive-aggressive approach to getting rid of teachers that are different from you.  Often, because they are saddled with loads of poor performing problem students, test scores are low and the teacher is released.  A teacher could go on to another school where they are considered fabulous or are, at least, given a fair chance at performing their job skillfully.  In turn, favoritism can lead to poor teachers being kept on and given tenure.

Now, while these problems may not be indicative of all schools, they are some of the bigger problems that face a good portion of schools throughout the United States.  Under the current system, teachers are evaluated several times per year, though less often once tenure is achieved.  This is supposed to eliminate things, such as favoritism, but the deck can still be stacked against a teacher.

Education boils down to the need for parental involvement, student curiosity, teacher enthusiasm and the administrators keeping their hands out of it.  I have only listed a few of the major problems that I have seen in the last five years in the American educational system.  If even one of these could be tackled, it would go a long way to changing the way public schools work.

I believe most people see it as too large a problem to fix and, instead, only offer short-term solutions.  This leaves students ill-equipped for the real world and even life at college.  Many college students are taking up to six years to obtain their degrees because there is so much remedial information that they must obtain before they can pursue college level work.

We must allow teachers to actually educate students and instill in them a sense of learning, curiosity, and desire for more knowledge instead of sticking with the status quo of passing exams to get money.  Fixing the problems I mentioned above, which are only a few of the many that exist, will help and will start to put America back on the list of high achieving nations.

I take my privacy very seriously.  Anyone who knows me or who has read anything I’ve ever written, knows that I do not give out personal information very easily.  Although I embrace many modern technologies, I also make attempts to conceal personal data from being freely available.  So, I was quite taken aback the other day when I went to Best Buy to exchange a few videos and discovered that Best Buy has access to my DMV record.

Now, I’m not too sure how much access they have to the DMV records, but, what little they did have, made me nervous.  As I approached Best Buy’s customer service counter, I explained that I needed to exchange a few movies, mainly because I was given full-screen versions and I wanted wide-screen.  Not a problem.

The cashier ran the DVDs through and then asked for ID.  Though I hate giving out my driver’s license for such silly things as replacing a full-screen DVD for a wide-screen one, the only other option is to go buy a second copy.  I understand that they need to make sure people aren’t scamming the system and that I will now be in Best Buy’s database for the movies I exchanged.

The problem I had was that I watched the cashier type my driver’s license number into her register and, instantly, my name and address popped up on the screen.  The cashier asked me to verify that the information was correct.  Stunned, I looked at the screen and ticked the “accept” box.

Now, I have never exchanged anything at Best Buy before and I always pay with cash when I do visit the store.  So, how is it possible that typing in my driver’s license number brings up my name and address if they do not have access to the DMV?

I didn’t bother asking anyone.  I’ve been here before.  They either lie, make up a reason, or claim that I’m lying and gave them my information before.  The truth is, they probably don’t know the truth and are just trying to make themselves look good.

Needless to say, I’m a bit upset about this.  I’m not sure what to do, other than write to my idiot Congress critters, who are too busy planning their presidential campaigns to answer my mail anyway.  I do know that I am quite leery about returning to Best Buy again, especially to do an exchange.

This is also part of a bigger problem.  I consider myself quite aware of the many ways that the government and corporations have been conducting themselves in the matter of American citizens privacy.  But, somehow, this one seemed to have slipped by me.

One the one hand, I want to think that this is not big deal as I don’t really care if Best Buy knows the movies I like to watch.  But, on the other hand, why do they need to know this?  The most nefarious thing Best Buy is likely to do is try to sell me more stuff in a particular genre that I like.  But what if this data is compromised?  They now have my basic DMV information and the types of movies I like.  This could, one day, be used against me even though I have done nothing wrong.  I enjoy books and movies, particularly on dystopian societies.  How long before Best Buy’s information on me is sent to a federal database where they determine that I am some sort of threat?

No, I’m not a threat to anyone or anything but I can see the end of the line on this topic.  We’re already giving away far too much private information, willingly, online.  I’ve been trying to fight against this but, some days, it seems like a lost cause.

Today, I feel like I’ve fallen into a cleverly devised honey trap.  I didn’t want to give away my information but felt trapped, cornered, and forced to do so.  I want to be the one that gives up my personal information for the world to see.  I do not want the government to decide what information about me they are going to release in an attempt to “protect” me.  I’m just not sure I have a choice anymore.

Now that everyone is busy celebrating Christmas, I’ve had time to think about the multitude of people who continue to claim that America was founded as a Christian nation and remains one to this day. These claims are heard more often this time of year, as many people believe that there is a war on Christmas and that too many people are ruining our Christian nation, founded 230 years ago. While it’s true that nearly seventy-seven percent of Americans consider themselves Christian, it was not the desire of the founding fathers to create a Christian nation.

The 1979 Treaty of Tripoli happens to disagree with those that make the claim of a Christian nation. Article 11 of the treaty states that,

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

The Treaty of Tripoli was signed in 1796, with the US Senate ratifying it unanimously in 1797. It was signed shortly thereafter by President John Adams. The Treaty only existed for a few years and has no legal status today, however, it is a true representation of the new American government and the feelings and ideas that the founding fathers had for the new country.

Avoiding the stigma of being a country that is tied to a single religion is precisely what the founding fathers wanted to avoid. That is why they designed the separation of church and state. They wanted to free the new government from religious disagreements and make distinctions that all religions were welcome.

The United States of America was something totally new and never tried before. Some considered its ideas crazy, but America was out to prove that there was a new way of running a country and that it was possible to fuse many different ideas into one.

It is assumed that, because the founding fathers were raised in Christian homes and primarily British that they must have been observant to those beliefs. Revisionism has turned the actual facts into a myth that fits the current understanding of the founding of the United States and has been stating the myth as fact for many years.

However, a thorough examination of the times reveals that the founding fathers were men of radical ideas. They were thinkers who openly embraced the ideas of the Enlightenment.

Many of the founding fathers were deists. While some of the teachings of Christianity clearly influenced them, most did not ascribe to the tenets of Christianity itself.

They were far from their image of stodgy old men who held tight to Christian beliefs. Thomas Jefferson was busy having an affair with his slave, Sally Hemings, which produced at least one child. Benjamin Franklin spent a lot of time in “decadent” France. Both were deists, although Jefferson was moreso than Franklin. Franklin, however, was extremely tolerant of all religions.

In his autobiography, Franklin identified himself as deist, stating that,

My parents had early given me religious impressions, and brought me through my childhood piously in the Dissenting [Puritan] way. But I was scarce fifteen, when, after doubting by turns of several points, as I found them disputed in the different books I read, I began to doubt of Revelation itself. Some books against Deism fell into my hands; they were said to be the substance of sermons preached at Boyle’s Lectures. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough deist.

During the Constitutional Convention, Franklin wanted the delegates to pray but the idea was not passed due to the shortness of time and heated debate. The delegates did not want prayer of any kind to be suggestive of an endorsement of religion. Essentially, it did not pass and it did not fail. The delegates simply let it die. There was clearly a belief from Franklin that God governed the affairs of men. Franklin stated later that, aside from three or four men, most felt prayer to be unnecessary. In the end, two chaplains of different denominations were appointed, one for the House and one for the Senate, a tradition that continues to this day.

Until just before his death, Franklin continued to believe that Jesus left a remarkable system of morals and a new religion. Franklin believed that Jesus was probably the best that the world will ever know but he seemed appalled at the way man had twisted Jesus’ original teachings. He had doubts about the divinity of Christ but didn’t like to discuss it because he had not done enough research and study to make a proper conclusion.

He expressed this in a letter to a friend just before he died, adding, with his sly wit, that he suspected he would know soon enough the answer to Christ’s divinity.

Thomas Paine, James Madison and George Washington are also often described as deists. While Washington was nowhere near the deist Jefferson was, and he identified himself as a Christian, the examples from his life show us that he wasn’t particularly religious and leaned more towards deism than Christianity.

While more Americans claim to be Christian today, it is important to remember that America was founded with a belief that tolerance and respect were vital for the new nation to grow, regardless of what a person believed.  We no longer seem to believe that this is necessary.

Christmas is a holiday that celebrates a man who advocated tolerance and died because his views conflicted with the majority of people of his time. Many of founding fathers admired this man, even though some questioned his divinity.

If we could just remember this, we’d be able to forget the nonsense of a “war” against Christmas, end the idea that the United States was founded solely on Christian ideals, and enjoy the holidays as a peaceful time of family gatherings, reflection, and tolerance towards others.

Until I got married, I was only marginally interested in astronomy and the things that NASA were doing. However, I married an astronomy buff, which means that I automatically had to obtain more knowledge than the basics that I learned in college. Since that time, I have learned more about space than I had ever though I would.

We have watched the last few shuttle missions on TV and, since Time Warner doesn’t carry NASA TV, we watched the live feed from NASA TV online. Though many people find the shuttle take offs and landings to be a bit boring, I’ve found myself really getting into it and wanting to learn more. I’ve been fortunate enough to watch the shuttle missions with someone who is enthusiastic about the space program and who explains things to me without talking down to me.

When you learn the little things that make the shuttle work, it makes it even more interesting to someone who doesn’t know a lot about the science behind it. In high school and college, I only took the cursory classes that introduce you to astronomy. So, I never learned things like it takes about twenty minutes for the tiles to cool off after landing before anyone can even think about touching them or that the gases vented from the top, rear of the shuttle after landing are highly toxic, which is why the support vehicles have to wait until it’s safe to approach the shuttle.

If I had learned some more of these things, I probably would have been more interested in what NASA was doing, but the educational system of the United States doesn’t require much more than the basics. Even in the 1980s, my science teachers didn’t know much and they didn’t seem to care to know many more details than what the news reports told us. It was my high school social studies teacher who arranged to have the TV brought to our study hall so that we could see the Challenger take off. Yes, we all know how that ended but, the fact is, that she knew the importance of space exploration and she was able to answer most of our questions.

So, Discovery landed safely and I found myself shocked that more than two hours went by before I found myself starting to tire of seeing all things Discovery. This, however, had more to do with the fact that, about twenty minutes after landing, NASA TV showed about ten different angles of the shuttle landing. That was boring. Fortunately, just when I had enough of seeing yet another angle of the same damned thing, they returned to live shots.

I got to see the support vehicles and crew surrounding the shuttle, carefully inspecting it. I saw the crew leave the shuttle as well and I wasn’t bored. After nearly three and a half hours, NASA’s coverage ended and we went on with the rest of our evening.

The thing that struck me the most was that this sort of thing isn’t carried by the news. They show the shuttle landing and will occasionally show the crew exiting the shuttle but that’s about it. Most of the time, this isn’t even live.  It’s taped and just shown as a highlight during the news.

After watching Discovery, and Atlantis a few months ago, I began to understand why so many Americans just don’t care about NASA, the space program or the shuttle missions. We get so little information about what is happening and why that people are disinterested. If something doesn’t hold our attention for more than five minutes, then it must suck.

We’ve become so accustomed to the “give it to me now” attitude of America that we have lost the ability to appreciate the small details and subtle nuances that make the shuttle program what it is. It’s a shame too. If the news would cover a little bit more or give out some of the “well I’ll be damned” type of facts, Americans might just find themselves wanting to know what’s happening with NASA and how things are going. It’s wishful thinking, I know, but, just imagine what could happen if people actually stopped being self-involved for a few minutes and paid attention to what’s going on at NASA, they’d be amazed at the advancements the space program has achieved to make all of our lives better.

I found this photo yesterday on Flickr, taken by Gilles Gonthier.  It’s one my new favorites.  If you have the time, take a look at some more of his photos as they are very good and have amazing detail.