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THE INSIDE HISTORY OF THE
ISRAEL LOBBY
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Council and the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans. For all who want a
true measure of the Lobby's power, the Christisons' 8-page dossier,
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Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm
signed into law "what's called one of the nation's strictest
public school curriculums" on April 20, 2006, claiming it
would "help Michigan's economic revival". While it
should obviously be patently absurd to link high school curriculum
to the economic recovery of a thoroughly depressed state like
Michigan, this action serves Governor Granholm quite well as
she seeks re-election this year. It creates the illusion that
poor high-school education is a key part of Michigan's economic
problems, as well as the illusion that her action will correct
the problem. The reality is that she is running for re-election
on the backs of a demonized minority, youth, just as her political
role model Bill Clinton did in 1996, with his welfare reforms
that screwed the country's poor.
The educational bias in the new education guidelines for Michigan
should be obvious by the new high-school graduation requirements
that have "no opt outs": four years of English, three
years of math, three years of science, and two years of foreign
language. The Social Studies, Phys Ed and Arts requirements all
have "opt out" clauses. The bias against educating
youth in history, civic government, humanities, creative arts,
and physical activities isn't anything new, as the emphasis on
standardized testing in K-12 education has clearly illustrated.
What the new Michigan high school graduation requirements do
is force all students onto the college prep track, whether they
like it or not.
We can't provide decent jobs for most of our college/university
graduates as it is (much less those with higher degrees), and
yet we are mandating that this is the only possible track for
high-school education for youth. As it stands, way less than
half of U.S. high-school graduates go on to higher education,
for any number of reasons, but future youth in Michigan are being
forced into preparing for it, and our schools are going to be
held responsible for making this fantasy a reality. It works
as politics, but it's a recipe for disaster in the real world
for youth and teachers.
That's not to say that the prep school model is awful. I met
these requirements myself in high school, as did an overwhelming
majority of the students I teach at Aquinas College in Grand
Rapids and at Michigan State University. The problem lies in
applying it to all high-school students, regardless of their
future educational plans. This is the meat-grinder approach to
education envisioned by Roger Waters in Pink Floyd's The Wall,
in the song Another Brick in the Wall (see the movie rendition
for further illustration). This is the realization of a long-term
goal to force all youth through the same experiences that was
a key impetus behind making high-school ( education mandatory
for all youth in 1935 (see for example Thomas Hine's The
Rise and Fall of the American Teenager).
Ask any junior high or high school teacher about these new graduation
requirements, and they will tell you the obvious (devoid of
political spin): more students will flunk out of high school
before graduation. As it stands, a significant percentage of
high school students flunk out before graduation. Why in the
world do we want to increase this percentage by leaps and bounds?
Consider a recent Chicago Tribune lead article whose title
put it succinctly, "Of 100 Chicago Public School Freshmen,
Six will Get a College Degree." Obviously Chicago isn't
in Michigan, but the message applies just as well to the equally
troubled Detroit school system, among others. So our answer is
to force all kids onto the prep school track. Even if the percentage
of college grads increases by 100 per cent, a fantasy for sure,
is it worth denying two or three times as many students (or more)
access to a high school diploma, a basic requisite for any decent
job?
This problem reaches far beyond the urban areas we've obviously
decided to starve in terms of investment resources. Many districts
on the edge of cities as well as small towns across the state
will see a similar rise in students flunking out. Allegedly this
problem will be accounted for, by "phasing in" the
requirements, in the year 2011. It starts with today's 8th graders,
in other words. As if we can make them all prep schoolers in
five years, as if by next year we can have them ready to pass
math courses through geometry and algebra-2 by then (stated requirements),
among the other requirements. What are the Michigan governor
and the legislature smoking?
What we need to do is to get youth interested in their own education,
to make them care about what they are doing in the K-12 experience.
Yet we are clearly moving in the opposite direction. Governor
Granholm claims this strict model will better prepare students
by giving them the tools to be productive workers. At the same
time, high-school programs that offer "hands on experiences"
are being shut down as funding is redirected, like wood shop,
metal shop, auto shop, etc. So book learnin' and testing for
all trump actually doing something concrete and learning practical
skills for all students.
We have mandated constant testing, which forces educators to
teach to the stupid tests (again, ask any jr. high/high school
teacher), and now are mandating strict curriculum requirements
that we know can't be met. At the same time, we are cutting educational
investment in the arts and extra-curricular activities, the things
that actually keep youth interested in their own education. Outside
observers would conclude that we want youth to fail in their
education. And you know what? They'd be absolutely correct!
Why are we setting youth up to fail? Put another way, why would
a Democrat governor of Michigan sign on to this agenda? Because
it looks as though we're doing something to help youth, even
though we're actually screwing them. As our corporate-profit
dominated economy produces fewer and fewer decent occupational
opportunities, as is obviously happening (Michigan: #1 in the
U.S.A. in lost median income over the last 10 years), we must
reinforce the illusion of meritocracy that decent opportunities
only are afforded to those that deserve them. Simply put, the
undeserving (those that can't meet the prep school requirements)
will have earned their sorry fate, as service workers, military
sacrificial lambs, or prison residents. As opportunities become
further stratified, we must justify harsh treatment of those
with none.
Take it a step further, and you can clearly see social scapegoat
being created here: public school teachers. We are mandating
the impossible for them to achieve in their task. We have already
decreed that they must teach to ridiculous standardized tests,
which illustrate nothing substantive (but look like real results
because, after all, they are numbers, which don't lie, right?).
Now we expect achievement results, as if teachers can magically
make students care about their least favorite courses. Guess
who will be held up to public ridicule for rising drop-out rates?
Not the legislative idiots who came up with the harsh requirements,
not the governor running for re-election who signed it into law.
Nope. It'll be those lousy public school teachers. And the unions
that protect them yeah, those damn teacher unions!
So now comes Michigan Governor Granholm, signing this absurd
high-school requirements bill into law. Like Bill Clinton, with
his welfare reform act of 1996, she's trashing a captive audience.
After all, is it likely the teachers' unions will support Amway
heir Dick DeVos. It's what Clinton did with people who believed
in a social safety net but swallowed his destruction of welfare
and any social safety net. Even worse, she's selling out future
youth, just as Clinton sold out future poor folks who might need
help. At least we'll have more reason to blame the poor for their
own poverty, while congratulating ourselves on our own success.
Hooray!
Raymond Garcia teaches Sociology courses at Aquinas College,
Grand Rapids, MI, and Michigan State U. He can be reached at
garciara@msu.edu
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