Drawing Conclusions
It often amazes me how people can look at the same data and draw wholly different conclusions. This is the miracle of the thought process and I’m forever fascinated by it.
Take NUVO for example, our weekly alternative freezine. They comment on a number of topics each week, usually major topics of the day and usually from their own extremely far Left point of view. It makes for good reading, I think, because it certainly shows you how the other side feels about issues of the day and occasionally even gives you an insight into why they feel the way they do.
Last week was a perfect example. NUVO has made no secret of its disfavor for conservative tampering with the beloved and woefully inefficient public school system. They will address that not enough is spent by the state on the local school system, IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools). They will also address that townships are unfairly compensated by IPS, but rarely will they comment on the fact that our former federal judge, S. Hugh Dillin, some years ago, “desegregated” Indianapolis schools and instituted a Byzantine busing system that sent kids from IPS to the townships. IPS was required to reimburse the townships for the extra expense, thus created a poor inner city school system and a burgeoning township system. The population quickly shifted to follow that course with those with the means moving out of the inner city with its higher taxes and failing schools to the townships.
Whose fault is this? It would seem greedy, heartless Republicans are if you read NUVO regularly. Whenever a Republican mayor or more recently governor has been in power, they have blamed them and not the tyrant of a federal judiciary that forced the system on Indianapolis and thus doomed it to the fate of many other major cities. One might say they were a bit blinded by their own hatred in that instance.
This last week, they carried that hatred for all things Republican and their own beliefs as to the failings of the public schools a little further. Their regular cartoon, Gadfly (although the one in question's a bit hard to find), showed kids getting medication to control them, security guards for the schools and a lack of studying the fundamentals in school (or the “three R’s” as they so nostalgically put it) and suffering a 50% dropout rate in high school. The fault of this horror bestowed upon our children? Why Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” plan and the new Republican governor Mitch Daniels are the obvious sources of all evil.
Never mind that the schools have been deteriorating steadily since the 70’s, that the greatest of the inner city schools suffered closures and then limited reopenings, that the bureaucracy of IPS has swelled as its teacher and student base have shrunk. It’s not budgetary mismanagement or an improper federal judiciary order. It’s the Republicans! Never mind that there is a national crisis in education that closely mimics Indianapolis’ problems. It’s mere coincidence. Under Democrats, there were no problems, at least none the Left was willing to admit needed anything more than more money.
Now, it may surprise those at NUVO and elsewhere to know that I agree with them on the existence of several of these problems. Kids are often overmedicated by parents who don’t have the time, energy or possibly inclination to raise them right. Maybe there’s just one parent working multiple jobs. Maybe the parents don’t care. Maybe they’re welfare kids. Whatever the reason, they’re growing up with problems that family or a church or someone with more moral legitimacy than a school should have to address. As a result, schools are trying to become social influences on the kids, drawing money and precious teaching time away from the “three R’s” of which NUVO waxes so eloquently.
I also agree that kids shouldn’t have to deal with metal detectors and security guards, but again, society has failed them. The Great Society was anything but and children are now paying for the government attempting to replace family and moral structure. It is in the neighborhoods, the churches, and the families that things must be built from scratch all over again to attempt to rectify this problem. Government and the schools have had 40 years to fail at this task and don’t deserve more time and money.
And then there’s ISTEP. Standardized testing is such the boogeyman for the Left. In fact, Gadfly and NUVO seem to think standardized testing is what’s causing teachers to fail at teaching kids enough to graduate. Maybe it’s the oversized bureaucracy, ridiculous lesson plans and lack of teaching the “three R’s” versus social engineering that are the cause of these kids’ problems in school regarding their dropout rate more than it’s the problem that we’ve had a Republican governor for a year or a Republican president for six. The problems certainly existed long before them, through eight years of a Democrat president and 16 years of Democrat governors. They existed before even them.
But obviously, if your point of view says it’s the Republicans’ fault, well at least it gives you some focus for your hate to keep you warm on those cold Indiana nights. I suppose it’s preferable to some to focus on winning the next election versus solving real problems. That at least appears to be a viewpoint that enjoys bipartisan support, yes?
It often amazes me how people can look at the same data and draw wholly different conclusions. This is the miracle of the thought process and I’m forever fascinated by it.
Take NUVO for example, our weekly alternative freezine. They comment on a number of topics each week, usually major topics of the day and usually from their own extremely far Left point of view. It makes for good reading, I think, because it certainly shows you how the other side feels about issues of the day and occasionally even gives you an insight into why they feel the way they do.
Last week was a perfect example. NUVO has made no secret of its disfavor for conservative tampering with the beloved and woefully inefficient public school system. They will address that not enough is spent by the state on the local school system, IPS (Indianapolis Public Schools). They will also address that townships are unfairly compensated by IPS, but rarely will they comment on the fact that our former federal judge, S. Hugh Dillin, some years ago, “desegregated” Indianapolis schools and instituted a Byzantine busing system that sent kids from IPS to the townships. IPS was required to reimburse the townships for the extra expense, thus created a poor inner city school system and a burgeoning township system. The population quickly shifted to follow that course with those with the means moving out of the inner city with its higher taxes and failing schools to the townships.
Whose fault is this? It would seem greedy, heartless Republicans are if you read NUVO regularly. Whenever a Republican mayor or more recently governor has been in power, they have blamed them and not the tyrant of a federal judiciary that forced the system on Indianapolis and thus doomed it to the fate of many other major cities. One might say they were a bit blinded by their own hatred in that instance.
This last week, they carried that hatred for all things Republican and their own beliefs as to the failings of the public schools a little further. Their regular cartoon, Gadfly (although the one in question's a bit hard to find), showed kids getting medication to control them, security guards for the schools and a lack of studying the fundamentals in school (or the “three R’s” as they so nostalgically put it) and suffering a 50% dropout rate in high school. The fault of this horror bestowed upon our children? Why Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” plan and the new Republican governor Mitch Daniels are the obvious sources of all evil.
Never mind that the schools have been deteriorating steadily since the 70’s, that the greatest of the inner city schools suffered closures and then limited reopenings, that the bureaucracy of IPS has swelled as its teacher and student base have shrunk. It’s not budgetary mismanagement or an improper federal judiciary order. It’s the Republicans! Never mind that there is a national crisis in education that closely mimics Indianapolis’ problems. It’s mere coincidence. Under Democrats, there were no problems, at least none the Left was willing to admit needed anything more than more money.
Now, it may surprise those at NUVO and elsewhere to know that I agree with them on the existence of several of these problems. Kids are often overmedicated by parents who don’t have the time, energy or possibly inclination to raise them right. Maybe there’s just one parent working multiple jobs. Maybe the parents don’t care. Maybe they’re welfare kids. Whatever the reason, they’re growing up with problems that family or a church or someone with more moral legitimacy than a school should have to address. As a result, schools are trying to become social influences on the kids, drawing money and precious teaching time away from the “three R’s” of which NUVO waxes so eloquently.
I also agree that kids shouldn’t have to deal with metal detectors and security guards, but again, society has failed them. The Great Society was anything but and children are now paying for the government attempting to replace family and moral structure. It is in the neighborhoods, the churches, and the families that things must be built from scratch all over again to attempt to rectify this problem. Government and the schools have had 40 years to fail at this task and don’t deserve more time and money.
And then there’s ISTEP. Standardized testing is such the boogeyman for the Left. In fact, Gadfly and NUVO seem to think standardized testing is what’s causing teachers to fail at teaching kids enough to graduate. Maybe it’s the oversized bureaucracy, ridiculous lesson plans and lack of teaching the “three R’s” versus social engineering that are the cause of these kids’ problems in school regarding their dropout rate more than it’s the problem that we’ve had a Republican governor for a year or a Republican president for six. The problems certainly existed long before them, through eight years of a Democrat president and 16 years of Democrat governors. They existed before even them.
But obviously, if your point of view says it’s the Republicans’ fault, well at least it gives you some focus for your hate to keep you warm on those cold Indiana nights. I suppose it’s preferable to some to focus on winning the next election versus solving real problems. That at least appears to be a viewpoint that enjoys bipartisan support, yes?
posted by Rob Beck | 6:15 AM
1 Comments:
Rob- You failed to include racism and white flight. I know, that flies in the face of the fact that well-to-do minorities also flee to the suburbs, but why let that get in the way of the accusatory talking points?
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