davewalker.org Blog

Canadians come to America to escape socialized medicine; not a new story. Now, here’s a twist – Americans going to Mexico to escape socialized medicine. Here’s a snippet, but do go read the whole thing:

There was nothing second rate about the care I received. I got prompt care directly from the dentist. It was accurate, pain-free and effective and it cost a fraction of what I was paying at home. Even with my flight the total cost was about half what I would have paid at home. So even the cost were relatively pain free. The most painful part of the experience was dealing with the travel Nazis at the airport and waiting in line with thousands of people trying to get permission to re-enter my own country on my way back to the airport.

Of course you can seek treatment in the United States if you wish. Or you can take a medical vacation in Mexico. What you’d save, depending on what needs to be done, can pay for the trip and still put extra money in your pocket. Of course, if you have third party payment for your care you may not worry about the costs — and that’s one of the reasons that medical care in the U.S. is so expensive.

This story is simultaneously stunning, funny, sad, and enraging. Where is Michael Moore when you really need him?

I know this sounds terribly counter-intuitive, but I’m against compulsory education.

In fact I’ll go a step further, and posit that compulsory education is one of the key flaws that is ruining our educational system.

For starters, the very idea that you should have to compel someone to get an education is irrational. The idea that there is some danger that vast numbers of parents will decide they that don’t want their children to be educated is equally so. If their is one constant in human history, it is the desire of people to learn. If their is one constant in American culture, it is that people want their children to be educated.

Yet, despite these undeniable truths, our public schools are filled with an significant number of young people who show no desire to take part in the educational activities they are presented with on a daily basis. These children, being children, are almost sure to become bored, and when bored, disruptive. It’s just a child’s nature to be that way.

Ask any public school teacher you know, and they will tell you one of the top problems they have is the sheer number of disruptive students, over whom they have little to no control. It is impossible to educate a class of 25 children if two or three of those children are acting out and interrupting class.

Not difficult . . . impossible.

So, how do we go from a Universally acknowledged human characteristic like the unquenchable thirst for knowledge, all the way to kids who have no desire to pay attention in school who ruin things for everybody?

Really, how did we ever manage to turn education into something that is intolerable and burdensome to so many children?

First off, we’ve turned education into a right, instead of a privilege. This inherently changes the dynamic of going to school. Instead of education being something to aspire to, it is now seen as something to survive. Even for good students, school isn’t, normally speaking, the joyous experience it should be. It is rather a 12 year bootcamp that must be endured to get to all the ‘good stuff’ life has to offer, like college, a job, marriage, etc.

Well, sure, you would have to make something like that compulsory, wouldn’t you?

So I propose a two-pronged solution: First, a complete and thorough re-thinking of why and how we educate children. Probably the first thing we should examine is why we would ever in our right minds leave such a vital task in the hands of a government monopoly. A few moments reflection will leave most sensible people with the realization that this is nothing short of insane. If you need any proof at all, find out where the huge majority of top-level government officials send their children to school.

Washington DC Public schools? Not a chance. They go outside the monopoly, as only the elite can do, and send their children to places like Sidwell Friends School (Chelsea Clinton went there when she lived in the White House ,yet her parents are against school choice. Hmm….)

The second prong is to make education a privilege again. If we insist on making education public, then let the ‘public’ part end with providing the funds for education, not the education itself. Apart from that, don’t make it compulsory. Let parents and children decide when, where, and if they want to go to school. Do you honestly think there are many people who won’t jump at the chance to put their kids in school, rather than have them stay at home playing Nintendo? Do you really think there are any kids at all who won’t want to get an education, once we’ve abolished the ‘one size fits all’ model of traditional public schools?

I never met a student, in all my years of teaching, who really and truly didn’t want to learn. But I met many who just aren’t meant for the traditional classroom, with desks, and pencils, and no talking, and scantron tests. It’s a crime to make kids like that suffer through our public school system. Those kids aren’t’ stupid, and they’re not troublemakers. They’ve merely been betrayed by the system.

I’ve taught in plenty of classrooms where “those kids” made trouble. I know for a fact they’re smart, yet bored. They are ill-served by the schools they’re forced to attend, and until they are treated like individuals and not serial numbers, they’ll keep acting up and keep driving teachers crazy. But that won’t do anybody a bit of good.

Let’s explore different types of schooling, and serve all the kids out there, instead of only some. Then we’ll find that the idea of compulsory education was never needed in the first place.

Congratulations to Bobby Cox, manager of the Atlanta Braves, for breaking the all-time Major-League record for getting thrown out of games. Last night’s ejection during the 5th inning of the Braves-Giants game was the 132nd of his career, breaking the record held by great John McGraw since 1932.

It’s a dubious distinction, at best, of course, but there is also a method to Mr. Cox’s madness. Getting run from a game is a psychological ploy by a manager. Not only does it often take the heat off of his own player (who is likely very near to getting the heave-ho himself), it also tends to fire up the rest of the team. For example, after the record-breaking ejection last night, the Braves went on to score four runs in the sixth inning on their way to a come-from-behind 5-4 victory.

John McGraw would be proud.

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