Education, a Hidden Objective?

Education, a Hidden Objective?

            A history forgotten always repeats itself.  It is the opinion of several smart and educated men such as John Taylor Gatto and H. L. Mencken, that the public education system is not designed “to make good citizens, people and people their best” as it claims.  Instead, they believe that the schooling system is geared toward generating convenient citizens rather than individual thinkers.  This model follows that of a Prussian society, where the education system is engineered to stow away the populace at a manageable level of intellect.  While our society may not be the extreme of Prussia, it does share similar qualities.  For instance, almost all public schools denounce the existence of God.  They aim at removing any kind of moral authority while under the guise of promoting tolerance.  They do this by eliminating any essence of deistic knowledge such as a creation theory.  Christians need to take a stand against this or history will repeat itself.  During the reign of Hitler, the German schooling took the same approach.  A society which has no moral authority is easier to manipulate.  So the question is this, is our educational system here in America political? Is it for the people’s benefit? Could it be that the lack of educational quality is due to a shortage of funding?  These are all questions which need to be posed to discover the cause.  Clearly the answer is more complex than it would seem.  I believe that a major issue is that the society in America is plagued with social discrimination in schools.  People who have little money are forced to attend schools which are not funded as well as other richer schools.  The problem with schooling is due to the social barriers of money, and also the increase of political influence in schools.

Solutions to a New Problem

                Transgender is becoming a more common phrase in the United States today.  Being transgender means being one sex, yet having many of the feelings and desires which pertain to the other.  This week in class we observed a little boy named Brandon who was born with these traits.  Ever since he was a little boy, he believed that God had made a mistake in making him a boy.  He expressed this by playing with girls toys and wearing his mother’s clothes.  As his mother became more and more worried about Brandon’s situation, began to look for more information about her child’s ailment.   She looked at many different sources, but after watching an episode of 20/20 she discovered that she was far from alone.  In fact many people in America were having this issue.  Of all the parents who were having this issue there were several different responses.  Some of the parents were considering therapy to help the child cope with the mental illness.  Others took a more accepting approach to the situation and proposed that the children should be allowed to become whatever gender they decide.  Upon puberty, the latter parents would provide the children with hormone blockers.  The blockers would stop the natural changes that happen during puberty, and keep them from happening.  Many parents see the issue as purely physical difference, and get the hormone blockers while others see it as a mental illness and want to receive treatment.

                Hormone blockers should not be allowed unless the person’s life or health is seriously in danger.  God does not make mistakes.  Although some may see their situation as something that is bad, there are things that are obviously unnatural.  The world today is broken, and many things in it are malformed and contorted because of sin.  No human solution such as hormone blockers is going to fix the issue.  Only Jesus Christ can affect people for their good.  There is no hope in anything, or anyone else.

The Problem, The Solution

This week our composition class explored the missing class in an essay by Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen called "from the missing class."  They explore an aspect of American economy that is seldom discussed.  The missing class in America is defined as people who work and are just above the poverty line.  They work, support their family and are hardly able to support their family.  Yet despite their situation, they receive no benefits because they are technically above the poverty line.  Take for example Valerie Rushing.  She works on a train to support her family.  She generates 13.68 dollars an hour with full benefits to take care of her niece and daughter.  With her situation, it would be extremely beneficial for her to receive some aid to care for her children as a single parent of two.  There ought to be some sort of government assistance for single parents who are above the poverty line.  It is difficult to decide who deserves actual assistance and who is just being lazy, but there needs to be more help for people like Valerie Rushing.  Some would argue that this help should come from the more wealthy people, but I disagree.

Sharing the wealth is a popular concept among people who hold socialistic beliefs.  While the concept is moral, and has tendencies which would benefit society as a whole, it would only be feasible in a perfect world.  People like Valerie Rushing would benefit from a socialistic society, but in a capitalist nation, this would be extremely unwise.  The government should not be a part of the solution. Many of people’s issues need individual care, which a government cannot supply.  Church of Jesus Christ is ideal for this.  People within the church should be on the front of the movement to help people who are struggling through life.  It is our call as Christians to help the widow and orphan.