Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

This is the conclusion of a letter one of Josh Marshall’s readers sent to him.

Seeing the way the government is currently operating makes me think the most hardcore Libertarians have a point. Why have a government if this is how they’re going to spend their time?

The letter writer is referring to tonight’s debate and turmoil over the Republican proposal that was intended to mock Murtha. The letter writer has a good point to be sure. It reflects, in a way, my own confusion about why anybody would vote for a government, or be a part of a government, that subscribes to the Grover Norquist notion that all government is evil. Why bother? Get a tent a few hundred miles from nowhere and be happy already.

Another point is that the certain programs that have been implemented by the Bush administration, and a compliant Republican congress, are very real attempts to destroy the intuitions they are advertised to reform. A good example is No Child Left Behind. That program, as implemented by the Bush administration, seems to be intended to destroy public education. If it is not repealed or amended it will serve that purpose quite effectively.

I shouldn’t get into intent. It’s a tricky thing because there is nothing at all objective about it and bad intentions are easily denied while good intentions are easily impugned. Intent is only known to those who intend. Nevertheless, one can stare certain things square in the eye and get a feeling about what the true intentions were.

Listen to this; A veteran special education teacher, whose job is to teach middle school aged children with Down’s Syndrome and autism life skills, is required to pay $150 to take a test which measures comprehension and knowledge of everything from Shakespeare to Vonnegut to Fowles in order to become “highly qualified” and keep the job. Failing that, the special education teacher, who generally needs to have at least a masters degree in education to get the job, needs to go back to college and take literature classes that don’t relate in any way to teaching children with severe disabilities much of anything. Down’s Syndrome and Macbeth don’t really gel. Given that the child in question will never read Macbeth, but really needs to be taught how to identify a fire exit. Different skill sets, to be sure.

If you scoff at the price of the tests (more than one if a teacher teaches multiple subjects ), or the price of putting yourself through several college courses, you probably get paid quite a bit more than the average public school teacher (even the ones with the PhD’s).

I’m not a tinfoil hat kind of guy so I won’t talk about intent, but I will say that No Child Left Behind will destroy public education and I do think there is some intent. Just that simple. I mention special education, but the problems stretch from the very low functioning to the brilliant. Sadly, everybody fights.

Back to the start of this mess - I wish I could write and reason as well as some of my favorite blogger’s readers. Ug. I don’t even have to agree to feel it.

Enough for now, I’m getting sleepy, drunk and even more stupid than normal. TaTa.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 19th, 2005 at 3:07 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.