GOP senator introduces bill to eliminate US Department of Education

[Marthe48]

39. Too bad for students

I attended a suburban Cleveland school district that was almost all white. There were 2 Japanese students, sisters from the same family. Anyway, I remember that before there was an attempt to standardize education so Johnny in California and Mary in Alabama and Derek in Nebraska all learned the same information, kids who moved into our school system from somewhere else often struggled to catch up, or change their idioms. And even if they were a little better educated, they weren't spared learning the pecking order. In the 50s and 60s, a lot of poor whites moved North to get jobs at Good Year, steel mills and so on. In hindsight, it was probably like another planet. I remember my 6th grade teacher doing a short lesson on pronunciation. She mentioned it was creek, not crick. I had never heard anyone say crick before, and I was fascinated. I think the lesson was probably kindness from the principal, one that the other teachers shared with their classes. The kids in my class were long time students and I doubt any of them ever said crick, either.
Americans still do a lot of moving around. The lifetime average is currently 11 times. Can you you imagine the disruption when rwnj dismantle public education and reduces it to the whims of local fiefdoms? I bet the reasoning behind dismantling a national standard of education is to disenfranchise any minorities, any religions, and any person on the gender spectrum that is not exactly the stereotype of white evangelical Americans.
As much as people move, their kids are going to be exposed to differences, the hard way. Kids going into the military are going to have a rough time adapting to the structure of military life and learning about the variety of humans who join up. It is a 2 way street, for sure. I remember getting to know a farm family who lived in S.E. Ohio. I loved them dearly and stayed with them once for a week. As time went on, I realized that their education was different than mine. It didn't make them stupid, but they were definitely locked into being farmers and living the life of farmers. One of their cousins moved north and the local family was in awe of the change in status.
I'm sure we all remember the sitcoms of the 60s-Beverly Hillbilly, Green Acres, Petticoat Junction, and how the characters were stereotyped, either as snobby urban dwellers or naive country folk. Modern education changed that dynamic, and I think were working on nuances--getting kids to meet and acknowledge other colors, other religions, other sexuality, really a whole world of variety, way more complex than city slicker and country bumpkin. The rwnj will take us back to a land of stereotypes and no one will benefit. Another giant leap backward.