Sunday April 28, 2024 
Choice is the Key to Success
I read an article in a national weekly newspaper a while back that sought to define The Five Attributes of Successful Schools. The author stated that: “Students across the globe need effective schools. While the American school system as a whole may be falling behind international standards, there are still some schools that stand out. Sure, the context of schooling will impact attributes that contribute to effectiveness in specific schools. But at the same time, there are attributes that contribute to effectiveness across schooling contexts. If we understand the attributes of effectiveness, we can observe which attributes exist at successful schools.”
So the plan is to “find” what works in successful schools (as if truly smart people don’t already know) and then clone it, reproduce it and distribute it universally?
The problem with this mindset is that individual teachers and administrators are unique in what makes some greater and more effective than others. You cannot clone that. It’s this individuality itself that made American education great and you will never regain that without the respect for the individual that is lacking in the system today.
Forcing teachers to join a union and to conform to a single standard regards them as automatons. Is that not a disincentive to achievement? Doesn’t that restrict their potential? It certainly doesn’t encourage the diversity, innovation and dynamism that any industry requires to be more successful. It turns teachers and administrators into what can more accurately be described as “government program facilitators.”
Forcing students to attend the most proximate school, aka government run programming facility, is just as bad as forcing teachers to adhere to union standards. It’s pure Marxism. It has never lead to success anywhere and certainly has no place in a free society of unique individuals.
The free market is the only solution. School choice is the missing component in America’s education system today.
David Crawmer
Wynantskill
The Last Day
The old man sat in his rocker
Drinking coffee and looking out the window;
It was the last day.
He should be out there;
He had made a point of hunting on the last day
For the past several years.
This day was different:
He was now too old to hunt alone.
At least, that’s what his family told him.
But, his longtime partners
Were too old to hunt…had lost interest,
Or, were dead!
His hunting buddy for this season
Had been his seven-year old Grandson.
They got out as often as they could.
They hadn’t bagged a thing,
But the boy learned a lot,
And the old man relived many memories.
But, today, the boy had to attend a birthday party;
He and the old man would miss this last day.
But, hey….There’s always next year !!
Lloyd Barnhart
West Sand Lake