Privatizing Public Education

Since the mid 1800s, the government has stepped up its role in education. States government started funding for education because the reformers believed that education should not be reserved to the riches. Public education has given millions of students a chance to learn and to have better life in the future, and many did take advantage of such system and bettered their well-being. However, public education is getting worse and worse. Our standard now is lower than that of twenty-years ago. The politicians, who know this problem for long, have done little to solve it. The new No Child Left Behind program does not seem to do the job as well. Public Education has proved its worth already, and it is time for it to go....

I am one of the beneficiaries of American public system. I take the hardest classes, try my best, and succeed. I am now going to a good college. However, not only does the school have to offer such hard classes, it also has to have students like me to sign up for the classes. The majority of kids isn't taking such advantage.

My school has three levels of classes - GT/AP, Honors, and Standard. What ends up happening is that a hierarchy is created, with the most students taking Standard classes and the least students taking GT/AP classes. The GT kids, as they are called, are motivated and eager to succeed. The Standards kids are lazy, and unwilling to try.

We also have to question what we learn in school. In my Honors English class, we have very few work. I honestly say that I have not done 10 homework seriously because there is no accountability. Writing is not valued. I haven't written 10 serious essays in these three quarters. Reading is not that important either. I also confess I haven't read a lot. If Honors is like this, what would Standard be like?

Let's talk about math. I am lucky that I am in Calculus. Not only have I gotten the best math education in the school, I also can earn college credits. However, because the graduation requirement level is pathetic (Algebra1,2 and Geometry), many students stop after taking three math classes. Math is an integral part of thinking. It trains our reasoning and logic skill. If students are not taking math, they will lack such skills.

The government has tried pumping in money to the system. Better schools are built; there are more equipments. However, the students aren't getting any better. It is time for the government to loosen up the "monopoly."

I have a tentative plan for privatizing education. I do not suggest that the government totally privatizes education, but I suggest giving private organizations control of some schools we have now (since we have the building already). That is how i want to start.

The privatized schools (I use "privatized" because they are newly privatized schools. they are different from the private schools that have been around for years.) compete for funding on a merit-based standard. If the school overall achieves (like meeting a certain standard), the government awards the school funding which it can use freely in promoting its standard more. Of course, the school does not function solely based on the award. There is where I propse a grant/scholarship system for the students to motivate them to succeed.

Because there are still public schools around, the students can choose to go to a privatized schools or stay. When they decide to try the new school, the government gives the family the necessary funding needed for the first few years. After that, the grant begins to work as a scholarship which students have to work hard to earn it (The first few years are time for them to get acquainted with the school). If the students are not doing well one year, the government cuts back some of the funding (punishment). If the students are not doing well consistently, their funding is gone, and the parents have to pay the education themselves.

The parents, in this plan, should have considerable latitude in choosing the schools. Also, because there is money involved (grant), the parents can motivate the kids to care more about their education. Part of the problem with our current education system is that parents don't much participate in their kids' education. They expect the school to take all the responsibility of the kids' failure. This is a wrong concept.

Question comes, how to define doing well for individual students? I believe that the schools can make up their own curriculum and set up the standards themselves.

How can the schools get the awards? I think in this section the government sets up the rules. However, the award money should not be too much that every school covets. It should be more like an intrinsic goal for the schools to achieve (the honors) rather than an extrinsic goal (actually getting the money).

Also, if the school doesn't get the award and it is in financial difficulty, the government should have money ready to give out to the school. The award system is not to punish the schools financially, I repeat.

After talking about the plan, I would like to talk about its current disadvantages. Many non-believers would not like the idea because most of the time, they argue, the schools would be controlled by parochial or religious organizations, and it violates the principle, or rather, the tradition, of seperation of church and state. Well, I do not intend that they will end up being parochial. However, every demoniation of Christianity or any religious or social group has the right to operate the schools. Therefore, the schools are not reserved for the Catholic Church only.

Another problem is that my plan might force the students to work hard. It is stressful for the students. Well, life is not easy. Those students can still go to public schools where they are not subjected to any academic evaluation. However, I think that education is important. And to get a good one, I believe everyone shold put in personal time and motivation. They may be very stressed, but in the long run, it is going to pay off. It is better than going to school and learn absolutely nothing for years.

This plan is very tentative, and I sometimes think that it is just a dream or a fantasy... Anyone who reads this should give me some comment. I really want to have some feedback on this one

Welfare

The Republicans always accuse the Democrats of creating an irresponsible welfare system that benefits those who do not deserve it, and they advocate destroying welfare. It may be true that there are many people who abuse the system. However, it is too radical to abolish such a system. All the system needs is a certain degree of regulation, since many people do benefit from welfare, and they are not abusing the system.

To abuse it, the system has to present the beneficiaries loopholes. The main argument that conservatives have is that many people keep getting benefit, and what they get through welfare is higher than what they would have made if they had a job. Therefore, they give up upgrading themselves and seeking jobs, and they become a drag for the country.

To solve this problem, we have to know the goal of welfare. For many, the goal is to assist people who are presently disadvantaged and to hope that, with welfare, they eventually can live on their own again. If that's the goal of welfare, then I can honestly say that the system fails. Every government system or sub-system should be checked, to guarrantee that it is meeting the goal. Welfare system does not have checks currently. Why don't we install one? We need an agency to check on the progress of every welfare recipient, ideally. We have to make sure that everyone of them is making progress toward upgrading himself/herself or getting a job. If a person has been getting welfare for a long time and he is not working toward improving his marketability, he should be punished through reduction of benefit. If he has actually acquired a job, we can also reduce benefit so that he will not grow dependent on welfare.

Of course, when evaluating their progress, the officials have to take their personal hardship into account. Some, especially single mothers, have kids to take care. Some, such as elderly, are less marketable. If the officials encounter such people, they have to be more relaxed. Again, we want to make welfare helpful and accessible to those who need it.

There are also a kind of people who give all of what they have to their sons and daughters then apply for welfare afterward. To prevent this from happening, when evaluating the applicants' need, the officials have to take what their sons' and daughters' assets. Ethically, a son or a daughter is responsible for his/her parents. Therefore, we can't let them "off the hook."

Welfare is not something that is harmful to the society, at least it is not what its creators hoped for. If a system is not broke, don't replace or abolish it. Fix it.

appearance

A week ago I went to see Fantastic 4 with my friends. When I expected this to be another cartoon-turn-moive, I think it is one of a few good ones that come out. One event in the movie especially caught my attention.

For those who have seen the moive, you can probably skip this part; for those who haven't, i shall begin. The big bald guy Ben has a good relation with his wife before going to space for a mission. After the failure to detect a seculiar space storm, everyone's, including Ben's, gene is altered. While one member can bend like a rubber and another one can heat up to Sun's temperature, Ben's face is totally disfigured. He does not look like a human anymore. He looked like that dude from Hulk, escept that he is not that big and not green. While he hopes that his wife will accept his disfigured physicsque, his wife confirms his worst fear, leaving him in disappointment and terror. comic stories always have good ending. eventually, Ben finds a blind woman who can't see him to love him.

While the moive conveys more happiness than sadiness. that particular plot conveys one of the saddest events in life, that people judge others by their appearance. Are people that superficial? When asked, "how would you choose your friend?" many people say, "based on their personality." But am i having some eye problems, or are people hypocritical. Why are pretty people hang out mostly with pretty people? Where are there teen moives based on the idea of a group of less pretty girls against a group of more popular and pretty girls. If people don't like to see that kind of moives, those movies would not have existed in the first place. Moives may not be accurate, but it sometimes reflects stereotypes of the society. American Pie 1-2 reflects the stereotypes that teenages guys yearn for sex and try to be competitive (at the second one, the guys try to compare the amount of times they have sex during first year of college.)

There are also statistics that say that socially agreed pretty/handsome people make more money, and take a look at our presidents. most of our recent presidents have hair and are at least 6 feet tall. our last bald president is Eisenhower, whose presidency was from 1953-61. why? With the advancement of technology, people could actually see the president, via newspaper or TV. they judged the presidents through his appearance and public image. Kennedy, a very "hot" guy; Clinton, another "hot" guy. What have Kennedy done, his presidency was less than 1000 days and he did not improve US-Soviet Relation or US racial begotry. He is famous b/c he died young. Clinton was lucky enough b/c by the time he ran for reelection the economy started booming. they both have good look, and they both did not aciheve anything specific.

we have to think about if appearance is that important. appearance is deceiving, and many of us buy into it. which is a sign of ignorance. I hope one day people don't care about people's appearance when they befriend each other. caring about appearance is just a way of creating begotry and unhappiness

terrorism and what we should do about it

A week ago, the world was shocked again when the london subway blasted into pieces. The country whose flag once never set was strucken by terrorists. Does terrorism ever end? Will we ever eliminate terrorism? no. Terrorism has always been around. even "we" Christians, not just Muslims, had/have terrorized people of other religions, ethnicities. This is just a mere cycle. Now, the Muslims unleash their vengence through terrorism. To trace their hatred toward us nowaday, we have to go back to Medival time...

Islam in essence is never a violent religion. There are also passages in the Koran urging non-aggression toward Jews and Christians. However, politics and human greed intervenes. Muslim terrority expanded, and Christians, definitely, tried to prevent Muslims from ever expanding. The Pope ordered the Crusade. Then tens of thousands of people died. The seed of hatred was planted.

Eventually, Muslims went all the way to the Balkans. then a few centuries passed away. Christians, who had acquired better technology, started to push the Muslims from the Balkans and Africa back to Middle East. The Christians started colonizing the Muslims.... hatred continued.

After World War II, after the Christians from Europe retreated, one new Christian country came in. This is us, the Americans. We went in for Muslims' black gold. yes, the black gold that powers our SUV and our wasteful way of life. Though we the Americans never used military force to extract their resource, we used political and economic means to force them signed contracts with us. While some Muslim countries benefitted. Some didn't, and those who didn't benefit from us instead incited their people to hate us. They accused western way of life while they yearned for having one themselves. Then since they didn't have it, they want us not to have it too. Therefore, they bomb us....

Humans are always involved in competitions for resources. since the U.S. keeps most of the world's resources (yes, money is a form of resource), no wonder some of the world hate us. some yearn for making good relation with the U.S., but some, instead, try to destroy our way of life... the ultimate problem lies in economics, the lack of resources. If we can try to share our resources, this may not a terrible way to solve the problem.

However, we instead invest heavily on military. we build precision missles and stealth bombers so we can "destroy" them more effectively. Can we destroy hatred, or terrorism effectively? probably not. Why don't we try to open diplomatic bridges with them? Because we are arrogant. We think that through force we can conquer them. Yes, we can, but not for a long time. Physics says, "for every action, there is a reaction." If we bomb them, they bomb us back. And it continues for eternity.

Having a friend is always better than having an enemy. I think it is time that we start learning their way of life so we can communicate and resolve our differences, not just learning how to bomb them more effectively..

Physics Book

Woohoo, I am going to college. No more waking early everyday and seven-hour schedule. It also means that I have bigger challenges ahead of me. To make matter worse, I signed up for Calculus-based Physics at orientation.

To alleviate my worry, I went to the public library yesterday in search for a book, a college calc-based physics book. The library is not very big, but not especially small, so finding a book should not be a challenge. I was at the science section and found and found. Do you know what I found, nothing? Frustrated, I took a non-calculus-based physics book home, whose material I have seen multiple times already.

It is a disgrace. Libraries should contain much of the information we need, but there are always something math or science that I cannot find. One time, I was trying to borrow a Linear Algebra book (for my interest) but went home empty. Why is it like that? Does it mean math or science should be neglected? NO, A BIG NO.

We have heard talks about importing scientists and engineers from other countries or exporting engineering and scientific endeavor to other countries. I have always wondered, "Why don't we train our own people?" There are plenty of teenagers out there. If the authority (in this case, school, the government, even parents) provides enough support and encouragement, more teenagers would find math and science interesting and may pursue a career in math and science.

Why doesn't the authority do it? because every part of the soceity tries to push the responsbility to another? Parents don't want to help with their kids' homework and expect the school can take care of their kids. The kids are only under the school's control for eight hours, at most. And normally, kids don't tell their problem to figures like teachers and don't seek help when they need it. School can only push the responsbility to the parent, or the government. For example, the schools and teachers want funding for after-school help. However, the government, alreay in lack of money, pushes the responsbility back to the parents and schools. Kids are just a big volleyball in a brutal game.

Maybe I should give the government a bit more credit, such as its effort to make reform like "the no child left behind." Nope, I decide not to give it any more credit than it deserves. That act only benefits the politicans (bush it is), not the students. Every year, the government reports progress. How to report progress? simple, you lower the standard so students can score higher. Therefore, we have ten-graders taking simple Geometry test and Biology test.

I am just trying to acknowledge the existing problem. If someone wants to offer a solution, please. As far as my frustration goes, it hasn't stopped yet. Today I am at a local community college bookstore to continue the search for a calc-based physics book. (I am taking a speech class at this community college) What did I find? Nothing again. I guess my frustration will continue till I see there is one at a public library or a community college bookstore.

Friendly's and Capitalism

Friendly's is quite a popular place in my town which attracts many customers every weakend (and attracts a lot of tips for my waiters and wattresses friends). A while ago, Friendly's has increased its price on many items. While more and more customers notice the change, the time per customer increases. "why is the price like this?" "the icecream used be $1.50. why is it $2.00 now?" I have to explain the new price from time to time. Some customers are okay with the change; some customers aren't, and they yell and demand to talk to the manager. Sometimes, I really don't know what to say. I don't control the price, the corporate heads do.

While the price increased, I have imagined to have a bigger paycheck (I only make $6.10 an hr). Well, i am wrong. My playcheck is a bit bigger, not because my wage increased but because I work more during summer. I have always thought that my wage is unfair. and now, with the increased price for basically every food in the restaurant, I am enraged.

Corporates never think about the welfare of their customers and workers. While i make a pretty low pay, many make pretty low pay too. A chef who has been working at friendly's for 4 years gets paid $7.60 an hour. They make all the profit while the workers suffer

Corportates also do not think about the welfare of their customers. friendly's (at least the one i work in ) is extreme dirty. when i walk into the store, I can instantly smell a strong fragance. Then when I walk to the kitchen and the storage room, There are flies everywhere. The washing machines does not clean the glasses well so I have to have them re-washed again. The floor is greasy. If one is not careful enough one will slide as if he is skiting. My friend one time got the food that was already served to another customer (according to my friend, that customer touched it already). He complained, with no result.

Last but not least, the corporates increase price arbituarily. A banana split costs more than 6 dollars. A dip of ice-cream costs more than 2 dollars. While much of the food is dirty, it costs more than 8 dollars a meal.....Think about it, do you want to pay?

As a worker, I try to do my best to keep the ice-cream I make clean, but i can't guarantee it is the same case for everyone. Also, I sometimes think that why I have to keep it clean since I am paid lowly anyway. But then, they are just glimpses of thoughts. I never intentionally make the ice-cream dirty. I hate the corporates for charging people unfair price; i hate the corporates for taking advantage of the workers; and I hate the corporates for not caring the customers. It does not have to be that way. Business can be brutal, but it can also be gentle, espeically when it is food industry.

P.S. To make more money, I put a tip cap by the front window. and yesterday, on 7/4, I made about 5 dollars. It is pretty pathetic, but I am a lowly paid worker.