In response to a post this morning:
| Why is it that most people don’t understand basic civics? They think the majority should always win. That’s not what our Founding Fathers envisioned when they created our great society. If the majority always won, we wouldn’t need the Supreme Court, the rights of the minority would never be protected, Civil Rights legislation would never have passed, we would still have Jim Crow laws, and most likely we would be in a state of turmoil much like what is happening in Egypt and other countries in the world.Our country is not about 51%, On this 4th of July it is appropriate to quote our Declaration of Independence , “Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes;” If Former State Senator Gloria Romero of California wants credit for this un-American legislation, fine I can live with that. To paraphrase from the Declaration, On this Independence Day it’s time to declare that our public education system will no longer be subjected to a long train of abuses and usurpations, under a design to reduce it under absolute Despotism, it is our right, it is our duty, to throw off such forces, and to provide new Guards for future security of our schools! |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Thank you for this fine comment. Jefferson’s wisdom makes me ache a little.
This, too, from Canto XXII of Dante’s Purgatorio (Mandelbaum’s translation):
Indeed, because true causes are concealed,
we often face deceptive reasoning
and things provoke perplexity in us.
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Once again we see the short-term and long-term effects of the continual cutting at our public schools in order to feed the monster of corporate education. As we celebrate our country’s independence, I also find I am mourning the loss of teaching civics to our young people and how that has reduced us to ranting instead of discussion, and polarization instead of compromise. When so few understand the role of government and how it works (current legislators definitely included) how can we and the next generation possibly hope to continue and build the brilliant work that created our nation? We have not only stopped trying to be an enlightened society, but the constant dumbing-down of public education is ensuring that we will be left with no choice but to hand over the education of our next generation to the corporate world. I am hopeful that more and more are seeing that government and business are two very different things and serve two very different purposes. And the goal of education should not be to return on shareholder value, but to give each and every child a chance to become a contributing member of society. I’m will not stand by and see our nation become the United States of America, Inc.
Keep up the good fight Diane! I joined our school board to be part of the solution, not the problem!
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Majority may win but minorities have rights. That is why America is unique. The founding parents were right in protecting the rights of “all men” even giving certain colonies and towns over to Catholics and Jews to preserve freedom of religion. States rights also do not trump human rights. That is why we have a representational democracy or a republic. We don’t vote on human rights. That is why slavery was ended, jim crow squashed, large institutions for the disabled closed, and the glbt community is finally coming into its own.
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Yes, sign me on to the Declaration of Public Education, absolutely right that this must be defended as a public good…ira
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The 4th of July is the perfect day to reflect upon all things American. The right to assemble. The right to protest. The right to vote.
In 2009 approximately 71% of the teachers employed in New York State were women.I cannot help but wonder what suffragettes such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Lucretia Mott and Sojurner Truth would have to say about Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Cuomo and the teacher evaluation which has obviously been put in place to intimidate a large percentage of teachers who just happen to be women. The NYS tests produced by Pearson are designed to be literacy biased. The outcome this British based company hopes to accomplish is to widen the achievement gap, and thereby intimidate women into submission and unemployment. I find great consolation in knowing: “The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.” —-19th Amendment
We have a voice, and we vote.
Cowgirl
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