“Wisconsin’s school systems should teach money management”

Wisconsin Rep. Scott Newcomer had an piece last week in the Waukesha Freeman.

The concerns he raises are valid.

Possessing an understanding of how to manage any purchase that is financed, invest money, budget properly and responsibly use a credit card is vital to a person’s well-being and is a key component of our country’s economic future.

[snip]

In a survey by Visa in 2007, only 5 percent of adults reported learning about money management in elementary or high school. More than 40 percent of people were self-educated about money management or had learned the hard way.

[snip]

By teaching the public financial responsibility we improve the economy as a whole. Such a large focus is placed on the housing, credit and financial market slumps, but how are these problems accounted for? An educated public could have made more intelligent investment decisions and behaved more responsibly when looking for a loan or home mortgage.

In spite of the good points, it also demonstrates how conservatives can get into a “government should do something” mentality.

Taking the tack that “parents can’t/don’t do it” is used to justify many things being taught in public schools today. Instead of requiring that schools stick to subjects that would benefit kids, math (and this is where economics could be taught without more “overhead”), science, civics (do they teach this anymore, or am I just showing my age again?), and other essentials, schools have gone into psychology, sociology, black history, women’s studies, etc.

What’s the answer? I believe it’s getting back to basics and ridding schools of “fluff” that should properly be taken care of in extracurricular activities.

Whatever happened to reading, writing and ‘rithmatic?

Elmbrook now dealing with teaching gender roles

Having already updated crucial sex education lessons, the Elmbrook School District’s human growth and development committee is now dealing with another critical issue: gender roles.

The committee was established to revisit and rewrite the human growth and development curriculum for the Elmbrook School District. The group will need to present a proposal to the school board, who would need to approve it before the curriculum is implemented.

Last month the committee dealt with the appropriate grade level at which students should be taught about oral sex.

Things have definitely changed since I went to school.

How to Make Great Teachers

In the week we received the issue of TIME magazine with a feature article on teachers, we also received a magazine with a bit about John Corcoran, a retired teacher who admitted being illiterate while he taught school for 17 years. He now has a foundation promoting literacy.

Perhaps you, like me, were incredulous at how this could happen.

For 17 years Corcoran taught high school for the Oceanside School District. Relying on teacher’s assistants for help and oral lesson plans, he said he did a great job at teaching his students.

“What I did was I created an oral and visual environment. There wasn’t the written word in there. I always had two or three teacher’s assistants in each class to do board work or read the bulletin,” said Corcoran.

There you have it.

Well, at least MPS is limiting benefits to domestic partners

Via The Week magazine (subscription required),

Palm Beach Community College in Florida has angered gay-rights groups by extending health benefits to cover employees’ pets but not their “domestic partners.” College employees can now get a discount on health insurance for their dog, cat, hedgehog, frog, guinea pig, or gecko. Yet a plan to extend health coverage to employees’ live-in partners was rejected in August. “Many pet owners consider their dogs and cats part of their families,” said Deirdre Newton of the Palm Beach Human Rights Council, “but there is a basic disconnect when an employer will insure an employee’s pet but not an employee’s partner.” [Emphasis mine]

OK, I may not agree with extending benefits to gay partners (or heterosexual ones either, for that matter), but is the PBCC board filled with PETA members?

Maine Middle School to Offer the Pill

This pains me

Pupils at a city middle school will be able to get birth control pills and patches at their student health center after the local school board approved the proposal Wednesday evening.

The plan, offered by city health officials, makes King Middle School the first middle school in Maine to make a full range of contraception available to students in grades 6 through 8, according to the state Department of Health and Human Services.

In my ideal world, which I’m learning from Ann Coulter’s appearance on Donny Deutsch’s program I should not mention my ideals, ideals which are unrealistic because the world would be dull (Well, DUH, it’s an ideal), middle school students would not even be thinking about sex yet, much less indulging in it (Can we all say, “Immaturity”?). They would not get pregnant, would not have to abort the baby or have to drop out of school because of their pregnancy, and would not, most likely, be condemned to a life of poverty because of being pregnant.

Unfortunately, the world is not ideal. I’m not sure if passing out condoms increases the likelihood of sex, or if it even prevents teen pregnancy (i.e., do they use them?) . And yes it’s a parental responsibility, if the parents are responsible parents. Sadly many aren’t.

But could the school system at least require some counseling with some responsible adults before passing them out? Maybe that takes place in the Health Centers.

Mona Charen on immigration

Ms. Charen says lots of good things in her most recent op-ed.

I’ve been quiet on this debate because I find myself in the unfamiliar position of moderate. I cannot rejoice with so many of my conservative friends over the defeat of immigration reform, yet neither would I have been happy to see the legislation passed in the form it was offered.

Same here.

I persist in feeling well disposed toward those who wish to become Americans (particularly Catholics from Latin America, as I believe these are eminently assimilable populations), and I do fret that the Republican Party may have inflicted serious political damage on itself by appearing to be anti-immigrant.

Ditto.

I have heard nothing to convince me that the illegal immigration problem is not a reflection of legal immigration quotas that are too low. We have a full employment economy and a poor neighbor to the south. Is it any shock that employers are loath to turn away willing workers or that impoverished people are streaming across the Rio Grande? Are these low-skilled workers? You bet. Do we need them? Arguably yes.

Quotas are too low. The bill tried to deal with it by allowing temporary workers, but did nothing about quotas.

The greatest benefit of immigration by far is not what it does for the immigrant (though that is huge) but what it does for America — assuring a steady stream of newcomers who do not take the blessings of liberty for granted but cherish them. Many opponents of immigration are worried about diluting our culture. I’m far more worried about the hollowing out from within. We scarcely teach our own children to love America, far less inculcate patriotism in immigrants.

Again spot on.

If I were writing the law all by myself, I’d increase the legal immigration levels, beef up border enforcement, establish a national ID card so that we could really know who is here, and reform welfare so that only those who truly want to work would be tempted to immigrate. I’d also reform education to convey the greatness of this nation (warts and all). So here I am, in the awkward middle.

Well, except for the national ID card (how is this different from RealID?), not much to really argue with. So why don’t the politicians get it?

No More Heroes?

Tom McMahon posts about the days his kids have no school and the days they have school. Interesting.