Politics & Current Events
vlagrl29
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
First Libertarian Debate
If anyone is interested
Re: First Libertarian Debate
Isn't the Libertarian party kind of extreme anyway? I just read up on them on Wiki and was actually surprised that I agreed with some of their stances, though I'm sure I'd disagree with how they'd want to implement them.
But then they are also the whack-a-doos who think we should entirely get rid of public education. That all education should be privatized and it is just up to parents to pay for their child's education. I don't understand how anyone can even remotely think that is a good idea.
This could be said of any party. Whenever you follow an ideology 100%, it gets extreme. It's just that the Republican and Democratic parties are in the business of winning elections so most of those politicians don't follow the ideology 100%. I don't agree the public education system needs to be abolished, but I do think there need to be major reforms. Most people know nothing about the history of public education in this country and if they did, they would probably think differently. I highly recommend reading The Underground History of American Education by John Taylor Gatto. As a huge advocate of homeschooling I would take his book with a grain of salt, but some of the facts and sources he lists are chilling. However, at the end of the day, I can't think of any way to improve things even though I agree things need improvement. Plus, I have never heard a libertarian politician saying they should abolish all public education- typically they want to abolish the federal department of education.
Thanks, that's good to hear most libertarians don't go to that extreme.
I'll admit to not knowing much about the history of public education. Though I've always found it bizarre we still cling to this "summers off" tradition. Year round schools make so much more sense yet, even in this day and age, there are very few of them. Most kids would enjoy it more because they would get multiple breaks throughout the year, instead of one super long one. I know when I was a child, I'd be so bored by the end of summer and missed seeing my friends every day, that I was really happy to go back to school.
Plus, it would also facilitate learning retention, because kids don't have this huge 3-month gap to forget so much of what they had just learned the year before. I swear, when I was a kid, it felt like the entire first month back was only a refresher of what we had learned the year before to get us back up to speed.
Granted, I'm not a parent, but I wish I could scream to some of the parents out there to please supplement your child's learning (especially in the K-3 years) by spending time with them in educational activities. Some of my earliest memories, and very fond ones, are my mom and/or dad sitting with me after dinner to help me with writing my letters and numbers.
Sorry to go even more off on a tangent! But I have to share one with you all. I was 5 at the time and I'm 42 now, but I still vividly remember even the emotions I was feeling. My first name starts with a "J". And darn it, if that wasn't the letter that I had the absolute hardest time writing correctly. This was very serious for my 5-year-old self. What if I never learned how to write it correctly? It was the very first letter to my name! I need to be able to write my name. My dad and I had been practicing writing the letter "J" for a few nights now and, without crying but in a serious tone, I finally poured my heart out to him about my worries and concerns over "J".
Of course, as an adult now, I realize my dad was probably trying to fight back a smile at how adorable I was with my angst over something that wasn't going to happen. But he stayed in character and replied back with a tone that was just as serious. He acknowledged my frustration that I was having trouble with "J", but reassured and promised me that it was just going to take more practice and he was positive that pretty soon I'd be able to write my name. I felt better and confident I would succeed.