For Whom the Bell Curves
My good friend and occasional political counterpart Thomas Cook is opining about some recent recommended reading by Governor Mitch Daniels. At the last meeting of the Education Roundtable, Daniels handed out a copy of “Real Education” by Charles Murray.
According to a review at Amazon.com, the book stresses four major themes…
- Children have different abilities.
- Half of all children are below average.
- Too many children go to college.
- America’s future depends on the gifted.
Murray also states, according to Amazon,
“…there are only a limited number of academically gifted people and these are America’s future leaders, that only this elite can enjoy college productively and that the non-gifted shouldn’t be channeled by their high school counselors into training for that college chimera, which wouldn’t make them happy anyway”
My good friends on the left say this smacks of educational elitism. I say it’s just telling the honest truth. Let’s be frank, not everyone was made for a four year degree, but everyone needs post-secondary education. I have taught too long and seen too many students that a traditional four-year education was not in the cards and they would better served going another route.
And another unpleasant truth is that some people (kids included) really are just plain stupid and nothing is going to change that so give them a broom and point them in the direction they need to go. Now before the lot of you get your Calvin Klein boxer briefs in a bunch, really think about this.
The world has always been structured so that a handful of people really run the show. Think about any organization you belong to or have been a member of in the past. How many people really did all the work and how many people just showed up for fun?
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but not everyone was put on this Earth to achieve, they were just put here. And the scary part is in your heart, you know I’m right.
