School is where I learned to think. It is where I learned to look at information, knowledge, struggle with problems, and try to make sense out of it all. No one told me how to think or what to think, but they gave me the opportunity to use my mind. Sometimes the problems were very abstract, and sometimes they were more hands-on. All of this was good and this is what I am grateful for today. If this made school some bastion of liberalism, then thank God for what it did for me and many that I grew up with too.
Schools that do not have the freedom to teach and give students the opportunity to think are not schools, they are indoctrination centers. Some today are afraid of schools and afraid of teaching our children how to think and solve problems. They are afraid this will take away their power and place in society. Learning never takes away, it advances. Let schools be all they can be, not what the politics of some demand. There is no freedom without the freedom to learn.
Our kids are really very capable and discerning thinkers if we let them be. It is the parents I am worried about.
Take care everyone and have a good Thanksgiving – enjoy this time. And thank you for reading my ramblings.
A Vermonter Writes - A Pathfinder 