I know from my reader mail that many of you (who are of, shall we say, a certain age) believe that "kids today" aren't well-educated and lack the skills to adequately prepare for the future or cope with complex issues. Others of you believe that, of all the problems with the public school system, the worst ideologies and practices are in California.
If you believe one or both of the two abovementioned theories, this should scare the heck out of you.
If I follow Vasconcellos correctly, he believes his (harebrained) proposal is no different from allowing (adult) women to vote and (adult) minorities to vote. He thinks he's praising the kids; he's really insulting the adults. And his comments about cell phones and the Internet are non sequiturs; a new mode of communication does not in and of itself raise the level of discussion conducted via that mode. Vasconcellos needs to hang out in a few chat rooms and read a few text messages to get this nonsensical idea out of his head.
Update: Commenter and Devoted Reader Mike D. reminds us that "Sen. Vasconcellos is the creator of CA's infamously 'successful' self esteem program." Oh, and he's the sponsor of two bills to "celebrate" the "success" of the self-esteem program as well. One bill is intended to force foster parents to receive training "in the importance of self-esteem;" the other bill is a plan to force UC and CSU students to complete 30 hours of community service work each year.
The senator's homepage is here; be sure to drop him a line and tell him what you think of his ideas! I should have previously provided the link to this notorious shirt from Urban Outfitters as well. What say we order Vasconcellos one while they're still available?
Posted by kswygert at March 9, 2004 03:23 PM