MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS FAIL LICENSURE TESTING, HOMESCHOOLERS ARE NEXT
by Heidi Cappadona
April 16, 2008
NewsWithViews.com
On Monday, April 7th, The Boston Herald featured an article by Michael Graham about school teachers in Massachusetts who have failed an eighth to tenth grade level test numerous times and are allowed to remain as teachers in the public schools soon to be backed by the Massachusetts Democrats in Senate who unanimously voted for a waiver program for teachers who fail the test at least three times. Like swinging a dead rat in a marketplace everyone who sees this is horrified. Of course, this is the reaction the Democrats in Massachusetts and The Boston Herald, and most likely Graham are looking for and they’re getting it as thousands of American families are up in arms concerned for the education of their children. Why would the Massachusetts Senate vote to give them a waiver for failing three times? Why bother trying to pass at all if by failing they achieve easy success? Who would not agree with this logical fallacy? This is the very reason we need to look for something more beneath the obvious emotionally charged surface.
This article is coming right on the heels of California courts seeking to test homeschoolers to qualify them as teachers before they can educate their own children. This alleged "failure" of public school teachers is where the bureaucrats who are trying to do away with the fundamental right of homeschooling are going to get the general public and especially the homeschoolers themselves to agree with them. The next step is simply to make things "fair" and test the "rest" of the teachers which you guessed it, means homeschoolers. Since few people have access to these tests such as the MTEL (Massachusetts Test for Education Licensure) how can one be assured the test for a home educator will be the same as one for a public school educator should it become mandatory? Is it not just as obvious that our bureaucratic system has endeavored to put an end to homeschooling for years falsely claiming a public education is superior?
Most loving parents have not studied high school themselves for years; does this make them incapable of teaching their own children? As for the grade school teachers who do not pass this eighth to tenth grade level test, how many of those teachers are teaching lower grades such as first through third. I'm sure of those 40% who failed all would ace a grade school level test because this is information they use everyday. Any student knows that information that is not stored in active memory files of the brain and used is largely lost over time and becomes forgotten. This is why we all cram just prior to taking a test, so our memories will be fresh and we will do well. How many of us have watched “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader” and missed a question because we didn’t have a clue what the answer was? Does that mean we are uneducated? I don’t think so.
Today, many homeschoolers would pass a tenth grade test but just think of the camel’s nose. Once the camel has his nose in your tent, it won’t be long before the whole camel is in. Soon homeschoolers all over the country will be faced with the choice of licensure testing given by the same bureaucrats who administer the MTEL or giving their children into the hands of the bureaucrats themselves for a full dose of global agenda. You can bet it won’t be long until this eighth to tenth grade level test becomes a college level exam.
As Graham noted in his article, “What’s hilarious about this pro-incompetence agenda is that it comes from supposedly ‘pro-education’ liberals…” Well, it doesn’t surprise me. A leopard with a coat on is still a leopard. Bureaucrats with a global agenda are like packs of wolves. They work together to catch their prey. Homeschoolers have to watch everywhere for danger and especially when their opponent suddenly appears to oppose himself.
So though home educators can look at this all-too-obvious "failure" of public school teachers and think this is yet another reason they chose to homeschool, they must look beyond this emotional sidestep served up to them like toast and jam and see the forest for the trees. For concerned Americans the answer is simple, if parents don't like the education the public school is providing they can teach their children at home as a fundamental right as parents. Let them pass their alleged “failing” teachers, graduates from their own public school system ironically, if this is what they want to do. This is one to leave alone.
� 2008 - Heidi Cappadona - All Rights Reserve
