[MD] Imaginings

[Arlo Bensinger]

[John]
Japan and Finland are very diverse societys, right?  With lots of 
different cultural groups? Ha.  I actually mean, NOT!!!

[Arlo]
So you see the problem with education being the presence of other 
"cultural groups"? Like who? Hispanics? Blacks? Jews?

Finland and Japan are quite diverse politically and intellectually. 
There is as much "diversity" in thought there as we find here. Unless 
you mean that they are all the same skin color? You don't mean that, do you?

My daughter's class has many people from various ethnic and cultural 
backgrounds. No problems there.

You argument also would seem to indicate that public schools only 
"fail" in areas where people are not "all the same". If that's so, 
the public schools in Oklahoma and Nebraska should top the world! 
This goes to your next point as well...

[John]
Not gonna be real difficult to demonstrate "real community life" in 
such a society either.  It's all built in.

[Arlo]
Again, if what mattered was whether or not all the people were "the 
same", this real community that you say would be "built in" would be 
remarkabley noticible in Oklahoma and Nebraska. It is not. We see 
across the board, in uni-ethnic and multi-ethic regions, a lack of 
community investiture, driven by condemnations of the "public" schools.

[John]
The reason for vouchers in America is not to improve the populace as 
a whole, but to allow the expression and training in the diversity we have.

[Arlo]
This can be better achieved by reforming public educational 
practices, beginning with instilling community involvement and 
valuation in the public education process. As I said, I am all for 
multiple learning styles, for varying and encouraging learning 
environments, but this begins not with "privatizing" but with investiture.

[John]
Public is not the problem.  Dynamic choice is.

[Arlo]
You can have both. That is a major part of educational reform. Do you 
think there is no "Dynamic Choice" in the Finnish or Japanese 
schools? Again, why do they excel? If its simply a matter of 
"uni-culturality", why do Oklahoma and Nebraska schools fair worse 
than many "multi-cultural" schools in other regions of the country?

[John]
Your kids have your values.  Mine have mine.  Everybody's happy.

[Arlo]
My kid gets her "values" from family, home and our involvement in our 
community. I don't send her to "school" for those.