Follow-up to the post earlier in the week. Unfortunately, as many of you already read, it’s not good.
When I look around, across the country, and see millions who are really angry at Washington, it’s not hard to understand why. It’s because we feel Washington isn’t working for us. That’s because it’s often not. Special interests fund our politician’s elections and then they get the handouts, protection, and benefits from the government. The net of it is that they get quite the return on their investment, which is why they keep pouring money in each year. This ruling continues and, likely, makes this unfortunate trend even worse.
We need elections that are free of the corrosive impact of special-interest control. Read about a terrific proposal from Change Congress on a really simple way to move forward and get to work solving our biggest national challenges instead of working for the benefit of special interests as we’ve been doing.
{ 2 comments }
Surya
Hi Surya, I was one of those people sitting in the circle with you this Saturday morning in Richard and Patty's living room. I want to thank you again for stepping into a life of public service and for giving us a good reason to gather and talk about what matters to us. I've added your blog to my reader so I can follow this iscussion. Also, since education and jobs were central to the discussion, I hope you can find 11 minutes to watch this new video http://zhao.educ.msu.edu/2009/08/07/no-child-le…
Thanks, Candee! It was an absolute pleasure to meet you and I really
appreciate you taking the time.
Thanks for sharing this video as well! I took a look at it and I definitely
agree that it is important that we maintain the freedom to
cater coursework to interests and maintain the freedom to have regional
customization. As important as us determining what to teach our kids, or
what the best way is to teach them, THEY have to understand *why* they are
learning it and why it's relevant to them. There is obviously a huge
regional component, as we discussed, to this. I also liked, and agreed, with
the focus the Professor put on creativity. There is no doubt to me that this
is a huge competitive advantage for us– no other nation encourage
risk-taking or the kind of entrepreneurial success we've been able to
achieve in business, the arts, or in other areas. This is vital and we
agree. All I'd add is this needs to be layered on top of a solid foundation
of the basic skills– reading, writing, science, and math. The first two are
the building blocks one needs to survive in today's world. The latter two
are the things that drive our society forward economically and
progress-wise. This isn't the be all, end all, but it's obviously important
so our kids can get jobs, understand how the world works, and possibly find
their passion area. I don't think these things need to come at the expense
of the arts or critical thinking, etc.
I could talk about education for hours since I feel like it's so important
and the key to unlocking so much. Thanks for the great discussion and I look
forward to talking with you more!
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