Secular Education is Neutral - NOT!

Dear everyone who thinks state school education is neutral.

Dear also everyone who is a Christian and thinks state school education is neutral.

Dear also everyone who is a Christian who is being trained to be a state school teacher and thinks their training and state school education is neutral.



It has come to my attention that you are wrong. I'm sorry to crush your hopes and dreams. Please allow me to demonstrate.



Here are two questions from the NCEA level three economics exam.



Question 3b: The New Zealand Government provides ‘free’ (ie heavily subsidised) education at state secondary schools. Explain why this results in a better resource allocation than the free market?



Question 4b: Explain why using free-market policies causes income inequality.





That question my friends is stating a belief (and one that is a false one mind you) as fact. They give the student no option to argue a case for the other side if they think the evidence points that way. These kinds of questions discourage thinking, and will perpetuate a system whereby children come out of state school unable to think for themselves.



A good answer to a question should think of likely responses, and counter them. With a question like this however, the student is told what is the 'right' answer. All they are asked to do is explain why it is 'right'.



Here is how the questions should look:-



Question 3b: The New Zealand Government provides ‘free’ (ie heavily subsidised) education at state secondary schools. Do you think that this results in a better resource allocation than the free market? Why or Why not?



Question 4b: "Explain why using free-market policies causes income inequality."

Do you agree with this statement. Why or why not?



Yours faithfully,



Scott Kennedy



PS I know a Christian school which runs on a small budget, and yet every student I know who has gone through there can read and write. Most can think too. I know where I'd rather my kids go.



PPS Watch the students flee the sinking ship of state education.

New Blogs To Watch Out For

Please welcome, Allan, Alexandra, and Bill to the blogging world. Well Allan's not new, just back again.

A Typical Shop

Sashaye Drink

Milk

Ban ana's

Up hills

Bis Cuts

Flys Pray

Flaw Polish

Cook King Oil

Co Co

Eggz

Pasted Tomato

Rye Sss

Mins

Chick Ens

As Promised

Well I promised I would report back to you my results. I indeed got to bed early, but still woke up in a state of exhaustion, so I told Anita to inform my Boss that I was not coming into work. I am still very tired, but I am forcing myself to get to bed at 8 tonight. I just hope this is going to pay off. I don't know what is wrong but I can hardly stay awake.

Bedtime

I decided to take a night off! Man how cool is it going to bed at 8:30! I'll let you know what wonders it does for my outlook on life, and my ability to get stuff done.

Three Things Teens Care About

1. Appearance

2. Acceptance

3. Possessions



I'm really writing this for my benefit. It was a point that Mr Tripp made on the parenting videos tonight. I thought it was so true that these are major issues teens deal with, and see as important. Now I need to go away and think of how we counter the worldly views they are sold about these.

Cleaning

Cleaning is highly frustrating.



On Saturday, I spent an hour and one half cleaning my car. I cleaned outside, and inside. It was spotless. In the afternoon, we took the youth group up to the hot pools. Malcs and I did the bbq, and there was much hilarity.



Unfortunately some silly girl(s) in the youth group decided that butter on the window of my car would look really good. And how about tomato sauce handprints all across the panels and passenger windows. Please note for the record that I was extremely nice about this. Thank you record man.



So I got home and cleaned my car at about midnight. Now it's Wednesday, and some bird has deposited, and it looks really bad again. Which brings me to the question:- Why bother?

Quote of the Week

Thanks to Hannah Leslie for this one:-



"I would have a battle of wits with you, but its against my morals to attack an unarmed person"

Beards

Anita has been on to me all of last week about men and beards. Yawn. She cannot understand why men would have a beard knowing that women do not find them attractive.



1. We do not always do things to please women. Seriously. It is not my main goal in life to keep the ladies happy. Sorry to burst your bubbles.



2. Perhaps men with beards are looking for a specific type of women who as well as not minding beards are better than the average women in other ways also. For instance women who like beards are more likely to be the good old fashioned sort of woman, and there's sure to be a demand for them. I'm not quite sure what the supply is like since I haven't bothered entering the market. But from what I can see, the supply is rather low. (I tell you what son - she's a hard road finding the perfect woman.)

Allsorts

It was my sisters birthday yesterday. Fantastic! Happy birthday Lou! The whole family went out to dinner at Valentines which was really nice. It's funny how much more you appreciate people when you don't see them as much. You tend to enjoy their company much more when you see them.



Last night I wrote some music. More music than I have written in months, possibly a year. I wrote a total of 12 bars, with clarinet and piano. It's all rhythm baby! Actually it's pretty funny, because as a little dude, I found timing one of the hardest things of music. But now whilst not an expert, I really enjoy looking for ways of making rhythm really different but styly in a piece of music.

The Result

Well Dwaine and I foolishly allowed Jono to join us in a three way free dinner deal. (Please note avoidance of the contraversial 'bet' word). Jono scored the most greedy try of all history, which had me and Dwaine running after him in an attempt to stop it. So Jono gets dinner courtesy of Dwaine and myself.



On the bright side of things, I scored 6 tries, and got slightly tanned/burned from the hot and flaming humid weather.

Another Bet

Dwaine and I have a bet going. If he scores the first try at our weekly touch game, I will buy him dinner this week. However if I score the first try he will buy me dinner. If neither of us score the first try, we buy our own dinners.



I'll keep you posted.

As I Said

Bush has won again. This time with the popular vote. What I thought was both funny and scary was Susan Wood spewing venom against the conservatives and Christians who relied on God. Nice.



So I'm looking forward to a nice luncheon courtesy of Anita.

A Bet

Anita and I have a bet going. If Bush wins the election she will buy me lunch. If Kerry wins, I will buy her lunch. She seems quite confident that she will be getting a free lunch. However, I am quite confident I will be getting a free lunch. What do my readers think?

Rainbows End

Not last Saturday, but the one before, Louise (my sister), James (my little bro) and my mum went to Rainbows end. This was Jim's birthday present. He had never been before, so it was a real treat.



Louise and I spent quite some time at the roller coaster. But the funny thing is, by the end of the day, the thrill of going down the real steep bit had some what lessened. Oh well.



Louise James and I also checked out the fear fall. Goodness gracious me. Wowsers. It's a lot higher up there than it looks from the bottom, and the fall is quite something. Apparently we all came off with rather white faces. Yeah. I don't mind admitting that I was pretty freaked on that one. James only did that one once.



One of the highlights of the day for me was Burton Hollis coffee at a little cafe there. I was impressed. One of the best coffees I have had lately. Not something you would expect at a theme park. Mum and I took a little coffee break while Lou and Jim had a go at the dodgems.



Oooooo! I had candy floss. Mmmm. But I didn't have too much because it felt bad for my teeth.



James wanted to drive the cars but he was too short, so I had to drive for him. So he made me drive like I'm disinclined to do. But I must say I enjoyed that. It was fun. He and Lou did however go on the bumper boats. It looked good fun. James was hooning round - once he got the hang of the controls and wasn't turning around in circles!



The Goldrush one was a real disappointment in terms of queue to ride ratio. And it wasn't exactly high on the thrill factor. I decided to add thrill into this one by hitting family members in the face in the dark patches. Hehe. The old log flume was pretty choice. It's a nice family type ride. And the pirate ship provided some light entertainment as we sparked up a game of who can yell the loudest. When each side went up we would wave our hands around and yell. Then the other lot would be up and try to match it. I didn't realise how loud my voice could be. It was strange you know that I found it difficult to do the youth group talk that night. Hmmm.



What I loved most about the day was hanging out with the whanau. I don't know what I would do without family. I love them so much. God is good to provide us with families. Families are choice.