Dismal "Nation's report Card" inspired by an article from Townhall.com
As a conservative Libertarian congressional candidate in Texas district 10, one of my signature issues will be to defund 100% the Dept. of Education. It was started by Pres. Carter in 1976. It is a complete failure, unless you consider it's main purpose to support unions and dues for Demoncratic (accurate spelling intended) campaign contributions.
Take a look at this article and the report card itself. Then tell me where I am wrong. One of my favorite sayings is the definition of insanity - "doing the same things over again and expecting different results." Here's the link, then I will finish with a true story about my education.
https://townhall.com/columnists/myraadams/2018/05/08/a-dismal-economic-future-revealed-in-the-nations-report-card-n2478468
just a sample:
Here is the percentage of Grade 12 public and non-public school students at or above proficiency by subject and race in math and reading:
Math: 25 percent student average. By race: Asian 47 percent, white 32 percent, Hispanic 12 percent, African American, 7 percent.
Reading: 37 percent student average. By race: Asian 49 percent, white 46 percent, Hispanic 25 percent, African American 17 percent.
Writing: 27 percent all students.
Science: 22 percent all students.
U.S. History:12 percent all students.
The full report is here:
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/
Now for my personal story. I was in college and taking very difficult engineering courses. One of my Professors was trying his best to educate us in the hard sciences, emphasis on the "hard". We had a mechanics class, technically "Statics and Mechanics" which deals with various loads, forces and stress levels in different materials. This is a critically important skill to have if you ever want to design any parts to work in any type of machinery, from planes, trains and automobiles to dishwashers, etc.
During the 80's many engineering universities began to admit more women. Many of them had a different idea about how they should be graded. This was news to the traditional male students who were mostly clueless about this social concept. Our test scoring was extremely rigorous and totally unforgiving. Ten test questions were worth ten points each. Either you got them right or wrong. You got either ZERO points for an answer or ten points.
As you can imagine this was a new concept to many of us. The women (yes, only the women would do this - so much for equality) would approach the professor after the class and say something like, 'I got the right answer but I just missed a decimal point. What about partial credit?"
My professor looked at them cold-heartedly and said in broken English, "You build bridge, bridge fall down, NO partial credit!" That was the end of that. He would not budge. It was at that time that I learned the most valuable lesson of my engineering career. He was 100% right. Throughout the years, I never , ever forgot that principle. Sometimes there really is no partial credit in life. You have to get it right 100% or not at all. Sometimes being merciless has great value.
Afterwards I went on in my career to design automotive fuel systems, cruise control systems and missile systems for the military among many other designs. About 10 years ago there was a terrible tragedy in Minnesota where a bridge fell down across a river and killed several people. It was then that the professor's words came back to the front of my mind.
Think about this for a moment. Who do you want as your design engineer for your car's brake systems? How about your airline pilot, or the wing designer? Do you think the military wants smart bombs that work most of the time or all the time? Being from the Houston area, I have had the pleasure to meet many astronauts and NASA personnel. A relative of mine was one of the engineers that designed the plumbing on the International Space Station. What that really means is that he designed the toilet flushing system. Have you ever seen the tv show The Big Bang Theory? They did an episode about a faulty toilet. Without getting graphic, if that system doesn't work, the you know what literally hits the fan.
Think about how many bridges you and your family drive over every day without a care in the world. Do you want an engineer who was trained unmercifully as I was or would you prefer someone who got partial credit?
The government is not capable of providing any educational experience close to what I have and they have proven to be an abysmal failure at social engineering. It's time to end the charade and say to the Dept. of Education, "NO partial credit!"
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
Monday, May 7, 2018
Common Sense Immigration
My thoughts on immigration. My grandparents came here legally about 110 years ago and I have the Ellis island certificates to prove it. They came her with hopes and dreams like everyone else, but also with a great respect for American values. They very much wanted the American dream. As I have said many times before, we need to look to history for many answers for modern problems. As a logical engineer, I always ask myself and others, “Why not do what has worked in the past? If it worked then, it will probably work now.”
In order to be admitted to the USA, they had to do three things. 1. Pass a health check – if you were sick, you were sent back. No one was allowed to be a burden on the taxpayers, 2. Have a USA sponsor who was financially responsible for you. Again, not a burden on the taxpayers, 3. Sign a form stating you would not take any welfare. Yet again, not a burden on the taxpayers. After that you were free to go, best of luck to you.
Of course, it went without saying – if you committed a crime you were gone. I cannot believe that if either side of my family, Italian or Irish, had a relative who was a criminal that they would tolerate that behavior. It was hard enough as it was – anyone who did that would tarnish the family name and make it harder for the rest of the Irish or Italian community to get ahead. As newly arrived immigrants, there was much struggle to gain a foothold and achieve legitimacy. No one wanted a bad apple to ruin it for the rest of them.
My Italian grandfather apparently had offers to go to work for a certain group of people in New York, you know who they are, and he said no to that offer. It was time to abandon the old ways. He did not want to associate with any criminals, it was more important to assimilate legally and prosper. They told me there were signs on building that said, “Irish need not apply.” And also signs that read, “Italians need not apply.” Our family had to look out for each other and help each other whenever possible. I could go on and tell you how poor they were and what we had to do to survive, but there were so many others in the same circumstance.
My father told me that when my Uncle Pete came over he had a “letter of introduction” to others in the community vouching for his character from a well-off businessman. Some members of my family had to go back and forth a few times before they could establish themselves. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? If they got a job, they paid taxes like everyone else, no big deal. They were glad to be here. If not, you went back, re-grouped, came back and tried again.
My Italian grandfather even forbid my grandmother from speaking Italian in the home. He said the children need to learn English and adapt to America as quickly as possible. That was how he hoped they would succeed. They all had to work under the existing system and learn to play by the rules to get ahead. There was no “accommodation” requested or expected. They all wanted to prove that they could succeed just like others before them and they wanted that pride of accomplishment. I could go on, but the parallel to today’s issues is exactly appropriate. We used to have an open system but ZERO welfare. Yes, it was hard but also efficient and it produced an incredible generation as a result.
Today’s immigration system is a mess because we combined too many conflicting values into one catch all system. We should separate immigration from welfare and also separate it from temporary worker systems. My only change or minimum addition to the older system would be to add a background check requirement for filtering out criminals and terrorists because of modern problems. I know for a fact that my grandparents would not want anyone in this country who was illegal or a criminal, no matter where they came from. That is what they were leaving behind in the old countries. The rule of law was sacred to them and part of the attraction of the American Dream.
It amazes me that even today we cannot have an intelligent conversation about immigration without euphemisms. Either you are legal or not. A young man I met last week commented that “We cannot have different classes of people!”. I replied , “Yes, there are different classes of people, and it is perfectly legal.” Criminals are a different class of people. They are further divided into groups based on offenses – misdemeanor and felony. Have you ever paid extra or been upgraded on an airline seat? What do they call that section?
In order to be admitted to the USA, they had to do three things. 1. Pass a health check – if you were sick, you were sent back. No one was allowed to be a burden on the taxpayers, 2. Have a USA sponsor who was financially responsible for you. Again, not a burden on the taxpayers, 3. Sign a form stating you would not take any welfare. Yet again, not a burden on the taxpayers. After that you were free to go, best of luck to you.
Of course, it went without saying – if you committed a crime you were gone. I cannot believe that if either side of my family, Italian or Irish, had a relative who was a criminal that they would tolerate that behavior. It was hard enough as it was – anyone who did that would tarnish the family name and make it harder for the rest of the Irish or Italian community to get ahead. As newly arrived immigrants, there was much struggle to gain a foothold and achieve legitimacy. No one wanted a bad apple to ruin it for the rest of them.
My Italian grandfather apparently had offers to go to work for a certain group of people in New York, you know who they are, and he said no to that offer. It was time to abandon the old ways. He did not want to associate with any criminals, it was more important to assimilate legally and prosper. They told me there were signs on building that said, “Irish need not apply.” And also signs that read, “Italians need not apply.” Our family had to look out for each other and help each other whenever possible. I could go on and tell you how poor they were and what we had to do to survive, but there were so many others in the same circumstance.
My father told me that when my Uncle Pete came over he had a “letter of introduction” to others in the community vouching for his character from a well-off businessman. Some members of my family had to go back and forth a few times before they could establish themselves. Makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it? If they got a job, they paid taxes like everyone else, no big deal. They were glad to be here. If not, you went back, re-grouped, came back and tried again.
My Italian grandfather even forbid my grandmother from speaking Italian in the home. He said the children need to learn English and adapt to America as quickly as possible. That was how he hoped they would succeed. They all had to work under the existing system and learn to play by the rules to get ahead. There was no “accommodation” requested or expected. They all wanted to prove that they could succeed just like others before them and they wanted that pride of accomplishment. I could go on, but the parallel to today’s issues is exactly appropriate. We used to have an open system but ZERO welfare. Yes, it was hard but also efficient and it produced an incredible generation as a result.
Today’s immigration system is a mess because we combined too many conflicting values into one catch all system. We should separate immigration from welfare and also separate it from temporary worker systems. My only change or minimum addition to the older system would be to add a background check requirement for filtering out criminals and terrorists because of modern problems. I know for a fact that my grandparents would not want anyone in this country who was illegal or a criminal, no matter where they came from. That is what they were leaving behind in the old countries. The rule of law was sacred to them and part of the attraction of the American Dream.
It amazes me that even today we cannot have an intelligent conversation about immigration without euphemisms. Either you are legal or not. A young man I met last week commented that “We cannot have different classes of people!”. I replied , “Yes, there are different classes of people, and it is perfectly legal.” Criminals are a different class of people. They are further divided into groups based on offenses – misdemeanor and felony. Have you ever paid extra or been upgraded on an airline seat? What do they call that section?
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