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George Bush Doesn't Want You to Think

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
by Paul A. Moore

This past Wednesday June 12th, 2005 President Bush visited a suburban Washington, D.C. high school to promote the idea that No Child Left Behind testing is good for students each and every year from the 3rd grade through the 11th grade. At one point Bush asked his young audience, "How do you know if a child is learning if you don't test?"

I am often struck by the irony of Mr. Bush's pronouncements on many different issues, but as a social studies teacher in an inner-city public high school for the past 20 years, this question rings out for its duplicity and shallowness.

How did the American people know that as George Bush made his way through the most prestigious private schools, then Yale and Harvard Universities that he was not learning? He is arguably the most ill-informed, anti-intellectual, incurious man ever elevated to the Presidency of the United States. Simple mindedness, superstition, and mysticism are the Bush political machine's stock in trade. His political fortunes are empirically tied to a startling lack of awareness in his most fervent supporters. Recall the pre-election polls showing large majorities of likely Bush voters believed that weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq!

Truth be told, George Bush and his political allies seek not to make sure America's youth are learning, they seek to make sure they are not thinking! They seek a pool of soldiers, low wage workers and security guards for the America of the future. They seek to banish from their kingdom the artists, the budding philosophers, the scientists, and most of all the potential leaders.

Our public school system is menaced by wolves in sheep's clothing. The people who work in public schools, the parents that send their children to public schools, the students attending public schools, and the graduates of public schools who now fund the system will either resist the Bush program now or be destroyed by it later.

Paul A. Moore
United Teachers of Dade (AFT-NEA)
Miami, FL

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION