Misplaced Priorities –a Real Understatement

In this week’s two local newspapers I read stories of Hamilton Holmes Middle school students  here in King William raising $1100 for the local Animal Shelter.  It described in detail how it was done, who organized it and how proud everyone was of the children’s achievement.  Pennies for Pets   fundraising drive included a daily announcement over the intercom called “ Humane Thought of the Day”.  The article was accompanied by a photo of the class , various school officials who participated, along with special mention of the schools bookkeeper who daily collected the donations and saw they were sent to the bank.

Up the road in Hanover, under the heading “ Making Community Better”  the Mechanicsville Local had their own story on the 5^th grade class at Kersey Creek Elementary who worked on X-Prize projects that were to “improve the community”. Included  among the various projects  , picking up trash, visiting nursing homes, baking cookies for community members, building bird houses and selling hot chocolate for charity.

Perhaps the old adage that “ charity begins at home” would suffice, but folks …..what in the hell are we thinking ?

Recent test scores now place U.S student rankings at 26^th in Math, 21^st in Science, and 17^th in Reading.

This is ammunition for those of us who are vocal critics of public schools, the diminished curriculum’s , the bloated staffing costs, and students being sent out at graduation who are given diplomas and can’t read beyond an 8^th grade reading level.

It has been observed that U.S public school students are ranked among the  most  “compassionate” anywhere in the world  . These kids better pray that scores of jobs are available where compassion is the trait employers will be looking for.  My suspicions tell me these kids will be relegated to picking up a lot more trash in their futures because we have our collective heads screwed on backwards to stand by and idly allow this nonsense to continue.   Get these kids back to the 3 R’s……or open up school choice across the country to give the next generation a fighting chance at getting an education beyond this silliness.

Bob Shannon  King William