Socially Engineered Equality will Cost Us Our Freedom...... David Risselada

Many liberal theoreticians would argue that the striving for total equality is what drives many of their policy initiatives. Surely we can all relate to some reference made by a liberal politician concerning the “fairness” of life in American while cries are currently made to fight income inequality and raise the minimum wage. Liberals tend to base this belief on the idea that the United States is an “oppressive meritocracy” where only those with ability can financially succeed and the rest get left behind. They have this belief that total equality can be socially engineered and they tend to implement policies that hurt those that have succeeded at something while claiming it will help those who haven’t. We all know of course that this isn't the truth. What generally happens is that the successful suffer while those the policies were intended to help rarely improve at all. Liberals want to believe that the words “All Men Are Created Equal” mean we are all capable of achieving the same things, this is not the case. Nowhere are the misguided social engineering efforts of liberals more evident than in our education system.

Few can argue that our schools are in massive trouble. It seems that the public education system is doing little more than producing compliant, global citizens who know not their rights and responsibilities, but only how to follow and conform. In order for the U.S. to remain competitive and maintain the liberty we have enjoyed for over two centuries it is essential to have an educated population. We don’t, and it is because of the attempts of socialists to force their idea of equality down our throats. As it stands right now the Chinese and the Japanese are far surpassing the United States in mathematics, a field essential if we are to produce engineers and scientists. A study published by the America Association of the Advancement of Science details the differences in math achievement in first through fifth graders in the U.S., China and Japan. Sadly the highest score for American children in these grades isn't even comparable to the lowest scores of our Asian counterparts. This study also shows the level of commitment by the parents to make their children do homework. Chinese and Japanese parents are making their children do homework for more than twice as long as American Children, in some cases more than five times as long. Amount of time spent doing homework for American first graders? Fourteen minutes, while the Chinese was seventy seven minutes and the Japanese 37. http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/HomePage/Class/Psy333N/Legare%20Fall%202008/Articles/Stevenson%20et.%20al.%20Mathematics%20Achievement.pdf

Is this superiority in math achievement the result of Asians being naturally better at math, as the typical stereotype would suggest? No, of course not; while the commitment of parents to force their children to do what they don’t want to may be a contributing factor, most of it has to do with the politics of fairness and equality and the effects it has on those who want to achieve.

In recent years the United States has been inundated with the “everyone gets a trophy” mentality. Many high schools across the nation have eliminated their valedictorian programs because it is unfair that high achievers get recognized and nobody else does.  This “lowering of the standards” is doing nothing but destroying initiative and a desire to learn. This is demonstrated by another study conducted by Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis journal. Examining data collected between 1994 and 1999 from the Chicago Public Schools, the results were just recently published in 2012. The school attempted to equalize results by making algebra available to everyone and eliminating classes designed for lower achieving students. http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curriculum/2012/08/the_push_for_algebra-for-all_p.html

 Instead of having groups of students working in separate environments to improve what they needed to improve upon, lower achieving students  were thrust into the mix with the higher achieving students and the results were nothing less than predictable. The only real effect was that teachers had to alter their teaching methods to accommodate those who wouldn't have been able to keep up while ignoring the needs of those who were ready to move on. Thus the only real accomplishment was the lowering of the standard. This is fair to those who want to apply themselves in what way? The question doesn’t imply that those struggling with algebra don’t want to apply themselves but should those who excel at something have to be set back to satisfy the insecurities of those that don’t? Maybe if students were taught that they can achieve by finding their natural talents then there would be no hurt feelings over someone else’s success.

It’s evident that the liberal’s mundane attempts to socialize fairness have done nothing but drop the bar for American students. We were once the most educated people on the planet with a population that was responsible for some of the world’s greatest advancements. We are now being replaced as the world’s super power by a communist nation because they aren't afraid to make little Johnny study and their not afraid to tell him he needs to work harder to succeed. If something isn't done to correct this the United States will surely be reduced to a nation who was once free to one who will have lost its freedom because we have failed to correct this. If you think the Chinese are not motivated by world conquest then you are a fool.