Whenever you hear a politician carry on about what a mess the schools are, be aware that you are looking at the culprit.
Interpretation
Politicians often criticize schools, but they are often part of the problem.
Molly Ivins highlights the hypocrisy of politicians who blame schools for educational failures while neglecting their own responsibility in creating and maintaining the system. By pointing out that those who criticize education are often the ones contributing to its challenges, she calls for accountability and introspection regarding the state of education.
In practice
In a discussion on education policy, this quote could be used to emphasize the need for politicians to take responsibility.
Racists seem obsessed by the idea that illegal workers - the hardest-working, poorest people in America - are somehow getting away with something, sneaking goodies that should be for Americans. You can always avoid this problem by having no social services. This is the refreshing Texas model, and it works a treat.
Populism is the simple premise that markets need to be restrained by society and by a democratic political system. We are not socialists or communists, we are proponents of regulated capitalism and, I might add, people who have read American history.
We should all laugh more at our elected officials - it's good for us and good for them.
Although it is true that only about 20 percent of American workers are in unions, that 20 percent sets the standards across the board in salaries, benefits and working conditions. If you are making a decent salary in a non-union company, you owe that to the unions. One thing that corporations do not do is give out money out of the goodness of their hearts.
Imagine wasting all that perfectly good anger on paranoid fantasies. Not since Emily Litella got upset about "Soviet jewelry" has there been such a waste of anger. You will notice a certain theme to these Emily Litella Moments. Behind them all is a touching faith that someone, somewhere is actually in charge of what's happening - a proposition I beg leave to doubt.
All anyone needs to enjoy the state legislature is a strong stomach and a complete insensitivity to the needs of the people. As long as you don't think about what that peculiar body should be doing and what it actually is doing to the quality of life in Texas, then it's all marvelous fun.
Every single minute matters, every single child matters, every single childhood matters.
Education: the inculcation of the incomprehensible into the indifferent by the incompetent.
Mom was an academic, so the riches that she had to bestow were of the mind.
Don't be afraid! We won't make an author of you, while there's an honest trade to be learnt, or brick-making to turn to.
The examination system, and the fact that instruction is treated mainly as a training for a livelihood, leads the young to regard knowledge from a purely utilitarian point of view as the road to money, not as the gateway to wisdom.
Some of the most famous books are the least worth reading. Their fame was due to their having done something that needed to be doing in their day. The work is done and the virtue of the book has expired.
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