Kids Living Behind Enemy Lines, Tale #32: Blue States' Public Schools Rob Students
When I am traveling I enjoy talking to the locals; however, during my trip to Seattle two weeks ago I discovered something I was not expecting: America’s public school system is worse than I thought. My long time friend, Amy, flew from New Jersey to Seattle with her daughter, who is an executive with XXXXX, headquartered in Seattle. The daughter reserved a hotel room for me and I drove north to enjoy two days with them.^
THE CASHIER ASKED ME A QUESTION
The evening before I was to take Amy to Sea-Tac Airport on my way back home, we went to Pike Place Chowder to buy their world famous clam chowder for my husband. The cashier, who appeared to be age 18-20, asked how far I would be transporting the chowder and he recommend I buy it already frozen. Perfect! I bought two. He asked where I lived and I replied “Oysterville, Washington, at the mouth of the Columbia River, 186 miles away.” He had a curious look on his face. “Where is the Columbia River?” he asked.
I politely pointed out that the Columbia River was huge and just 150 miles east of Seattle. It flows from British Columbia, south through the middle of the state, to the Oregon border where it turns west and flows into the Pacific Ocean, I told him. “I never heard of it,” he said. “Where did you go to high school,” I asked. He proudly replied “Thomas Jefferson High in Federal Way.” (Federal Way is a suburb of Seattle.) Obviously, this young man had been robbed of the decent education I received in Washington State two generations ago.
DIANE WAS ON A MISSION
Amy and I wanted to buy Danish. So, we went to a coffee bar a block from our hotel. Perhaps we looked out of place to the masked cashier, so he asked us where we were from. Amy said “New Jersey” and I said “Oysterville, Washington.” Apparently, he knew where New Jersey was, but not Oysterville. I replied “at the mouth of the Columbia River.” He replied “what does ‘mouth’ mean?” This man said he was from New York and looked about age 30 behind his mask. Apparently, both Washington State and New York State are robbing American children of the education that I had received.
Not one to give up, I tried one more time to find someone, anyone, in Seattle who had heard of the Columbia River. I wanted to put several items in my car, so Amy & I could make a quick getaway at four the next morning. I went to the parking attendant and asked him to bring my car around. As I was loading my stuff, I took the opportunity to ask this 20-something man “where is the Columbia River?” to which he replied “never heard of it?” I could have asked the hotel clerk, but I was afraid of the answer.
Never forget that ignorance is bliss, and the Marxist Democrat controlled Department of Education (ha, ha) wants to keep it that way. Enter President Donald Trump and, gadzooks, the goal to reach the lowest common denominator is being replaced by meritocracy.
Sadly deficient education for sure Diane! But, having been educated in public schools of the PacNW back when they were good (the 1950s!) and having a Portland perspective on Seattle, I can tell you that the "Inland Empire" (Columbia River drainage) of Washington has always been at least somewhat more focused on Portland (it's natural river port and market point) than it has on Seattle. That has probably been true up until the time when the government in Olympia started invading the daily life of everyone in Washington state. And that part of the state has been, I think, historically equally ignored by those in Metro Seattle.
Time was when virtually ALL of E. Washington's major export products (wheat, fruit) shipped through Portland and I'm pretty sure that the majority, at least of wheat, still does. And of course that all has to do with the water highway of the "mighty Columbia." To a lot of children of Seattle, Eastern Washington has been like another state in the mindset they grew up with. Eastern Washington and Oregon have a lot in common and really probably should be another state!
My late uncle, a physician, grew up in Albany, Oregon in the early 1900s. He used to talk about how much of his elementary education was focused on the history and geography of Oregon. Among other things now unimaginable, students were required to be able to recite the names, county seats and major products of all 36 Oregon counties. Can you conceive in your wildest fantasy a modern school even teaching that to elementary students, let alone requiring them to be able to recite it!!