A PARADIGM FOR OUR SCHOOLS

About the Book

When we look at the education in the United States today, we find that the educational prowess and dominance has greatly eroded. Many countries that we call third world countries consistently beat our students in math, history, social studies, and science. These countries have different morals and understanding of life than we, but these things are not taught in their schools. They are taught where they ought to be. There are rules and regulations in the various countries that some in our country would like to adopt here, but that is why we are not known as a third world country. We have that thing called freedom and rights that those countries don’t have. Some of the courts have told us to take God out of the school, the pledge, and out of our state governments. Our forefathers gave to us this method of understanding our history, and we must understand that our forefathers mostly believed in God, also that the very reason many people came to our lands in the beginning is to have freedom of religion and not freedom from religion. This is just one way the courts are trying to change our lives. This book will explore many reasons why teachers are unable to get the job done and why students aren’t in the top ten of the world’s knowledge pool. We need to think on these things before it is too late!

About the Author

Born in a small community and raised in Eastern Arizona, the author gained a great insight into the world of education. In his early life there were good teachers and poor ones. At an early age he decided to become an educator and try to make a difference in the educational world. He gained an AA degree at Eastern Arizona College, a BA at Arizona State University, and his MEd at University of Arizona. He has attended other colleges, attempting to gain a broad perspective on the educational scene. He has taught in different schools in different states and also taught adult education at the prisons in California. He has seen teachers who failed and who succeeded and kept track of the progress of each. Being a very successful teacher, he has gained the respect of teachers, administrators, parents, students, and many other people in the educational field. Problems have arisen when the various administrations have created unacceptable guidelines where educational prowess was ignored and political correctness became king. This has only happened two times, and both times he has made out OK with the other involved people—peers, parents, students, and other administrators. The author worked for the California State Prison System for about fifteen years. He taught classes of English as a Second Language, Adult Basic Education I, II, and III, and GED preparation. He was a teacher for five years and then a supervisor of academic supervision for a number of years. He also acted for more than eighteen months as supervisor of correctional educational programs within the prison systems at Vacaville, San Quentin, Ironwood State Prison, and Chuckawalla Valley State Prison. He had a total of eighteen years in the various prison systems of California, Arizona, and New Mexico. The author would like to see everyone interested in their own education and the education of their children and be strong in their own right. Help themselves, their peers, and their children to gain a perspective on education as well as assisting their children in gaining that same perspective and understanding of the necessity of learning for successful lives. There is power in education as well as understanding and self-gratification. The most important part of the prisons is to teach the inmates to be good citizens and to help others within the system and after release. There are too many men’s lives being wasted because they wanted what others had and didn’t want to work for it. It is very important that each of us look at the situation of our lives and consider if we are guilty of any infraction of the law before we condemn another. Lewis L. Whitmer