I will not have the honor of voting for Larry Voorhees, Republican candidate for House District 68. I wish I did. I certainly will follow Larry’s progress when he is elected and serves Iowans in Des Moines.

It was a pleasure to find Voorhees website and read what he had to say in Uncommon Common Sense. ‘Common Sense’ is just what I found! With numerous teachers in my family and having worked for many years in an elementary school setting I found Larry’s views on educating Iowa’s children to be of great importance. Lost in much of this political season is the emphasis on education. I was delighted that Voorhees devoted so much of his writings to the subject of what he would work to do for educating the children in Iowa. I will share a portion of his writing in my post. Please do check out all of the ‘common sense’ that Voorhees has written for your personal knowledge of his views and opinions.

Common sense is essential in our elected officials. As a man with common sense, Larry Voorhees is who we need to represent us. Larry also says he is an “independent thinker”. Another reason we want him to be elected on Nov. 4!

http://larryvoorhees.blogspot.com/

Uncommon Common Sense

A place to discuss politics, the political climate in Iowa and the nation, and to bring forth that truly basic concept of “Uncommon Common Sense”…a commodity that is, unfortunately, less common than one might think.

First problem, we don’t graduate enough of our students from high school. Corollary to that issue is the fact that those we DO graduate, don’t have the basic skills necessary to be successful, either in a vocation, or in higher education. Reading, Writing, Reading Comprehension, Calculation skills, basic economic understanding, American History, Understanding and Appreciation for the Arts, Science, Physical Education. These are the core basics of any good education system. However, if Little Johnny is in 3rd grade, and he can’t read at a 3rd grade level, he can’t write, comprehend, do math, understand money, know some basic American History, hasn’t had any exposure to art or music, doesn’t know that water and electricity don’t go together, and he plays video games or watches TV all day …..have we done our job in the education of our children?
Worse yet, somebody gets the wild idea that it would arrest little Johnny’s emotional development if he doesn’t move into the 4th grade with his peers, so we move him into 4th grade. And we spend a bunch of money on special classes, special tutors, self-esteem lectures, and a whole host of other social agenda-focused items…and in 8-9 more years, Little Johnny walks up to a podium, receives a high school diploma, and still can’t function in our society, because he can’t read, write, balance a checkbook, understand what credit is, know what his civic duties and rights are. So what happens? YOUR tax money, and MY tax money are then used to subsidize little Johnny, because the poor boy has no skills, and is totally unemployable, so it’s up to US to support him, because he simply can’t support himself.

I have a scientific, technical term for that kind of system.

“Baloney”.
I would propose the following:

1.      NO “social promotions”. Zero.

2.    Use the Iowa Tests of Educational Development (ITED’s) as baseline points in 4th, 8th and 10th grade.

3.    Institute an “exit exam” for graduation. Either the state provides one, or the individual school districts can design their own, provided it tests on the basic criteria at least at the same level as the state one, as a minimum.

4.    Make that Core Curriculum I mentioned earlier a requirement across the board. If local school boards want to add electives to their curriculum above and beyond that, great, but reading, writing, computational skills, American History and Civics, Arts and/or Music, and a mandatory class in PE every single year of high school. And I mean PHYSICAL education. Something that will teach our children how to be physically active for the rest of their lives.