Friday, February 9, 2007

Personal Asides: It’s State Sen. Chris Lauzen and Bill Dock Walls on Political Shootout…Seriously Underplayed Education Failings.

lauzencpa


Lauzen and Walls.

State Sen. Chris Lauzen, (R-Aurora), a conservative hero of mine who has been fearless in standing up to vested liberal interests in both parties, including Combine Republican ones like George Ryan, will be my guest on Political Shootout Sunday night on WLS-AM (890). He will be joined by Bill Dock Walls, a challenger to Mayor Richard M. Daley for mayor; Walls, who was a top aide to the late Harold Washington, has been running a feisty campaign for mayor and has pulled very few punches. Chris Lauzen has served notice that he is interested in succeeding Dennis Hastert as U. S. Congressman. He would be an outstanding choice; as expected, he is not the choice of the establishment Republicans which is in his favor to my way of thinking.

Education.

This will interest Frank Nofsinger, our friend from Connecticut who contributes views and comments to this web-site. The University of Connecticut has just completed a study—called the largest of its type—on what students learn about American history, government and economics. They picked at random 14,000 freshmen and seniors at fifty colleges and asked them sixty multiple-choice questions. More than half of the seniors failed to identify the century when the first American colony was founded at Jamestown. Fewer than half could name the source of this quotation: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.” More than 75% of the seniors never heard of the Monroe Doctrine. But across the board, seniors scored only 1.5% higher on average than freshmen. Moreover at many colleges—Brown, Georgetown and Yale among them—seniors know less than freshmen about American history.

Which means they being de-educated. The top schools where the study shows history is being excelled at are not the ivy leaguers but Rhodes College, Colorado state university, Calvin college, Grove City college, and the University of Colorado-Boulder. The schools where seniors know less about American history than freshmen include the University of Chciago, Williams, the University of Virginia, Yale, Duke, Cornell and at the bottom of the list Johns Hopkins. I got the story from a very good magazine, “First Things,” edited by Fr. Richard John Neuhaus. The study is entitled “The Coming Crisis in Citizenship” and is available from the Intrercollegiate Studies Institute, Wilmington, Delaware.

This squares with my own experience. My undergraduate education was at a relatively small private college with no particularly classy name—St. John’s in Minnesota. But we got a superb education in history (as well as other things, notably theology and philosophy). I did grad studies at DePaul and Loyola and was generally impressed with the quality of teaching and the attainments of my colleagues. But, when I went to Harvard as a teaching Fellow many-many years later…27 years later, in fact…I was surprised and dumbfounded at the inadequacies of some of the students in my class—not all--(not to mention poor spelling, writing style etc.). My experience with Roosevelt University which is far from elite was quite good. The class was composed of many non-student professionals but the students who did take the course for credit were among some of the finest I have ever taught.

6 comments:

  1. Tom, tell me you're not serious about Chris Lauzen CPA.

    The guy has no problem with government power as long as he wields it. Thus his immediate quest for executive power by running for comptroller in 1998 and his current self promotion for a congressional run.

    He has a problem with his temper, whether assaulting a high school football coach or suing people who don't call him "CPA".

    Mr. Lauzen CPA is no Ron Paul, he is no Cicero; he is an embarrassment, not a hero.

    The picture you post is priceless--Lauzen CPA, Dr. Kathuria, and Kathuria manager Jon Zahm, is demonstrative of why this guy is a joke. Kathuria may have had some money (which makes all the difference to some people), but when the country is warring in the middle east to think the guy had more than a snowball's chance in hell of winning is political incompetence.

    Perhaps it is an indication of the current state of what passes for conservatism today.

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  2. Loosen up, Tom-
    Consider the diverse education in perversity young people can attain now days at the schools you list. Surely Queer Studies and courses in Islam are more important than our country's brief history!

    That's a joke, Son- Isn't it disgusting?

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  3. Chris was pushing for an internet sales tax (Conservative?)and was going to freeze property assessments. But since when does there aways HAVE to be a so called "Swap" to stop runaway property taxes? But of couse some one has to pay for all those undocumented mexican children attending public school in Illinois! And Northern Illinois is the second largest settlement point behind the LA area thanks to Daley making Chicago a "save zone" for the undocumented. Is this why Chris is taking Spanish lessons......

    Does he know how to say CONSERVATIVE in Spanish?

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  4. Lauzen has a 15 year record of strong conservative votes and values. I think it would be hard to find 5% of his votes to disagree with. Dr. Kathuria is a good man and a great success in private business. I left him when my first choice for Senate that year, Steve Rauschenberger entered the race after initially being out. My work for Steve was unpaid so with this consultant/activist, it is not always about the money. What is your background and experience that informs your viewpoints?

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  5. Chris was the only one to vote against in state tuition for the children of illegal aliens. It was a brave vote that he made.

    The problem is that so many people have given in on the immigration issue. Illegal is ILLEGAL regardless of whether it is politically correct or not! The problem is that too many conservatives take the polically correct "easy" road these days. How sad! But then changing demographics ARE changing the politics in Illinois!

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  6. Mr. Zahm, I'm glad you didn't try to refute that Lauzen CPA has a lust for government power, that he has a violent temper, and that he threatened to sue another good republican who didn't call him 'CPA', because these are indisputable facts.

    But your logic, as followed below, is troubling to all conservatives. According to your thinking, if we agree with him on 95% of his votes, then he must be OK. Well then, why not make him dictator, since we agree with him so much?

    We don't give more government power, even to those with whom we disagree, because conservatives are for--pay attention here--LIMITED government.

    Lauzen CPA from day one has been for EXPANDING his own government power.

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