In the wake of the November 8 electoral disaster, Trump’s naming Amway billionaire Betsy DeVos as secretary of education, Trump’s announced intention to appoint more Scalias to the Supreme Court, and Ohio Republican legislators’ recent passage of a bill to outlaw nearly all abortions, I reread Mary Wollstonecraft’s wonderful 1792 201 page book, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (available from your library or the cheap 1996 Dover Publications unabridged edition).
Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was a friend of Tom Paine and the mother of Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein. Wollstonecraft was one of the principal founders of the women’s rights movement. Her book is as up to date as anything published today. Her book does not mention abortion rights as abortion was legal in Britain and America during her lifetime, though, like any medical procedure at that time, dangerous.
In view of the current threats to public education from DeVos, Trump, and all its other enemies, Wollstonecraft, born exactly 200 years before DeVos, stands out as one of the earliest and strongest advocates of public schools. She opposed private schools and advocated strongly for tax supported public schools “in which boys and girls might be educated together." These would be responsible to local school boards. Public schools would serve boys and girls, rich and poor together, and “to prevent any of the distinctions of vanity they should be dressed alike and all obliged to submit to the same discipline." She advocated a broad rich curriculum and ample recesses for exercise on “a large piece of ground."
Trump, DeVos, the promoters of vouchers and other gimmicks to divert public funds to special interest private schools, the “reformists" and privatizers, and others hostile to public schools and the majority of Americans who like and send their kids to them should learn something from this young Englishwoman who was born before the American Revolution.
Edd Doerr
Americans for Religious Liberty
Airlinc.org
We all need to remember who DT’s top advisor is.
The Breitbart fanatic Bannon is getting Trump to appoint Dept Heads who will destroy their Depts.
With that said DeVos is dangerous to the educational community and the sacred principle of separation of church and state.
Thank you for the Shelley/Paine reference.
Yup, if your looking for more on that
, November 24, 2016 Profiles in Delusion - Betsy DeVos WAKE UP AMERICANS* - If you care about public education you'd better get informed, up to speed and engaged. No one else is going to do it for you ! The Faith-shackled crowd certainly know what they want to do with rational observation and fact-based learning, destroy it. Replacing it with their favorite so-so tribal story telling, ... self-certain, uncritical yarn spinning - that does nothing for preparing us to live with the future world we are ignorantly creating for ourselves. Can someone say Critical Thinking Skills? Democracy, live it or lose it. America, it's your move. Let's get real, ________________________________________________________________ How Trump Could Gut Public Education By Dana Goldstein ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Trump hires Christian Fundamentalist who doesn’t believe in Public Education as Secretary of Education. By Jameson Parker ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ What you should know about Betsy DeVos Philissa Cramer. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Trump Names Anti-Gay Marriage Activist And Amway Billionaire Betsy DeVos To Be Education Secretary Joemygod com ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Strategy for Privatizing Public Schools Spelled out by Dick DeVos in 2002 Heritage Foundation Speech Rachel Tabachnick ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Secretary of Education Pick Betsy DeVos May Be a Disaster for Church/State Separation November 23, 2016 by Hemant Mehta http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2016/11/23/secretary-of-education-pick-betsy-devos-may-be-a-disaster-for-churchstate-separation/http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2016/11/profiles-in-delusion-betsy-devos.html