Blitz wrote:TigerShadow wrote:Okay, why would Carson be the Secretary of Education? Why not something that actually relates to his career as a neurosurgeon, like Health and Human Services or nominating him for Surgeon General once Vivek Murthy's term is up? Education is just a bizarre choice.
As a Presidential campaign one of his focuses was education. His focus as a Neurosurgeon was studying the mind of a child, his famous operations on children. He's famous for his work with children. When he retired, he focused on education of children. Today even, he has a reading focus day for younger children. So he is qualified for this position.
But has he ever actually
worked in education? Was he a teacher, a principal, a school superintendent, a college professor?
Education is more complicated than "knowing how a kid's mind works" and "promoting reading". It's about understanding the needs of school administrations. It's about understanding teachers and what they need. It involves experience in budgeting and management of large groups of people. It involves an intimate, firsthand knowledge of the kinds of problems schools and students are actually facing.
I went through high school in one of the worst states in the Union in terms of education, and even though my hometown contains one of the few top-rated schools in the South, I have seen what terrible administrations and educational situations look like. They come in the form of the state legislature placing the tourism industry above giving schools the time and flexibility they need. They come in the form of widespread corruption, nepotism, and incompetence left unchecked until an entire school district needs to be taken over, shut down, and overhauled by the state. They come in the form of people who act like they know what they're talking about, but don't have the experience or the skill necessary to do a remotely decent job. They come in the form of administrations and legislators prioritizing standardized test results over actual quality of teaching and learning.
A couple of years of experience (Carson retired from his job as a neurosurgeon in 2013) and medical knowledge of the brain don't cut it. The Secretary of Education advises educational policies at the federal level—they are, in many ways, responsible for the education of millions of children. Higher standards of experience and personal knowledge are required. Ben Carson doesn't meet them.
it's not about 'deserve'. it's about what you believe. and i believe in love