Successful education, successful democracy
The York Daily Record should be commended for publishing, in a Thanksgiving Editorial, November 22, 2008, the full text of a Proclamation submitted to the Continental Congress on November 1, 1777 establishing a National Day of Thanksgiving in the United Stated.
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Among other areas of concern, the Proclamation points out how necessary our Founding Fathers considered a successful system of Public Education for the establishment of a successful Democracy. In part it reads:
"...........It is therefore recommended to the legislative or executive powers of these United States, to set apart Thursday, the eighteenth day of December next , for solemn thanksgiving and praise; that with one heart and one voice the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts, and consecrate themselves......under the providence of Almighty God.....to take schools and seminaries of education, so necessary for cultivating the principles of true liberty, virtue and piety,......
When viewed from the prospective of contemporary York City, this System of Public Education is a dismal failure: 2006 PSSA: Students in the 11th Grade at York City High School (Wm Penn High School), 51% are Functionally Illiterate and 66% cannot do basic Math.
Francis Saitta
York
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