Historical political cartoons – A Brief History
The first real political cartoons were produced in the early 1500′s in Germany during the campaign of Martin Luther against the excesses of the powerful Catholic Church. During this time of turmoil, Martin was looking for a way to use the new printing press to get their message to the masses. Unfortunately, the “masses” were largely illiterate peasants, who had previously relied entirely Catholic clergy for all access to the written word. Since Luther’s message sought to distribute was inherently against the Church, he knew he needed a different way to reach the common people. The political cartoon is born.
It seems less our modern cartoons as illustrations and detailed, these early cartoons made use of familiar characters and stories to appeal to farmers in a way that could easily understand. One of these early cartoons shows the scene where Jesus begins to vendors and sellers from the temple, a history of the Bible that all viewers easily recognized. Faced with the scene of the Bible is one showing the Pope writing and selling indulgences to the people. The comparison of the Pope to the vendors is unmistakable. Thus, Martin could expose people of all classes to his radical and complex ideas in a way that was both easy and fun.
George W. Bush is the president of education
My Democrat friends are probably seeing that title above my name and should ask themselves, what is the snuff and did inhale? I’ve never been a fan of George W. Bush, but I must admit that he is the legitimate president of Education.
No Child Left Behind helped to achieve what President Bush than any president had done before making a federal role for the quality of local public education. It has been an unpopular role in some sectors, it is intrusive, with “scores” of the school based on test results. However, it was unusual for a conservative president that an education policy aimed at closing the achievement gap for economically disadvantaged, minorities and special education students.
Another conservative president could have left the problem to the states and schools, as did Ronald Reagan. The concept of “achievement gap” is not new, it is a report entitled A Nation at Risk, which originated in the Department of Education, former President Reagan. However, former President Reagan and his advisers filed the report. They wanted a decreased, not increased, the federal role in public education K-12, Reagan campaigned on the promise that it would close the Department of Education.