Great idea and probably workable, but in this country, that's too many children left behind...which is exactly where they should be left.
I can see the ACLU clogging up the courts for years with that. It does sound good, though I'd hope kids who started slow would have a chance to move up.
Why? It's a no-lose situation for everyone. The "one-curriculum-fits-all" method is as dated as the one-room-schoolhouse where it originated. A multi-track educational system that offers different paths for different students can accomplish many goals. The achievers can truly achieve without being limited by the lowest common denominators. The average students can learn to find and earn their many niches in our middle-class society without being stiffled and overshadowed by the achievers nor being limited by the lowest common denominators. The LCD's can be offered a path to a job without being expected to compete with the achievers and the regular guys. The absolute dropouts can absolutely drop out. They are happy--everybody else is happy. The fair thing about it all is that a student is entirely free to move between groups if he wants it bad enough. Average students can overachieve. Genius students can be slackers if they want. Troublemaking hoods can discover that an electrical engineer retires rich and a high-power lineman with a high school diploma can retire comfortably and a responsible custodian can retire and get by. A dropout busboy at El Chico will die being a busboy somewhere.
Exactly right SF and its high time this country realizes that. I'm so Efing sick of hearing about "this isn't fair" and people screaming about "equal" when what they really want is "special". If you want better from your kids then you better da*m well get it out of them. If my son makes a "C" his x-box goes in the closet. The teachers CAN"T do it all, parents HAVE to reinforce what is going on in the classroom and keep them off the streets and out of trouble. That isn't the governments responsibility. If parents wouldn't allow their kids to have guns in the first place they wouldn't bring them to school. I shudder to think of the a$$ whuppin I'd have gotten had I done some stupid crap like bringing a gun to school, or acting up the way these kids do now. I know, I know, singing to the choir but someone has to be able to get ahold of the ACLU and jerk a knot in their a$$ and let parents get back to being parents. Okay I'm done, for now.
i understand this pov, but it misses the point. im not even gonna bring up that you are blaming kids for their f---ed up parents, but what youre missing is the fact that this country is way worse off because of this. it doesnt matter whose fault it is. sometimes i think republicans views on this are for spite.
Why? Because it makes sense. The ACLU is rarely about raising the bar, but usually about lowering it. There will be millions of poor parents screaming "not my child", because their parents believed they are owed something as well. Instead of parenting and pushing their children, they rely heavily upon the state to do so. It has been this way for awhile. Don't believe that a common sense approach that helps everyone to succeed will work, when you have millions that are unconcerned as long as they get theirs. The trend in school now is, we are not allowed to discipline, kids can and do speak/act as they please with little repercussion, and we have to be sure to maintain the self esteem of all underachievers. It won't change without a violent overhaul, and that flies in the face of our current social trends. What politician has the cojones to do that today? When you discover one, send me his address and I will make a donation to his next campaign.
Who is to blame? The govt.? The school system? Why was my generation and generations before able to get through it without a complete social breakdown? Who is to blame except the transfer of parenting from parents to govt.? That is the problem in a nutshell. Rewarding mediocrity, and in some cases, outright failure is a symptom of the problem. Why do people send their children from all over the world to be educated in our universities but not our public schools? Because our higher education is run on the basis of performance, as in raising the bar, not lowering it. If you don't make it in college, you are shown the door. If you don't make it in high school, you receive no consequences but you do wind up lowering the overall efficiency of your teacher. Therefor perpetuating mediocrity and failure. Teachers in public schools are rarely given an opportunity to just teach. A huge chunk of time is spent threatening discipline that the kids know they can't enforce. Net result is a failure of the school system. Blaming Republicans for this and calling them spiteful or heartless is just wrong.
no no Mr flour and oil, I'm not blaming the kids for anything but being kids and doing exactly what kids will do. Run with as much rope as they are allowed to have. My 2 year old will do, my 14 year old tries it and gets away with it when he is with his mom. Its not the kids fault at all, they simply don't know any better and its like dude said, if the teachers try to correct them they face an onslaught from the parents who think their kid is an angel. I apologize for the hijack
Ron Paul, but he's labeled a kook because he hasn't built a strong enough following yet. Our public school system is a mess of bureaucracy. Drastic change is needed. Abolishing the Department of Education doesn't sound like such a bad thing to me.
