No Wonder Johnny Can't Make Change
Ol' BC has carped and complained at great lengths about young people seeming to be much slower academically, in general, than previous generations.
Debra Saunders had a recent column that dealth with some of it. Consider this.
Instead of memorizing 5+4=9, students would look for creative ways to solve the
equation, such as that 5+5=10, but since 4 is 1 less than 5, the answer is 9. In
the name of creativity, new-new math was both time-consuming and boring.
Amazing. Much has been made of it no longer being necessary to be able to read lengthy texts and understand what you've read, but this is ludicrous. Here's where it leads.
Milgram found that the number of California State University students -- that
is, the top 30 percent of high school graduates -- who needed remedial math more
than doubled, from 23 percent in 1989 to 55 percent some 10 years later.
Think about that for just a moment. Over half of the top thirty percent required remedial math. What does that say about todays education system? I may be able to understand Bush's thinking in spending increases in education, but here's the problem. Spending for education has been increasing for decades and the performance of our students has continued to wane.
How about the average Joe, say maybe in the 60th percentile? Doesn't have a chance. He may never learn to count back change, but he can be schooled to ask, "would you like fries with that?"
Just an observation.
posted by Ol' BC @ 10:01 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Beef! Welcome back. The article does address some of that. Most of it does get back to the "teaching" part.
I'd say the teachers' unions have a lot to do with these problems as well.
It's ridiculous the lengths I have seen these organizations go to to protect the incompetent.
RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com
Protection of the incompetent. That is indeed a big part of it in some systems. I happen to subscribe that any form of assessment, even if flawed, is better than none. It provides some level of accountability. At least NCLB starts with one premise - the child should learn something.
NCLB standards are quite attainable indeed.
The problem with NCLB is is severe lack of constitutionality. In a nutshell, it is illegal and should never have been passed in the first place.
RWR
NCLB will fail just like every other federal intrusion into states' rights, simply because it's an intrusion into states' rights.
There was a reason the founders' included the Tenth Amendment in the Bill of Rights.
RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com
That reason must be to be disregarded by later generations. There is so much of the constitution that has been disregarded along the way. It's becoming the rule rather than the exception.
Whether or not it is Constitutional has quite a bit to do with a lot of things, including whether it will work.
First of all, its unconstitutionality disqualifies it from being attempted in the first place.
Second, there are reasons for disallowing things in the Constitution, such as - it won't work. Look at all the failed unconstitutional socialist programs in America for your evidence.
RWR
www.rightwingrocker.com
NCLB is a start. Could it be refined? Yes. Do not under any circumstances cave into the union of those who want merely to coast to a paycheck. Maintain the measures, just make them reasonable. Maintain the accountability. Too many people that couldn't make it in business or engineering are teaching our children. Too many that truly care about teaching are now selling real estate or insurance. Oops. That's another post.
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