The Brunswick News
Over the past several decades, public school education in America has been examined, re-examined and examined again by every kind of expert imaginable. It's been probed, dissected and X-rayed more than any other service or program funded by taxpayers.
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Tue, May 21, 2013 - 07:07 PM
Wow...what an angry little tirade you went on there. I see alcohol has not made you [...]
Tue, May 21, 2013 - 06:04 PM
Julia, is there anything going on here that you in particular actually do not think [...]
Tue, May 21, 2013 - 05:57 PM
Seriously, what difference does it make if it is allowed to be purchased every day o [...]
Tue, May 21, 2013 - 04:42 PM
Hi Carol,
In poking around, I came across the Quarter Horse Assn and they have so [...]
Tue, May 21, 2013 - 02:02 PM
Renting a movie or taking kids to the movies doesn't compare to buying alcohol. If 6 [...]
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People *thought* that NCLB would be good. But, most people don't understand the reality of it. Students have to pass state tests in order for schools to get MONEY.
But instead of actually TEACHING students so they CAN pass the tests so the schools CAN get the money, schools actually dumb down the curiculum, give the answers to the tests ALL YEAR LONG.
The ONLY thing that schools teach is what is on these state tests- and the students are STILL failing? What is wrong with this picture?
I don't know what it's going to take to get rid of NCLB, I guess people in education are fighting so much to keep it because it's their 'easy way out', they dont' actually have to do their job and TEACH, all they have to do is spoon feed information into studetns like robots, so they can MEMORIZE, not LEARN the answers to the STATE TESTS so the schools can GET THAT MONEY!
MOST parents dont' know that this is what is happening to their children in public schools. Most parents don't know that they are paying these so called educators their paychecks to do this to their own children.
Most parents dont' know that LOTS of educators send their children to private, christian, homeschools.
One word- HOMESCHOOL !!!!!!
Disclaimer: For the purpose of understanding this deficiency, and for the purpose of discussion, the concept should be confined to the military test, only. Obviously, the problem is an indicator that the deficiency spills over into other areas of failed-accomplishment, as well.
If a potential Army Recruit can't pass the entrance test, would that indicate that the public school system has failed to educate the student, when he / she gets to the middle school curriculum, for example?
Another question would be, how much of the problem can be legitimately blamed on the educational system vs. parental support? It seems to be a mixed bag that involves approach on several different levels. For example, is simple math taught thru memorization vs. teaching a 'mental picture' of the concept that is being taught? Are there too many assumptions being made by the teachers that the students are 'connecting-the-dots'?
Is the curriculum not structured in a manner to help the student grasp the material? Possibly, the students may be learning-disabled, and 'are just not getting it'. Identifying the reason(s) for the student's failure to master the necessary levels of accomplishments to be functional should not be rocket science. The real dilemma, at least superficially, appears to be mass production of getting them thru the system on time to free up room for those behind them.
A second solution is to open up education to choice. One of the hallmarks of socialism is the removal of choice and the substitution of state controlled selection. In other words, you get what the state chooses to give you.
The Founding Fathers never wanted that but America increasingly is under a privilege based command and control government that requires you to obtain permission to do just about anything today. And the government school system is on the forefront of indoctrinating students into that way of thinking. Acceptance of a totalitarian government authority is a prime directive from the federal government to be reinforced at the local level.
School choice would throw the doors open to a truly free education system where students could find and receive high quality education. It has the potential to restore the Republic and bring America back to a position of power and respect.
Our current educational system is leading America into ruin.
Making the system private or shifting funds into private schools will only make things worse,because a few people who have the resources would buy a good education and the bulk of people would be stuck with an even worse public system as the haves migrate to private schools. We have to get the bulk of Americans educated and working to succeed. I don't see that happening because we are greedy and think only short term.
how to count change back from a dollar-they need a machine to tell them how much to give back. The students do not mind,they do
not sit and listen. The teachers do not
have the authority to make them mind and sit down and listen-as the old days. If I could not pronounce a word correctly I got hit on my hand by a wooden ruler. A teacher can not do this today. But it will make you learn, I promise.
Homeschoolers are working with a fraction of the government budget while producing fairly well educated students.
I think part of the solution is to rebuild the family unit. The best way to do that is to pray for Christian revival in this land. Strong families can survive the government school experience. It's the weak families that come out losers in that environment. And there are an increasing number of dysfunctional families in society.
Teachers deserve a medal of honor for attempting to educate children from dysfunctional families. I repeat - the solution to dysfunctional family units is Christian Revival.
Following that, we need local control and funding over our school system. Removing State and Federal control empowers local families to influence and take a bigger part in their childrens' education.
Most parents today know that they have little to no control over any part of the government school system except for sports.
And if teachers today don't know anything - just think about the next generation of teachers. They'll know even less because that is the goal of the federal government.
The less you know, the less trouble you'll make for those in charge.
Allow me to firmly establish a few concrete facts first. Slavery should have NEVER happened, but it did. It was ABOLISHED and it should have been.
Integration of schools naturally followed and it SHOULD have, but not in the way it was handled. Why?
Just as in every other aspect of life the African-American citizens were attending schools that in no way measured up to the schools of the Caucasians. The schools of white people had the best teachers, the best buildings, the better of everything. Face it, we did.
BUT....our generation did not bring the slaves over. It fell on our generation to solve a problem that we did not cause.
The Blacks integrated Pike County High with brute force. I remember the day. It scared me to death. Why did they do this? Because they were fed up and had the necessary force and power to finally correct the situation in the only way they understood. Brute force. Mad people in big groups can accomplish anything in the world. ANYTHING. If you cannot, you need more mad people. This was their way of telling us that "we Blacks are people too!"
So, schools integrated, bussed people all around to make everybody happy. As always, we had to go overboard. We did not realize that it is impossible to put second grade level students into the seventh grade and expect favorable results. They were probably A-B students in their old school but now they were thrown overnight into an educational Bootcamp which consisted of all white Chief Petty Officers. A little time passes and OOPS, the new recruits OBVIOUSLY cannot make the grade.
Oh my, what will we do now? You cannot hold all black students back, that would be discrimination at its' worst. So in the end we took the path of least resistance, we lowered our standards.
What should we have done differently? In my opinion, we should have started integration in
the first grade. The blacks would have still had the disadvantage of name calling and some abuse from other children. That is when teachers should have stepped up and enforced "getting along with others." That is also when parents should have lost the KKK attitude which they shoved into their childrens mind. BUT that is not how people work.
That being said, whites do not owe black people a damn thing today that they do not earn, the black people owe the whites NOT A DAMN THING that they do not earn. We are Americans, not Irish Americans, German Americans, African Americans, Italian Americans, etc.
Now, make the classes more difficult starting from the first grade. Pass the ones who deserve it and hold back the ones that do not. It has taken 50 years to level the playing field, now it is so level that there is not a hill in sight. Put back the challenges people. If kids cannot behave send their asses home to their parents who should be raising them. It will take 50 more years to get us back up to where we once were, so get to moving on it. Hire TOP OF THE LINE first grade teachers, next year hire TOP OF THE LINE second grade teachers, etc. as time progresses the currently inadequate (because of their weak education) teachers will retire and a new and much more intelligent breed of AMERICANS will evolve.
We all owe illegal immigrants NOT A DAMN THING.
If you don't believe that, take a look at the new laws coming out of Washington DC just in the past 3 years. Not one of them is constitutional. Yet, who is taught the constitution today? And when you have voters who are clueless about the constitution, you have the perfect environment for government tyrants to pass any law they choose.
That's what you have today and that's why the government school system is so dangerous.
Are you blaming the problem on rich, white people? If this is a black problem, why don't they start marching in the streets again? Marching in the streets got them in the schools in the first place. Take a survey of all the kids doing poorly in school and see how many have two parents raising them and how many hours the child is left unsupervised. Both my parents were highschool drop-outs, my mom stayed home with us kids while daddy worked and we were not on welfare, and you can bet if I'd gotten in trouble at school I'd gotten it 10 times worse when I got home... mama wouldn't have called the local newsstation crying that her "baby" was mistreated by the teacher.
It is the problem of instant integration all over again. We need to start at the bottom, pay for the best teachers that money can buy and demand acceptable grades from students or hold them back until they can pass without teachers changing test scores to achieve more money. And the plan needs to start yesterday.
If kids cannot behave, the parents can home reform school them, so that the other students can have a chance at success. I'd bet that obama would flunk out on Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader. I know he would.
I'm confident that my opinions will be improperly taken but Americans have ceased being Americans and different groups want to be something else. I use the most obvious term of African-American. The term is racist and is primarily used as a descriptive terminology for blacks. However, many other races have roots in Africa, including whites. What should they be called? I’d be willing to bet there are no American-Africans in Africa. There they are probably just referred to as foreigners. Therefore, if people, regardless of race, wish to be a subtitled American, then the person probably wishes to be something else and my recommendation is foreigner! There are Americans and then there’s something else. If they want to be something else then they aren’t really Americans.
A military can’t defend a way of life if they don’t know the way of life they are supposed to defend. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”. If they are taught to be machines they will never understand they are equal. “But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.” They need to understand history to preserve the future. They must know that they are included as “We the People” and that one of their primary duties is to defend the Constitution of the United States. If they don’t know what the Constitution says, then these words, “I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;” really have no meaning. They may be required under that oath to obey the orders of the president; however, the president is required to take an oath. “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
In my opinion, an uneducated military with ignorance of history and the founding of a republic could actually follow a president in an attempt to overthrow a nation. An “F” is unacceptable for those we trust to defend our way of life.
I have observed high school juniors put their heads down on their desks and sleep while a teacher had to read out loud to them. The teacher had to read the material to the class because he was the one on the hook for the students' performance. The students simply did not want to learn the material, and by now I am sure they are finding out that there are not very many jobs for people who want to put their heads down and go to sleep. The armed forces should not take them, and if they fail the test, that is the consequence of their laziness and lack of motivation.
Blame the students--they are the ones responsible for their lack of learning. Quite frankly, the schools and teachers are better than they ever have been.
I know nothing about you, GM, except that your logic and Old Timey American way of thinking is being under-utilized if you are not running for one of the many offices that will be empty in about a year.
Happy New Year to a man who speaks his mind, and obviously has one.
Standards dropped, like taxes raised, don't change easily.
Why not read John Gatto's book? You might find it to be ... rational.
why he personally should not do as he wants to do, or why his friends should not seize political power and
govern in the way that they find most advantageous to themselves. … For myself, the philosophy of
meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, s**ual and political.”
Aldous Huxley (evolutionist, leftist, and grandson of T.H. Huxley,
known as "Darwin's bulldog"): Ends and Means, pp. 270 ff.
Whether you like it or not, God created all the beautiful skin colors for His enjoyment. Like the different colored flowers in a summer field, He created all that 'diversity' because He felt like it. You have no say about different skin colors unless you choose to play God in your personal world.
So what dividend does humanity earn by even discussing the attributes of others who have different skin colors? Absolutely nothing. Because God made all the skin colors. And if He made them, there must be something good about each of them.
I propose that we embrace each other and move forward on the real issues at hand. We must work together to put a stop to those who would rob us of our constitutionally guaranteed liberties by forcing a tyrannous education system on all the people. One that seeks to install a new slavery on all the skin colors. A basket of skin colors that live in a once free nation.
The white - black conflict is a complete waste of time. A clever manipulation of a dull thinking population.
Here's a radical thought: Love thy neighbor. Jesus said it's not enough to love your family and your friends. Love your 'enemies' too. If you hate a skin color - try loving that skin color.
This is the most powerful way to defeat the evil that occupies Wash DC today. And it will put America on the path to restoration. In education, the economy, and our liberties.
We let a group of slick federal government agents move in and pervert our educational system. Let's stop sending GA tax monies to the federal government. Keep our money here. Let Georgia voters decide how to spend our tax dollars on educating our precious children.
Robert, I just might read the Gatto book, but if I understand the premise, there is a conspiracy to dumb down Americans to make them more easily controllable. I think Americans have done a pretty good job of dumbing themselves down on their own.
I do not buy the idea that students are being taught "nonsense in a nonsensical fashion." The class where students were falling asleep was American literature, and the result would have been the same if they were being taught the Declaration of Independence or even basic carpentry. I do not want to paint with too broad a brush, but in my experience, students today generally will not read anything substantial; they want PowerPoint presentations so they can recall facts on multiple choice tests. Our county does have some young excellent scholars, however. Some students do have the drive to learn, and they are on a course to substantial personal success.
If some high school graduates are generally underprepared or completely unprepared for higher-level thinking, I believe it is because they have simply refused to do it. For all the talk of holding teachers accountable, no one can motivate someone who does not value education. In addition, critical thinking processes are hard to learn, and some students just come up with their own nonsense like "I just can't do math." At the end of the day, students are personally accountable for their academic performance.
Education begins at home with the family culture. If the child's family values education, so will the student. Education is also hard, and it takes personal discipline. To me, it seems that no conspiracy is necessary to make Americans dumb: too many simply lack the discipline or desire to succeed. It's easier to blame the government than reflect critically on how one reached a certain place. What is nonsensical to me is the idea that people are not responsible for their own failures.
No reply needed. You are to stubborn to change your opinion and I am right, with no need to change mine.
I have also said in previous posts that strong family units can make a big difference in the level of learning a student takes from the government school monopoly.
But you can't deny the facts Steve. From nationsreportcard dot gov, only 38% of twelfth-graders can read at or above a "proficient" level. In math, only 26% of our 12th-graders could perform at or above a proficient level.
15 year-old students from 34 economically advanced countries participated in the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment a/k/a PISA. The American students ranked 25th on the math test and 17th on the science portion.
Can much of this be blamed on the government school system? If not, who? And these education results are not isolated events. They are just a small report on an alarming trend in America. We are truly headed for 3rd world status.
This is the dividend that America has received after spending billions (some same trillions) on our government education system.
Mighty sad. This political correct crap needs to be shoved up somebody's politically correct butt!
Where we differ, perhaps, is that I think some students choose ignorance. It does not take a government conspiracy to make people undisciplined and unmotivated; people can do that on their own. Many reasons exist for the performance trend you bring up, but in the end, learning is a choice made by each individual student. Teachers and schools here do an excellent job of facilitating learning, but students are responsible for their own level of performance.
Let me give you an example. If I have to do 75 push-ups for a test in the future, and I know I can now only do 25, I can hire a personal trainer or I can work out on my own. If the trainer prescribes a diet for me and a work-out schedule, or I come up with my own plan, I need to follow it and build my strength. If I fail to follow the plan and fail to make the cut on test day, who is responsible? Should I blame the personal trainer if I just sat around and got fat? Should I blame the federal government for not making me do enough push-ups as a child? Isn't it my fault if I failed to work out and follow the diet?
I would encourage people to take responsibility for their own learning; if they do not know American history, then nothing is stopping them from going to the library or the book store and informing themselves. I know there are biographies of Adams and Jefferson just sitting on the shelves. No one is making the kids put their heads down on their desks. No one is encouraging them not to take notes in class. No one is telling them that math can be understood by ignoring homework problem sets. No one is telling them to write papers hours before they are due or plagiarize them from some web site. Students do this to themselves.
As I said, Lamar has many bright young scholars who will go far. The education system here is what the students and parents make of it. If a child does not succeed, then perhaps--dare I say it--it is his or her own fault.
As to conspiracy - I will post about that in the future. There definitely is a conspiracy.
Here's how I see the conspiracy. Either the people in charge are stupid. No... they're not stupid. OK, so they are making mistakes. No... if that was true, they would be making the same mistakes over and over again. That's stupid. So I rule that out.
The third option: they are deliberately sabotaging our education system for their narrow needs.
Now you might be asking: "Who are they?"
"They" are a shadowy group behind much of the unconstitutional taxes and laws passed in the US over the past 10 decades. There is a group that promotes:
1. Police state
2. Gun bans
3. Control of every facet of your medical condition
4. Control over your food supply from seed to dinner table. (S510)
5. Endless undeclared and unconstitutional wars in absurd places. (American troops in 130+ nations. There are 194 nations in the world?) Or how about the Coast Guard patrolling off the coast of Georgia? Oops - the Georgia in the Black Sea region of Europe - oops!
6. Control over US energy. The cost of energy has skyrocketed since the US "Energy" Dept took over stewardship of our energy supply.
Steve- I could go on and on. Conspiracy is when a few people with the ability to accomplish something, get together and work towards accomplishing something. And we clearly can see that today.
Add up just the 6 points above and you get the raw ingredients - the "Checkmate" if you will - for complete government take-over of society for the purpose of command and control.
The US government education system is complicit in this and that is the first "enemy of the people" I would undo if I could.
Now that does NOT mean I would rid the nation of our valuable educators. I would eliminate the government monopoly and give the American people the choice they deserve.
One hallmark of socialism-communism: No Choice for the people. The government makes your choices for you. And that's one of the goals of the "conspiracy".
Thank you Steve for your rational posts!
2 Chr 7:14
Leave it to us.....we find a bad apple in the bushel, we throw away the good ones and keep the bad one. In other words............What did the Prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance hurt in schools?
It didn't take long for guns, dope, deputies and death to replace prayer did it?
AND we need it in 2012.
And every Christmas, we enable this behavior. Perhaps we can set an example by turning off the television and computers and picking up a book. If this catches on, expect advertisements inserted in the margins.