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What's making everyone stupid is stupid government regulations. For example, as a teacher, I am judged by how many of my kids PASS the state exams NOT how well they do on average on the state exams. My bottom line number is how many low performing kids don't pass. Guess who I have to cater to in my classroom to keep my job??? I teach to the bottom of the class because that's all they will measure and I live or die by the number of kids at the bottom who don't pass the test. I'm better off getting 5 kids to pass the test who wouldn't have otherwise than I am helping 50 kids who are already passing increase their scores. So much for "raising the bar" on education. The government has us doing the limbo.
The 80/20 rule of teaching is that you will spend 80% of your effort on the 20% of students who will accomplish the least.
And, FTR, the price of gas has gone up six fold in the same period so I don't know why you're complaining about the cost of education tripling. Gas was $.60/gallon when I started driving back in 1974. I paid $3.79/gallon the other day. What union are you going to blame for the price of gas?
AND we have made improvements. 40 years ago, we didn't test all students. Now we do. Please compare apples to apples not apples to oranges. Back when I took the ACT and SAT, the tests were optional. They are now required. So, yes, average scores have gone down. That's because back in the 70's we tested only the kids intending to go to college. Now we test them all.
While I do think our current focus on the bottom is harming education in this country, the unions didn't do that. Politicians did.
Stassele is like saying the Huffington post said. Its not unbiased and he is nothing more than a Ayn Rand follower. Its propaganda at its best and total BS.
I think many public school are copying what is work for the charter school.
At least my school district is doing that. On reading, they have small group that encourage reading and learn from each other instead of the same boring crap I had like 20 years ago. Children actually like participate in this small group and they are learning much better in the traditional classroom settings from the 50s.
How many kids actually have 2 parents at home? How many kids have seen a parent read a book or even a newspaper? My 35 years of working in heavy industry has maybe skewed my outlook a little but I think the #1 reason that these kids don`t know very much is because their parents don`t know very much and their expectations for their children are low.Someone blaming unions for the stupidity of their kid is just...stupid.
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I teach to the bottom of the class because that's all they will measure and I live or die by the number of kids at the bottom who don't pass the test. I'm better off getting 5 kids to pass the test who wouldn't have otherwise than I am helping 50 kids who are already passing increase their scores. So much for "raising the bar" on education. The government has us doing the limbo.
