[ExI] common core educations standards, was: RE: far future

[spike]

>. On Behalf Of Adrian Tymes
Subject: Re: [ExI] common core educations standards, was: RE: far future

 

On Jan 21, 2014 10:49 AM, "Kelly Anderson" <kellycoinguy at gmail.com> wrote:
>>. Put another way, just imagine how incredible the results would be if we
spent as much extra on the top 5% of students as we now spend on the bottom
5% of students. What if Special Education were bi-polar? What would that
look like?

>.Speaking as one of those top 5% who got Special Education because he stuck
out from the crowd...

 

Oy vey, this old debate.

When I was in that scene so tragically many years ago, the whole debate was
so very similar to what it is today.  We had phasing or separation by
ability in Florida public schools, and it was controversial back in the 70s.
(Yes dammit, NINETEEN seventies, not eighteen.)

They kept pointing out the system was helping students who didn't need help,
their test scores were already way up in the high 90s, so why are we helping
them rather than spending the money on those who cannot even read, yakkity
yak and bla bla.  The teacher we had for Quest volunteered to teach a dozen
of us without pay: he was doing it on his free time.  I had three different
teachers do that, after they pointed out the obvious: the lowest decile was
a black hole for funding.  You can pump as much money as you want into that,
and the scores go almost nowhere.  The lowest decile has zero interest in
learning, other than learning where they can score some excellent dope.  But
the top decile, oh my, they need so very little and do so very much with
just that little, just a stack of books, no supervision necessary or
desired.

What the school board finally settled on was that the top couple percentile
needed exactly nothing the school didn't already have: just let us go to the
library and study whatever we wanted.  It didn't require a teacher, didn't
require anyone to check up on our progress, just get the helllll out of the
way.  For a few students, you just need to clear the runway; they will take
off and soar with eagles.  The other end of the spectrum will never fly,
even if you hurl them off a cliff with a hang glider and a parachute,
hanging under several hundred helium balloons.

And yet here we are, legalizing dope and having our president tell kids it
is no worse than alcohol.  We have had three presidents in a row now who
were stoners in their youth, and each has been steadily worse than his
predecessor.  Dope IS harmful to kids: it kills their motivation and drive.
It is OK for the older set, but it is poison for those who are in a position
in life where they need to grind and drive, every single waking minute.  It
is the cause of a lot of that lowest decile being down there.

But I digress.

spike 

 

 

 

 

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