Posted on 12/04/2016 7:36:12 AM PST by wintertime
Proposal:
Award any child ( regardless of age) an official high school diploma from his local high school if they score above a certain level on the SAT, ACT, or GED exams.
Why?
1) If the purpose of compulsory education laws is to produce literate and numerate citizens then scoring above a certain level on the SAT, ACT, or GED is proof of that.
2) Fewer students in school will reduce the number of teachers needed. This means fewer salaries, pensions, and benefits that must be paid by the taxpayers. It may even mean closing down and selling some schools and property.
3) It reduces the amount of time the student spends being influenced and indoctrinated by Marxist trained teachers.
4) The young person can start post-high school training and/or college and begin his career years sooner. Increasing the years working can literally mean hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars more earned over a lifetime. The state certainly will benefit from the tax dollars collected and the young person can benefit from a better standard of living and a more secure retirement.
4)) There are advantages to having an official high school diploma when applying for college loans and scholarships, or when applying to enlist in the military.
5) The more time a person spends working in the real world of a free economy the more likely his is to understand and appreciate conservative principles.
I live in Illinois and am a retired teacher.
What you are proposing here would have absolutely NO chance of passage in this state.
During my career I watched as the state's school system went from an institution that was charged with educating the young to a system that was designed to provide jobs and insurance for union teachers.
These teachers of course are a part of the money laundering operation that the democrat party has developed in many of the states.
These "arrangements" will be defended by whatever means are necessary to insure their survival.
Neither the incompetent teachers/union members nor the unamerican democrat party can survive without these scams and you can rest assured that ANY attack on any part of these alliances will be fought in ANY way that they can imagine.
Excellent article! Here’s a link:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB121858688764535107
We probably do need to develop standardized competency tests in some disciplines, but that would be a really worthwhile endeavor, since it would allow objective evaluation, just as is possible in the CPA example.
I really like this quote, I’ve been saying the same thing for years...decades, actually. And it actually does apply to engineering as well, since the field changes so quickly that by the time a student has completed a BS degree what they learned is typically 2 years old, and that’s enough to often be obsolete:
“Outside a handful of majors — engineering and some of the sciences — a bachelor’s degree tells an employer nothing except that the applicant has a certain amount of intellectual ability and perseverance”
My version: “A college degree is essentially proof that a person has learned something about how to learn things”.
Oh! I see! K-12 schools are really prisons for children whose only crime was to be born. /s
Our entire state has significantly fewer students than ten years ago, but more ‘educators’. We’re seeing an explosion of special ed educators, para educators, facilitators and other associated hand-holders. The average student cost for a year of indoctrination is $18k (more than most universities) and the average special ed student is over $55k. That’s where the money is.
More daycare than prison, but yes, essentially. You really don’t know what inner city kids can be like in large numbers at that age.
Alas, the trend is moving in the opposite direction—they are raising the age to legally “drop out”. The real reason has little to do with education—it is to keep ferals “off the streets” for as long as possible, ie. baby sitting.
I taught junior high for over thirty years. Two hundred years ago, my 7th and 8th graders would have been considered adults. The girls would be getting married and the boys would be apprenticed out to learn a trade. We, as a society, for better or worse, have artificially extended “chlldhood”. It is one reason why those years are so difficult. These “kids” are or can be so much more capable than we think.
The time spent on campus and expense to the student could be reduced enormously.
For example....How much does Calculus or Differential Equations change from year to year? Of course laboratory classes, clinical rotations, and internships need personal interaction with teachers and professors.
Answer: An idea!
That we exist at all began as an idea in the mind of God.
I had a Prof who made the following comment about newly minted bachelors, masters & PhD degrees. (He was my Master’s degree co-advisor, so he was talking about it from an EE perspective but I think it applies in general.)
1. Bachelor degree implies you can be taught/trained,
2. Master’s degree implies see 1), think a little, & maybe be a little creative,
3. PhD degree implies see 1) & 2), write about it (a little!), maybe be a bit independent.
Your mileage with above may vary.
The ultimate goal has to be the elimation of government-run schools, at all levels including the university level. We should have a system mainly made up of private, non-profit religious colleges along with for-profit colleges that focus in career-oriented subjects. The “liberal arts” education should go to the dustbin of history.
Secular private colleges should be allowed to continue only after they are thoroughly investigated and purged of anti-American elements. After that, they should be closely monitored.
Anti-American academics should be given the choice to leave the country or be segregated into communities set up to house them — communities from which posting anything on the Internet or sending outgoing mail to anyone but close relatives would be banned.
I agree!
Charles Murray has an excellent article on certifiable credentialing exams. They could start as early as first grade. Please do a search on the following words:
“Charles Murray For Most People College is a Waste of Time”
“2) Fewer students in school will reduce the number of teachers needed. This means fewer salaries, pensions, and benefits that must be paid by the taxpayers. It may even mean closing down and selling some schools and property”.........
I DO NOT see any schools being closed as the minorities will flock to those empty buildings DEMANDING a free education for their yet to be born illegal children.
We didn’t have a loophole. I was gifted and talented (reading college level at 7 and doing college math at 10) and had an IQ test that put me over `160 but even the Community colleges would not let me in until I had the CHSPE which I had to be 16 to take.
For example, I did **not** say “put them all in college”. Did you read the words that I did say? “Post high school training, work, and/or college”?
Next, the ACT, SAT, and GED exams are ***voluntary*** exams. Only the students and parents who wanted the option would be taking these exams.
It is unlikely that children who hate school and hate working hard would do well on these exams.
For those who have been studious enough to pass the SAT, ACT, GED, or community college placement exams, these are very students who are very unlikely to be “yelling out cheeky remarks”. Any student who did that would be asked to leave the classroom. Period! No questions asked. And...They would be shunned by the other students, too!
Finally, why should hard working and intelligent students be forced in to a highly **ABUSIVE** environment that no adult would tolerate simply because they haven't reached some magic age?
You, as a parent, do as well. Yes, I remember the truant officer coming to our home when my kids were homeschoolers.
Most people fail to understand that behind every government school teacher stand police, courts, and even prison sentences. ( Real bullets in those guns on the hip.)
One of the problems my homeschoolers had with entering college at young ages was the lack of a high school diploma. Without that diploma they were ineligible for scholarships. Thankfully, we did not need loans.
As I said, child labor laws prevent 13 and 14 year olds from working. As for the other two, you'd be putting them in with adults who are paying their own way. You put in one or two adolescents who behave themselves, it's okay. You put in 6 or 7, the whole tone changes. No adult who is paying his own way through college wants to help baby-sit other people's adolescents.
Next, the ACT, SAT, and GED exams are ***voluntary*** exams. Only the students and parents who wanted the option would be taking these exams.
They are also expensive to administer and grade, and the ones taking the test will be the ones who want out of school, period. That means a ton, and I mean a TON of cocky little kids who hate school would be blithely saying "I'll just test out" because kids always think they are smarter than they actually are. So you'd get a tremendous financial waste from kids who think they are so smart they can b.s. their way through it (only to find they can't) and it would be just as expensive to administer and score that many tests as to keep the current system.
Now, a certain number of kids will test out. But that leads to the next problem. Behavior. Maturity level. You really only know YOUR children. You don't know other people's children. I've been a teacher for 12 years now. I have dealt with about 2,000 kids, and let me tell you, the schools are full of kids who are bright, but not necessarily mature, responsible, or polite. These are the kids who'd either end up running about loose, or shoved into college classes where adult students, who are paying good money, would be forced to put up with their nonsense.
It is unlikely that children who hate school and hate working hard would do well on these exams.
Oh, you really have no idea what you are talking about. I've known plenty of bright kids who can pass a test, but they are still 14. They still act like 14 year olds. And no 22 year old who is taking on a ton of student loan wants to be in a college class with 4 or 5 of these little Jokers.
For those who have been studious enough to pass the SAT, ACT, GED, or community college placement exams, these are very students who are very unlikely to be “yelling out cheeky remarks”.
You really haven't met enough teenagers.
Any student who did that would be asked to leave the classroom. Period! No questions asked. And...They would be shunned by the other students, too!
Yes. Then what? Then what do we do with them?
A discussion of possible interest to homeschoolers.
Although it wouldn’t apply to homeschoolers.
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