Posted on 02/27/2005 11:34:56 PM PST by The Loan Arranger
WASHINGTON — Addressing the nation's governors, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates (news - web sites) delivered a scathing critique of U.S. high schools Saturday, calling them obsolete and saying that elected officials should be ashamed of a system that leaves millions of students unprepared for college and for technical jobs.
Gates was speaking as the invited guest of some of the nation's most powerful elected officials, at a National Governors Assn. meeting devoted to improving high school education across the country.
"Training the workforce of tomorrow with today's high schools is like trying to teach kids about today's computers on a 50-year-old mainframe," said Gates, whose $27-billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (news - web sites) has made education one of its priorities.
"Everyone who understands the importance of education, everyone who believes in equal opportunity, everyone who has been elected to uphold the obligations of public office should be ashamed that we are breaking our promises of a free education for millions of students," added Gates, to strong applause.
Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, chairman of the nonpartisan association, said high school education was in need of an overhaul to raise standards and to closely align instruction with the requirements of colleges and employers.
"It is imperative that we make reform of the American high school a national priority," Warner, a Democrat, said.
The governors' winter meeting coincides with a push by President Bush to extend elements of his No Child Left Behind initiative from the primary grades to the high school level.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Parents better wake up and realize that the most important job they will ever, ever have is that of raising their child!
Very few parents are that involved. It takes a certain amount of accumulated cultural capital for that outlook. Stop wishing people were different. It isn't useful.
Define Fluff.
Parents who pay attention to what is going in the schools are not happy. Teachers really do not want "involvement" - they want parents to do be slaves to their classroom dictates without question or critique -- just like the students.
Gates is right.
I don't know who decided that high schools should contain thousands of students - what an idiotic plan. I suspect it has more to do with sports teams than education.
And your point is????
In Indiana, the ISTEP (statewide testing) scores were recently released. The Catholic schools averaged 89% pass rate compared to a 73% pass rate for the public schools. The biggest thing the Catholic schools (outside of teaching religious values) is class size, which tends to be considerably smaller than the public schools.
nineth graders aren't necessarily ready to decide what trade they would like for a lifetime career, although, for many, it would be better to put them to work for a three or four years and then let them continue their education when their adolescent phase was over.
Historically, humans have frequently sent their adolescents out to work, either being apprenticed in a trade, fostered out to learn manners and gain more adult allies who would be for them as they grew older.
The key here was interaction with adults.
Today, instead, we claim they need socialization with their peer group and put them in huge clusters where they learn bad behaviors from each other, don't get to model behaviors after adults, and are kept out of the work force, so they don't compete for the lower end job market.
I don't think it's a good model, but I wasn't able to get my husband to agree to let me home school my stepsons. If I had to do it all again, I would insist on it.
Socialism for Dummies 5.0
I agree with that too. What we now have is a legislator in Indiana with a bill that would require students to stay in school until they are 19 if they haven't graduated from high school. Doesn't look like it's going anywhere.
When I was a kid, I remember a girl in my class who was a fantastic artist and designer. She had no use for academic subjects. As soon as she was 16 she went to a NYC fashion school. She owned a boutique by the time she was 21. I don't know if she ever got her GED. Another girl left school to become a beautician. That was before you were required to get a GED or a high school diploma before you could apply to beauty school. I think that has to change.
I think the main reason why the school leaving ages creeps up higher and higher is that the powers that be don't want kids on the street.
There are some kids who aren't cut out for academic work. Let them apprentice if they want, take on-line courses if they want, flip burgers if they want or do all of it if they want. Coercing adolescents into going to schools where they don't want to be does no one any favors.
Interesting you should mention this. I just saw this link referenced on my phone bill last week... Verizon Online Courses.
No argument from me. However, I have a much greater appreciation and affection for HS football in Texas than I did previously.
Football is the engine that drives other major extracurricular activites at my kids' HS, such as band and drill team. To be sure, these programs would still perform at a high level, but the football games provide the venue for bringing them together. FWIW, our band has over 300 members, and the drill team has over 60.
I'm proud of both kids: my son plays trumpet in the band, and marched in the St. Patrick's Day parade in Dublin, Ireland last year. My daughter's drill team competes at a national competition this weekend in Florida, and she'll graduate with honors in May.
My youngest will be attending school at our parish when he's old enough for pre-K in two years. We moved to the Coppell area because of their excellent school system 8 years ago. However, the emphasis on "test-teaching", and the "Robin Hood" school finance system has hurt the quality of education. Over 25% of our local tax dollars go to "poorer" districts throughout the state.
The good people in Southlake, home of this year's mythical national football champion, are arguing as we speak about adding a second high school. Their biggest concern: diluting the talent pool for sports.
Oh please...do you think kids think about that and say "I may as well not do anything?"
Get real.
I believe they also can ship the troublemakers off to the public schools.
I think this observation is probably more applicable to colleges...why every state needs a massive State U campus to ship all its residents to for education today seems a bit of an anachronism...given the efficiencies of broadband it sees the same results could be achieved for the student at a fraction of the current cost...
Part of the problem is the illusion that education is free. Somebody is paying for it. Most often through property taxes. My son, who's now 28, never attended public school. He was enrolled in a private Christian Day School through the 6th grade and we homeschooled thereafter. Yet money is taken out of my pocket to support teachers who can't teach and parents who just want a place to stash the kids for a few hours every day.
Perhaps if parents had to pay for their own children's education, they would make sure Johnny is in school on time, does his homework and the teachers are doing what they're paid to do...TEACH, not indoctrinate the next generation.
The bottom line is that people graduating college these days rarely have skills that can be useful in thw workplace.
It is great that they know America is the source of all evil in the world, but what good does that do if they cannot even write simple correspondence or read a basic contract?
High school should be eliminated
Not a bad idea when you exchange students from other countries come here and attend school and are way ahead in education with the same class here. They can also speak 2 or 3 languages.
We have had H.S. graduates that could not fill out a job application or tell time from a standard clock.
The more money spent on the schools the less education the students receive.
First, who is we? Second, free? The boy ought to know nothing is ever free. At best, costs are transferred to someone who more than likely has the choice to pay or go to jail.
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