Those of us who manage the Public Education ping list would also like you to stop posting lies about us.
If you want to have your own education ping list, we have no problem with that. However, we decide which threads to ping based on content, not on who posts the thread (note that unless you are Tammy Drennan, you are not the "author" of this one).
Obviously, we only ping to threads of which we are aware, and even though there are 4 of us, we do not monitor FR 24/7. If you'd like an article you post to be considered for a ping to the Public Education ping list, the easiest way to make that happen is to ping one of us and let us know the article exists. Since you haven't done that, I suspect that the purpose of your explanation is pure snarkiness.
The guidelines for inclusion on the public education ping list are as follows:
This list is for intellectual discussion of articles and issues related to public education (including charter schools) from the preschool to university level. Items more appropriately placed on the “Naughty Teacher” list, “Another reason to Homeschool” list, or of a general public-school-bashing nature will not be pinged.
I personally tend not to ping articles from World Nut Daily, because those articles tend to be inaccurately reported.
Again, if you'd like to have your own ping list, the four of us do not mind, but please refrain from posting lies about other FReepers.
Huh?...Have you included me on your ping list after many requests?
Have you refused to post my threads in the past?
This is a lie?
But...I am glad to see that you are reconsidering.
By the way....I am asking **again** for you to include my name on the Public Education Ping List. I would enjoy being notified of your education articles.
I request that when I notify you of the threads that I originate that you ping the others on your list. If you choose not to do this, and explanation of the thread's lack of worth would be interesting to read.
Personally, I don’t have time to scour the internet looking specifically for articles related to the pitfalls and faults of public education services, but that is me.
Someone else may, and more power to them.
Additionally, my watching a ping list is a courtesy to fellow Freepers. Just like I am a visitor in Mr. Robinson’s forum, most of us run ping lists because it is a nice thing to do.
Anyway, back to the original thread, I completely agree that the current state of education is in need of reform, but as posted else-thread about the “Shakir” student, the only education he is going to have any interest in is survival on the street.
Back when I was in school and we were forced to diagram sentences, I would ask my teacher, quite honestly, what point this would serve us in the future and why we had to do it. Of course, I got no direct answer, but I promised myself then that once I became a teacher, no reasonable question along those lines would be ignored or glossed over with the trump hand of being the teacher and I said so.
While I completely understand the child’s disinterest in algebra, it skirts the main point of learning algebra: to learn critical thinking and problem solving skills. My brother is one of the most gifted and talented writers I know, but cannot do algebra; a cousin graduated summa cum laude from college with one ‘C’ in, you guessed it, algebra. (He is a lawyer now).
I agree that education needs overhauling, and many of my colleagues in the profession agree, but there are some things that can’t be helped. Problems understanding mathematics is one of them.
Anyway, that is my rant.:)