[A_perfect_lady]

Yes, I know who is to blame. I was a Freeper for years before I became a teacher. I'm just explaining that this is the current situation: one group mandates the curriculum, an entirely different bunch make the tests.

For myself, I stuff as much as I can in and around the blocks of the curriculum: Hemingway, Jane Austen, Francis Hodgson Burnett... some of those books I had to buy with my own money because the schools don't buy that sort of thing. I just wish more Freepers really understood what a teacher is up against.

[Presbyterian Reporter]

I believe most FReepers understand that the good teachers are up against the teacher union mentality of the majority.

How we get the voters energized to remove the teachers union mentality from the school system is another issue and I do not have an answer.

The high school two blocks from my house received “D” grades from 2004 to 2009 and a “C” grade in 2010. 2011 grades have not been released yet. And this is at a brand new high school that was totally rebuilt in 2002. Even with this dismal result I do not hear peep from the voters about the fact the kids are functionally illiterate when they graduate.

[arrogantsob]

Freepers miss a lot. They catch more than the population at large but when it comes to some issues it is more ideology than understanding.