With all due respect, I don't care what they do in South Whales
The state is New South Wales.
If the Aussies in South Wahles are so smart, why haven't they( you) created any of the major technological advances of our decade?
Oh, but they have. You don't care about New South Wales, remember? Otherwise I'd list them for you.
I were you I would not rush to judgement on what American children do or do not need ,based upon what you had in South Whales a number of years ago.
Fox and Friends talked this morning about 41,000 12th grade students in Florida who couldn't even answer tests at 10th grade level. The reason is the extremely poor education system. Touchy-feely education doesn't teach anything.
Year after year is showing American kids are being left behind. Hi-Tech jobs are going to places like India- for many reasons - because its cheaper and also because the employer doesn't have to spend his $$ having his employees taught basic math.
Had an Hispanic girl work for me at NASA -- she was admitted to UCLA and got her degree as a EE (Electrical Engineering). She didn't even know the basics -- like Ohm's law. She only got her degree because she was a female minority in a male dominated department.
I could go on. But you get the drift. There's nothing wrong with taking a test. That is of course, if the parents are actually teaching their kids.
Exactly my point about the American Public school students getting left behind. They are tested and tested by our socialist education system to no avail. I hope for something better for my children than to have their education dictated to them by some liberal agenda.
I choose to homeschool because my husband and I can do a better job than the public schools ,and all of their tests. We will decide what our children need to be tested on. We will decide what they need to learn and when they learn it.
I have no problem having my children tested, but I believe it should be for our purposes. If they are not up to par, than we pay the consequences.
I am talking about standardized test for homeschoolers.
This is the population that needs to LOWER our standards in order pass the public school standardized tests. There are a hundred good reasons my children will never attend a public school. Their low standards are just one reason.
For example, my five year old loves learning about the theory of flight, inventions, fractions, computer technology and science. I am not going to hold him back ,by forcing him to STOP learning these things, so I can spend his time addressing the state and federal standards for pre-schoolers.
In America I have that right ,and I choose to use it. Since we are talking about the welfare of my child, I take it seriously enough to make sure he knows whatever he needs to know to be sucessful in the market when he is older.I have already begun my research on what college entrance may look like in 10-13 years, and what skills may be needed THEN ,for success. The people who make up, and force ,the standardized tests are not as interested in my child's welfare as I am , believe me.
I have no intention on forming my child's education on any standardized test, ever.
You may think it is bogus, but my sister in law over there at NASA agrees with me about homeschooling, if you are in the San Fan area you could look her up and ask her if she know about OHM's law. I bet she does and my husband , who will be teaching my five year old science and math , understands it and knows how to apply it. I estimate we will be learning about that in a year or two. My son has already asked some basic questions about electricty..... Perhaps we should not bother since that won't be on the standardized tests for kindergarden, will it?
It's a complicated issue. In this part of the country, we have a lot of non-English speaking parents --often single mothers who didn't go to school themselves and don't care at all if their children go to school. Without testing you wouldn't know if the children are playing in the streets all day or sitting with their welfare moms watching television all day.
But if a family is self-reliant, uses no food stamps, medicaid or is living on any taxpayer program I think it's a different matter ---obviously such a family knows how to provide a living for itself, they would do the right thing for their kids ---I could see the government leaving alone those who aren't dependent on government programs but interfering more with those who are dependents of it.