Posted on 11/07/2006 12:15:26 AM PST by Antioch
Nine year-old Tyler Stoken, a student in the Aberdeen Public School District, didn't know how to answer an essay question on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning test. As punishment for leaving the question blank his principal suspended him for five days.
Tyler paraphrases the question saying, "You look out one day at school and see your principal flying by a window. In several paragraphs write what happens next." He's asked, "So why didn't you answer that question?" He says, "I couldn't think of what to write the essay without making fun of the principal."
He refused to answer the question even after his mother was called to the school. Tyler's mother Amy Wolfe says, "And he said he didn't know the answer. He just didn't know what to write. And they were telling me to make him answer the question."
He still didn't, so Tyler was given a 5-day suspension. In the letter that went home to mother, the principal writes, "The fact that Tyler chose to simply refuse to work on the WASL after many reasonable requests is none other than blatant defiance and insubordination." Shortly after receiving the suspension letter they received a phone call from Superintendent Marty Kay apologizing for the suspension.
"Because I think a mistake was made and over reacting to Tyler's refusal to complete the test," said Aberdeen school superintendent Marty Kay. ... The superintendent wants Tyler immediately re-instated at school. But Tyler’s mother says the damage has been done. Mom tells son, "Well, nobody will scream at you again. I promise you that." Tyler doesn't want to go to that school any more and you can't blame him. He was manipulated and then punished because he couldn't answer a test question.
WASL opponents also believe the principal and teachers broke the law by interfering with the WASL test. It had better have been a violation of the testing rules. If a teacher and principal browbeating a test taker into answering a question in any particular manner is not against the rules then the test is worse than useless.
Sadly, I can believe it. I bet your parents uses phonics, too. My parents taught me to read long before I was old enough for school. As a consequence, I took reading and writing as a given -- it was something you just did without a second thought. It is criminal how schools teach gimmicks that don't work so that people grow up not being able to read fluently. I guess all that folks need to know is how to read just enough to be able to vote for the name that has the letter "D" beside it.
The American people have spoken: Welcome to the freak-show.
I don't think so. I think the fix was in. I think this was planned. I think the teachers union money had a lot to do with this "will of the people" election.
Pelosi as chair"man". Gag me.
She reminds me of a screeching, well never mind.
The American people have spoken. Yea, the people who have been turned into little socialists via the government schools.
I know public schooling will not go away. It is just my dream. Really, I don't want it to go away, totally. I just want it to really be school, and not a playground for communist subversives, disguised as administrators and teachers. Although as you say, a lot of teachers are good.
But a lot are not. A lot are just pushing the socialist dream, which has been a disaster every where its been tried.
I may not be so great on history, but I know when something is drastically wrong. The election last night, my 4K of taxes I PAY, and the general atmosphere I live in now.
The May 1st marches down here in Dallas is what really triggerd my wrath on the school system and the whole FOOLISH governmental mess associated with mexico.
When I say the 3 Rs I mean every worthwhile real subject.
Pushing communist/socialist dreams via school, is NOT teaching the 3 Rs.
I just want to live in America again. I am tired of the DNC, mexican anchor babies in the school system, and a school system taylor made to achieve an eventual new world order, of NO FREEDOM.
The Freak-Show take over last night just means the socialist planners are well on their way to the ultimate victory they SO desire.
This is NOT about education, it is about socialism, stalinism, and no more America.
Let the Freak-Show begin. I can hardly wait for the screeching Pelosi (elected by the brain dead) to start her reign of evil.
I am beginning to understand why the South wanted to leave the union. They just got tired of being at odds with people who were going to be perpetual adversaries.
No offense to your point of view.
I'm just tired of paying for my own destruction. Slow but sure. Two steps forward, one back. ON and ON it goes.
Welcome to the FREAK-SHOW folks. We got what we wanted.
I don't think so. We got what we were going to get.
Nice victory, teachers union. One step closer to your dreams. Money and Power, and just wanting to "help" people.
Blah, Blah, Blah..........................................
altar
Right.
"Government" schools are the product of local authorities as it always has been. If there was a massive shift to homeschooling the economy would collapse. The opportunity costs of homeschooling are enormous far higher than even private schooling.
While I am not sure why you addressed that post to me it is ok.
The Treason Media achieved one last victory but I still believe we will triumph over it. The freakshow is not going to endear itself to the People.
Those things you dislike so much are about to be pushed even further down your throat. And they will be until the Treason Media is neutered.
How so?
Because the withdrawal of one parent as teacher from the workforce would cost that income to the family and the economy. Only low income parents withdrawal would not be very costly. The loss increases as the parent's income increases.
Example: if a parent making $50,000 stops working to teach then the opportunity cost of educating one child is $50,000, two-$25,000, three- 16,667, four- 12,500. Then one must add the actual outlays to arrive at a per student cost. These costs will be much higher than all but the most pricey of private educations.
This is not a reason not to homeschool but all costs must be considered.
There is no free lunch.
No one has to leave the workforce. I know many families in which both parents work outside the home and homeschool their child(ren). I also know single parents who are working and homeschooling their child(ren).
Nevertheless, not everyone "wants" to homeschool - I'd say the vast majority of people don't want to homeschool. All I want is complete and total privatization of education. On the private market, most families would probably opt to place their children into educational programs run by private schools, churches, corporations, etc.
There would be a larger selection of affordable programs. The homeschool community is really a private market (at least in my state, anyway), and the financial cost of education on the homeschool market is significantly lower, even though we enroll our children into different classes at colleges, museums, co-ops, etc.
Having worked and raised a family there is no way sufficient attention can be given running an educational program without something suffering. Most parents are not capable of running a top flight education program having neither the experience nor education necessary to do it.
Public education came about because reliance upon only private educations failed and was generally only available to the rich. There is no way it could have done the job of integrating millions of new Americans into our society as well as public education did during the 19th and 20th centuries. What passed as education prior to the spread of public education was, in general, pretty weak stuff certainly not acceptable for a world like this. Most people of that day could read and write a little but only the wealthy could have been considered educated in any real sense.
Given that locals control the public school systems why would you have any faith that corporations, or churches would do any better? Given that religious schools pay much less for teachers why would you believe the quality of teachers would improve?
There is a lot of propaganda afloat as regards the history of education in American AND about its current state.
My parents were blue-collar, working class people who sent their children to parochial school. My father worked two jobs and went to school at night. Eventually, he got the job he wanted, but then my mother went to work, too. Although they struggled, they were able to afford tuition back then.
Back then, tuition was far lower. But now the public school monopoly has put many Catholic schools in my area out of business. People look at their property tax bills and figure, Well, I'm paying for public school, might as well send my kids there. These days, not enough students enroll in parochial schools to justify keeping those schools open.
Now, my husband and I are raising a family. We worked split shifts for years when our kids were younger. We managed to do it all without daycare or school. Yes, something has to give, and it's usually housework ;-) (speaking of which, I have laundry to do).
But this is not about one type of educational system being superior to another. It's also not about teachers. (There are many teachers in my family). It's really about protecting the right of parents to decide which type of educational system suits their own children. It's about providing people with more options in education, which the private market can do.
There is no public school monopoly. Catholic schools are failing because the congregations are not growing, many churches are being closed because the congregations are not large enough to keep them maintained. This is a big problem for them in Chicago where there are almost as many Catholic school kids as public.
Tax bills don't even come close to paying for public school costs. In any case, I spent 6,000 a year to send my younger boy to a private Lutheran school (for a number of reasons I won't get into here unless you are really interested) while the elder went to public. Either one could have gotten as good an education as they wished and the only real advantage of the private school was it was small while the public was huge. Hence, it was easier to keep track of the students (not an insignificant consideration.)
There is no shortage of options for parents. But quite frankly I don't consider most parents capable of teaching anything in depth. My God, you can barely find people able to get into ANY subject which is not commonplace. Ask someone to tell you what the last book they have read and if it is not pure crap it is almost a miracle. IN fact, parents are as big a problem with schools as anything.
And, looking at the voting results only confirms my view.
The reasons may differ from state to state. In my area, many Catholic parents would like to keep their children in Catholic school but cannot afford to. Meanwhile, in the inner city, parents who aren't even Catholic want to send their kids to parochial schools because the public schools in their communities are so dangerous.
But, I'm not claiming that one type of school is superior to the other. It's mostly a matter of personal opinion (though, imo, the agenda being pushed on kids in public schools today is truly frightening). I attended Catholic school through ninth grade and then public high school. An educational program that works well for one child may not work as well for another, as you obviously know, and as I know, too, with my own children (though I won't go into detail either, unless you want to know).
"Homeschooling" is a committment that most parents wouldn't want to make, even when they're more than capable. But, I know many homeschool parents (in person), and after a certain point, most of us don't "teach." Once our kids pass the reading, writing, and basic arithmetic stage, which most of us can handle easily, they learn independently. We just facilitate it all by buying the books, scheduling classes and other activities, etc., and overseeing their work.
Parental involvement is the determining factor except when the child just won't cooperate. With that involvement success is possible in any environment even the worst. Without it success is problematic in any environment even the best.
Actually, the WASL test is stupid. You shouldn't have to test everyone who is in public school to see if they are learning, that is if the teachers and the administration is doing their job. But, I guess you can't take that for granted, considering the fact that they are just unsupervised union workers.
The quality of public school education is inversely proportionate to the growth of the NEA.
WA State Ping...JFK
Whenever I think things have reached a head in intolerability, I just look north to Warshington....
I guess his dad is camera shy or he'd be in the picture. I must have read it too fast because I missed his quotes. I'm sure the story had lengthy quotes from dad too, but I just skimmed the story. I better go back through it.
This is a test that students must pass in the 10th grade to graduate. It is the means of assessing students, and in turn, schools' progress and effectiveness.
If the kid writes nothing he can't get the answer right, as the scores on the written portions are pass/fail.
Kid fails=school looks bad. That's why the schoo was ticked that he wouldn't answer it.
I agree the kid should have just answered the dang question and the mom should later explain that not all adults are smart. My dad told me once to do what the teachers told me too and then come home and let him deal with the stupidity later.
When my 4th grade teacher wouldn't let me go to the bathroom I wet my pants. We had a slight modification to that rule after he had to leave work to bring me new clothes.
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