Posted on 01/25/2020 8:37:17 AM PST by Kaslin
Two threads of educational reform can be discerned during the past 25 years. Both miss the need for real reform and have contributed thereby to the further dumbing down of our public schools. One involves greater federal involvement and funding through No Child Left Behind legislation followed by Common Core initiatives extending federal involvement even further into the realm of standardized testing. The other thread of reform blames racism as an underlying cause of educational failure, and through busing and various regulatory requirements seeks more racial balance in neighborhoods and in schools.
The increase in federal control of educational policy is unconstitutional because the Tenth Amendment relegates control of all powers not enumerated in the U.S. Constitution to the several states. Common Core got around this with a deceitful strategy. Common Core says the federal government is not telling the states what to teach, only that the federal government will supply the standardized tests that will give the states greater feedback about whether they are meeting “standards.” Thus, states would begin teaching to the tests, the tests would be controlling, but the federal government – not requiring curriculum x, y, or z -- on a technicality would not be literally “in control” of state education.
At the same time as anti-constitutional forces in the body politic are attempting to federalize education via control over the mechanisms of standardized testing, another movement is striving to “desegregate” public education, especially in our cities. The civil rights movement fought against de jure segregation in the 1950’s and 1960’s, that is, segregation required by state laws, as being unconstitutional. The modern progressives are fighting to end de facto segregation,
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
That's like saying that surfer deaths by shark can be prevented but don't expect the sharks to help.
With the Internet education can be cheaper than ever before and if privatized the bloated salaries we currently see along with bloated administrations would melt away.
Virtual schools and group homeschooling.
“Americans for the Separation of School and State”
American education is inflexible and sclerotic, discouraging individuality and innovation. Bad design becomes impregnable fortress.
Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers’ associations. Put the party line in textbooks.This is the left with respect to education and schools.
— Communist goal #17
Gain control of all student newspapers.
— Communist goal #18
Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
— Communist goal #19
Science will become materialistic, hence truly scientific. God will be banished from the laboratories as well as from the schools.
— William Z. Foster, “Towards Soviet America”, p. 316
I am a teacher, special needs, and this will never end. What testing has done is cause districts to focus ONLY on the test. The district test results affects their job.
The heartbreaking thing is that this constant drill of very boring reading & pointless math problems just kill everyone’s spirit. It is not holistic & has nothing to do with what they are learning. That’s another thing, due to the emphasis on testing pretty much every “lesson” is geared towards practicing for the tests.
I have wonderful memories of my elementary school days. Wonderful teachers, one of whom read “Uncle Wiggly” every day after recess, great art classes & field trips.
I was really hoping Trump would wipe the testing out. The only beneficiaries of testing are the companies who make the materials. The security for these “important” tests would make the Pentagon look lax.
The only solution is for parents to refuse to send their kids on test days & test make up days.
"Even servicemen who lose limbs & teammates in the line of duty don't regard thmslves as martyrs as much as teachers do--and those servicemen who do, don't constantly bleat about it either.Public schools clearly serve teachers and bloated administrative departments. The students and their educational outcomes are subordinate to the interests of the adults who claim to be providing an education.
The average person
*Has no idea how much teachers are paid
*Is adamant that they get 'more' "--Michael Malice
"The gun nuts have it exactly wrong.
Teachers aren't there to protect students.
They are there to break them."--Michael Malice
Return education BACK to the states and out of Washington, D.C’s. hands. They have dumbing down the education system since carter set up the education department.
Yes, the only thing that will save education (and health care) is to get government out of it at all levels. Everything government touches gets worse over time.
Ping!
Contact Betsy De Vos.
Fake quotes travel all over the internet while the truth is still putting its pants on.
Never heard of Michael “malice.” He sounds interesting. Also, anyone can look up any state employee’s pay I believe.
Teachers teach “the test” and not “the subject”. Students regurgitate talking points for gold stars. Actual thought is discouraged. Kill the “public schools”.
The problem is not the tests.
The problem is the rationale behind the tests, which is EQUALITY.
Equality does not exist in nature and cannot be imposed by mandatory schooling, however constructed and however conducted.
As long as schools must demonstrate progress towards equality, they will be drowning in lies and continue to resemble prisons.
End mandatory education at eighth grade and see how fast things get better.
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