It's Not The Teacher's Unions....

[bodecea]

Much of the hostility towards the teacher's unions isn't based on the economy, but rather the residual anger over how poorly our children are learning.

Well, read the following, and see if you can blame the teachers....

...the blame should be on the curriuculum and educrats.

"In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14 year-old has declined from some 25,000 words to 10,000 words. This is not merely a decline in numbers of words but in the capacity to think. It also signifies that there has been a steep decline in the number of things that an adolescent needs to know and to name in order to get by in an increasingly homogenized and urbanized consumer society. This is a national tragedy virtually unnoticed in the media. It is no mere coincidence that in roughly the same half century the average person has come to recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but can now recognize fewer than 10 plants and animals native to his or her locality.

That fact says a great deal about why the decline in working vocabulary has gone unnoticed—few are paying attention. The decline is surely not consistent across the full range of language but concentrates in those areas having to do with large issues such as philosophy, religion, public policy, and nature. On the other hand, vocabulary has probably increased in areas having to do with sex, violence, recreation, and consumption. As a result we are losing the capacity to say what we really mean and ultimately to think about what we mean. We are losing the capacity for articulate intelligence about the things that matter most.

"That sucks," for example, is a common way for budding young scholars to announce their displeasure about any number of things that range across the spectrum of human experience."
Verbicide

The Dewey-Progressive non-subject matter based education.
Hang the educrats! (Can I still say that?)


Verbicide

If teachers showed this much passion and involvement in improving grades then we may be able to turn around the pitiful performances in many schools.

Maybe if STUDENTS showed this much passion and involvement in improving their grades....eh?

 

[Ravi]

Keep living in your fantasy world where the teachers unions care about the students, Democrats are for poor people, and choice in schools is a tool of rich Republicans to take money away from the schools. Every day more people see the truth and realize that all the Democratic Party cares about is the money they get from unions, and all the unions care about is screwing over the taxpayer to keep their pensions.

PC is a confirmed rightwingloon.

btw, there are 1,000,000 Republican members of one of the largest teachers unions in the country.

 

[yota5]

As an educator one of the problems we have is that we have decided to TEACH DOWN to our children, rather than teaching UP to them. (editec)

Editec, that is a profound statement. The answer to this dilemma lies with educators such as Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of education for District of Columbia Public Schools, Washington, DC. This is a tough lady. She took on the unions, and the teachers. She set performance based pay increases, and fired 241 under performing teachers, principles, and administrators. It shouldn't come as a great surprise that things improved dramatically during her tenure.

 

[PoliticalChic]

1. The “Massachusetts miracle,” in which Bay State students’ soaring test scores broke records, was the direct consequence of the state legislature’s passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act, which established knowledge-based standards for all grades and a rigorous testing system linked to the new standards. And those standards, Massachusetts reformers have acknowledged, are Hirsch’s legacy.

I presume that is E.D. Hirsch with his Cultural Literacy. I bought the when William Bennett was talking about it. LOL

The Battle of Hastings is more important that the Moon landing according to his list. Sorry dude, the technology is determining what the future will be not what we know about the past.

It's FUTURE SHOCK run for your culture it's obsolete.

psik

"... the technology is determining what the future will be not what we know about the past."

What an incongruous post....perhaps I should say syncretic.

Clearly you haven't given much thought to your post... it would be fully within understanding if you decided to retract it.

1. There is neither reason nor demand to separate the study of the past from that of the future.

2. Your inadvertent joke is that one can learn to advance society technologically without first mastering the language and epiphanies of the past.

3. "MIT is a research university committed to world-class inquiry in math, science and technology - but you may be surprised to learn that we require more liberal arts courses than many liberal arts institutions."

That, from the M.I.T. admissions website.

 

[PoliticalChic]

but it must be the teachers unions it surely cannot be the parents fault can it?
After all there is such an over whelming support of education by parents isn't there?
I mean they had to start having the PTA meeting in the gymnasiums because of the attendence didn't they?
Ohh wait that is parental interest in and support of sports not education.

imho parents have to have someone to blame for what is primarially their own failings.

No doubt, when you spy a painting that you don't like, you blame the brushes used.

Post #7 is meant for you.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Much of the hostility towards the teacher's unions isn't based on the economy, but rather the residual anger over how poorly our children are learning.

Well, read the following, and see if you can blame the teachers....

...the blame should be on the curriuculum and educrats.

"In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14 year-old has declined from some 25,000 words to 10,000 words. This is not merely a decline in numbers of words but in the capacity to think. It also signifies that there has been a steep decline in the number of things that an adolescent needs to know and to name in order to get by in an increasingly homogenized and urbanized consumer society. This is a national tragedy virtually unnoticed in the media. It is no mere coincidence that in roughly the same half century the average person has come to recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but can now recognize fewer than 10 plants and animals native to his or her locality.

That fact says a great deal about why the decline in working vocabulary has gone unnoticed—few are paying attention. The decline is surely not consistent across the full range of language but concentrates in those areas having to do with large issues such as philosophy, religion, public policy, and nature. On the other hand, vocabulary has probably increased in areas having to do with sex, violence, recreation, and consumption. As a result we are losing the capacity to say what we really mean and ultimately to think about what we mean. We are losing the capacity for articulate intelligence about the things that matter most.

"That sucks," for example, is a common way for budding young scholars to announce their displeasure about any number of things that range across the spectrum of human experience."
Verbicide

The Dewey-Progressive non-subject matter based education.
Hang the educrats! (Can I still say that?)


Verbicide

If teachers showed this much passion and involvement in improving grades then we may be able to turn around the pitiful performances in many schools.

Why are you folks so unable to consider that it is the tools the society provides to teachers that is holding them back?

The same people in parochial schools produce a far better product...have you thought about the reasons why?

Do you think those teachers are much different from those in the public schools?

 

[PoliticalChic]

This is getting old, if anyone lives near PC would they please wake her, take her to the front door, show her she lives in America, then take her to the nearest playing field and have her talk to parents and ask why little Joanie and Johnnie are not home doing homework, then take her to any group of teachers, and ask if they can give a sense of America's parents and children today when it comes to school and work. Do middle class as that is still the primary source for citizens in America, even if fading in the wide divide.

Wish I had time to write the stories my wife told me just this week about parent excuses and American student's laziness. Baffling for sure, but telling of why we are growing dumber and dumber as a nation. Oh, by the way, turn on TV too if you want to understand our culture of narcissistic insanity, detective shows, and medical aliments that House can't solve. Then watch Repo shows and whatnot on TruTV for a interesting view of your fellow citizens. Abandon ship, abandon ship!


http://www.usmessageboard.com/educa...ew-of-waiting-for-superman-2.html#post3065163
http://www.usmessageboard.com/education-and-history/108215-education-then-and-now.html
http://www.usmessageboard.com/education-and-history/108215-education-then-and-now-2.html#post2074607
http://www.usmessageboard.com/educa...liberals-in-the-classroom-11.html#post1749647

"Not surprisingly, in a land where literacy and numeracy are considered virtues, teachers are revered. Teenagers ranked teaching at the top of their list of favorite professions in a recent survey. Far more graduates of upper schools in Finland apply for admission to teacher-training institutes than are accepted. The overwhelming majority of those who eventually enter the classroom as a teacher make it a lifelong career, even though they are paid no more than their counterparts in other European countries."

"At the heart of Finland's stellar reputation is a philosophy completely alien to America. The country of 5.3 million in an area twice the size of Missouri considers education an end in itself - not a means to an end. It's a deeply rooted value that is reflected in the Ministry of Education and in all 432 municipalities. In sharp contrast, Americans view education as a stepping stone to better-paying jobs or to impress others. The distinction explains why we are obsessed with marquee names, and how we structure, operate and fund schools." Lessons From Finland: The Way to Education Excellence | CommonDreams.org

If you read the thread more carefully, rather than looking for some bone to pick with me personally, you might see that the thread is actually an attempt to ameliorate the criticism of your spouse, and other teachers.

An additional flaw in your post is that you simply want to pass the blame on to the parents, who neither passed exams said to indicate that they were prepared to teach children, or accept a pay check intended for remuneration for teaching children.

No, the problem is that old fashioned lefties like you, and the other clueless, don't want to place the blame on the progressives who have ruined education.
In post #7, I afforded you a link to the 'Massachusetts Miracle'..actual evidence that Hirsch's traditional education works.

It's your politics that puts the blinders on you, and prevents you from seeing the results in one of the 'laboratories of democracy,'...

My suggestion is that you get your nose out of the socialist 'Sojourner's' and pick up some of Hirsch's books....and pass them on to the wife and her fellow teachers.

BTW, did you know that one of the first books the Bolsheviks translated into Russian was John Dewey's 'Schools of Tomorrow,' in 1918, while they were still in the process of killing seven million Russians?

What did the Bolsheviks realize that you have yet to figure out?

 

[PoliticalChic]

Much of the hostility towards the teacher's unions isn't based on the economy, but rather the residual anger over how poorly our children are learning.

Well, read the following, and see if you can blame the teachers....

...the blame should be on the curriuculum and educrats.

"In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14 year-old has declined from some 25,000 words to 10,000 words. This is not merely a decline in numbers of words but in the capacity to think. It also signifies that there has been a steep decline in the number of things that an adolescent needs to know and to name in order to get by in an increasingly homogenized and urbanized consumer society. This is a national tragedy virtually unnoticed in the media. It is no mere coincidence that in roughly the same half century the average person has come to recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but can now recognize fewer than 10 plants and animals native to his or her locality.

That fact says a great deal about why the decline in working vocabulary has gone unnoticed—few are paying attention. The decline is surely not consistent across the full range of language but concentrates in those areas having to do with large issues such as philosophy, religion, public policy, and nature. On the other hand, vocabulary has probably increased in areas having to do with sex, violence, recreation, and consumption. As a result we are losing the capacity to say what we really mean and ultimately to think about what we mean. We are losing the capacity for articulate intelligence about the things that matter most.

"That sucks," for example, is a common way for budding young scholars to announce their displeasure about any number of things that range across the spectrum of human experience."
Verbicide

The Dewey-Progressive non-subject matter based education.
Hang the educrats! (Can I still say that?)


Verbicide

If teachers showed this much passion and involvement in improving grades then we may be able to turn around the pitiful performances in many schools.

Maybe if STUDENTS showed this much passion and involvement in improving their grades....eh?

Maybe if they were exposed to a curriculum and methodology that engaged them, instead of one that they realized was bogus....

 

[Bfgrn]

Much of the hostility towards the teacher's unions isn't based on the economy, but rather the residual anger over how poorly our children are learning.

Well, read the following, and see if you can blame the teachers....

...the blame should be on the curriuculum and educrats.

"In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14 year-old has declined from some 25,000 words to 10,000 words. This is not merely a decline in numbers of words but in the capacity to think. It also signifies that there has been a steep decline in the number of things that an adolescent needs to know and to name in order to get by in an increasingly homogenized and urbanized consumer society. This is a national tragedy virtually unnoticed in the media. It is no mere coincidence that in roughly the same half century the average person has come to recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but can now recognize fewer than 10 plants and animals native to his or her locality.

That fact says a great deal about why the decline in working vocabulary has gone unnoticed—few are paying attention. The decline is surely not consistent across the full range of language but concentrates in those areas having to do with large issues such as philosophy, religion, public policy, and nature. On the other hand, vocabulary has probably increased in areas having to do with sex, violence, recreation, and consumption. As a result we are losing the capacity to say what we really mean and ultimately to think about what we mean. We are losing the capacity for articulate intelligence about the things that matter most.

"That sucks," for example, is a common way for budding young scholars to announce their displeasure about any number of things that range across the spectrum of human experience."
Verbicide

The Dewey-Progressive non-subject matter based education.
Hang the educrats! (Can I still say that?)


Verbicide

This:

Has been replaced by this:

Equals THIS:

Rank↓ Country↓ Literacy rate ↓
1 Georgia ≈100.0
2 Cuba 99.8
2 Estonia 99.8
2 Latvia 99.8
5 Barbados 99.7 [j]
5 Slovenia 99.7 [l]
5 Belarus 99.7
5 Lithuania 99.7
5 Ukraine 99.7
5 Armenia 99.7
10 Kazakhstan 99.6
10 Tajikistan 99.6
12 Azerbaijan 99.5
12 Turkmenistan 99.5
12 Russia 99.5
16 Hungary 99.4 [j]
17 Kyrgyzstan 99.3
17 Poland 99.3 [j]
19 Tonga 99.2
21 Albania 99.0
21 Antigua and Barbuda 99.0 [q]
21 Australia 99.0 [d]
21 Austria 99.0 [d]
21 Belgium 99.0 [d]
21 Canada 99.0 [d]
21 Czech Republic 99.0 [d]
21 North Korea 99.0 [d]
21 Denmark 99.0 [d]
21 Finland 99.0 [d]
21 France 99.0 [d]
21 Germany 99.0 [d]
21 Guyana 99.0 [j]
21 Iceland 99.0 [d]
21 Ireland 99.0 [d]
21 Japan 99.0 [d]
21 South Korea 99.0 [d]
21 Luxembourg 99.0 [d]
21 Netherlands 99.0 [d]
21 New Zealand 99.0 [d]
21 Norway 99.0 [d]
21 Slovakia 99.0 [d]
21 Sweden 99.0 [d]
21 Switzerland 99.0 [d]
21 United Kingdom 99.0 [d]
21 United States 99.0 [d]

 

[PoliticalChic]

Keep living in your fantasy world where the teachers unions care about the students, Democrats are for poor people, and choice in schools is a tool of rich Republicans to take money away from the schools. Every day more people see the truth and realize that all the Democratic Party cares about is the money they get from unions, and all the unions care about is screwing over the taxpayer to keep their pensions.

PC is a confirmed rightwingloon.

btw, there are 1,000,000 Republican members of one of the largest teachers unions in the country.

Another pithy post by Ravi!

As an aside, the OP is neither about me, nor about Republicans. It is about the real villain in the disaster we jokingly refer to as the 'educational system.'

Here, take another shot (can I still say that?).... are our children less articulate than they were 50 years ago?
Care to pinpoint the reasons for same? Suggest a solution?

Or would you rather remain the Marquise of Marginal Messages?

 

[Ravi]

Keep living in your fantasy world where the teachers unions care about the students, Democrats are for poor people, and choice in schools is a tool of rich Republicans to take money away from the schools. Every day more people see the truth and realize that all the Democratic Party cares about is the money they get from unions, and all the unions care about is screwing over the taxpayer to keep their pensions.

PC is a confirmed rightwingloon.

btw, there are 1,000,000 Republican members of one of the largest teachers unions in the country.

Another pithy post by Ravi!

As an aside, the OP is neither about me, nor about Republicans. It is about the real villain in the disaster we jokingly refer to as the 'educational system.'

Here, take another shot (can I still say that?).... are our children less articulate than they were 50 years ago?
Care to pinpoint the reasons for same? Suggest a solution?

Or would you rather remain the Marquise of Marginal Messages?

I was merely schooling Windbag for calling you a Democrat.

 

[PLYMCO_PILGRIM]

Much of the hostility towards the teacher's unions isn't based on the economy, but rather the residual anger over how poorly our children are learning.

Well, read the following, and see if you can blame the teachers....

...the blame should be on the curriuculum and educrats.

"In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14 year-old has declined from some 25,000 words to 10,000 words. This is not merely a decline in numbers of words but in the capacity to think. It also signifies that there has been a steep decline in the number of things that an adolescent needs to know and to name in order to get by in an increasingly homogenized and urbanized consumer society. This is a national tragedy virtually unnoticed in the media. It is no mere coincidence that in roughly the same half century the average person has come to recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but can now recognize fewer than 10 plants and animals native to his or her locality.

That fact says a great deal about why the decline in working vocabulary has gone unnoticed—few are paying attention. The decline is surely not consistent across the full range of language but concentrates in those areas having to do with large issues such as philosophy, religion, public policy, and nature. On the other hand, vocabulary has probably increased in areas having to do with sex, violence, recreation, and consumption. As a result we are losing the capacity to say what we really mean and ultimately to think about what we mean. We are losing the capacity for articulate intelligence about the things that matter most.

"That sucks," for example, is a common way for budding young scholars to announce their displeasure about any number of things that range across the spectrum of human experience."
Verbicide

The Dewey-Progressive non-subject matter based education.
Hang the educrats! (Can I still say that?)


Verbicide

I do agree that the teachers are, overall, doing a poor job in teaching our children to think for themselves and develop reasoning skills.

However I also think much of the anger toward PUBLIC SECTOR (for the boneheads out there this DOES NOT apply to private sector unions) unions stems from the fact that the taxpayers who are taxed to pay their salaries make roughly 30% less on average for pay. The non-union taxpayers also have to contribute far more to their benefits than the public, tax revenue funded, workers.

I mean if my income is being taxed so that someone else can receive a better yearly income and benefits packages while working less hours and then they are failing to efficiently and effectively do their jobs I'm not going to be happy...are you?


This wasn't really directed at you specifically politicalchic, it was just me kinda ranting.

 

[PoliticalChic]

Much of the hostility towards the teacher's unions isn't based on the economy, but rather the residual anger over how poorly our children are learning.

Well, read the following, and see if you can blame the teachers....

...the blame should be on the curriuculum and educrats.

"In the past 50 years, by one reckoning, the working vocabulary of the average 14 year-old has declined from some 25,000 words to 10,000 words. This is not merely a decline in numbers of words but in the capacity to think. It also signifies that there has been a steep decline in the number of things that an adolescent needs to know and to name in order to get by in an increasingly homogenized and urbanized consumer society. This is a national tragedy virtually unnoticed in the media. It is no mere coincidence that in roughly the same half century the average person has come to recognize over 1000 corporate logos, but can now recognize fewer than 10 plants and animals native to his or her locality.

That fact says a great deal about why the decline in working vocabulary has gone unnoticed—few are paying attention. The decline is surely not consistent across the full range of language but concentrates in those areas having to do with large issues such as philosophy, religion, public policy, and nature. On the other hand, vocabulary has probably increased in areas having to do with sex, violence, recreation, and consumption. As a result we are losing the capacity to say what we really mean and ultimately to think about what we mean. We are losing the capacity for articulate intelligence about the things that matter most.

"That sucks," for example, is a common way for budding young scholars to announce their displeasure about any number of things that range across the spectrum of human experience."
Verbicide

The Dewey-Progressive non-subject matter based education.
Hang the educrats! (Can I still say that?)


Verbicide

This:

Has been replaced by this:

Equals THIS:

Rank↓ Country↓ Literacy rate ↓
1 Georgia ≈100.0
2 Cuba 99.8
2 Estonia 99.8
2 Latvia 99.8
5 Barbados 99.7 [j]
5 Slovenia 99.7 [l]
5 Belarus 99.7
5 Lithuania 99.7
5 Ukraine 99.7
5 Armenia 99.7
10 Kazakhstan 99.6
10 Tajikistan 99.6
12 Azerbaijan 99.5
12 Turkmenistan 99.5
12 Russia 99.5
16 Hungary 99.4 [j]
17 Kyrgyzstan 99.3
17 Poland 99.3 [j]
19 Tonga 99.2
21 Albania 99.0
21 Antigua and Barbuda 99.0 [q]
21 Australia 99.0 [d]
21 Austria 99.0 [d]
21 Belgium 99.0 [d]
21 Canada 99.0 [d]
21 Czech Republic 99.0 [d]
21 North Korea 99.0 [d]
21 Denmark 99.0 [d]
21 Finland 99.0 [d]
21 France 99.0 [d]
21 Germany 99.0 [d]
21 Guyana 99.0 [j]
21 Iceland 99.0 [d]
21 Ireland 99.0 [d]
21 Japan 99.0 [d]
21 South Korea 99.0 [d]
21 Luxembourg 99.0 [d]
21 Netherlands 99.0 [d]
21 New Zealand 99.0 [d]
21 Norway 99.0 [d]
21 Slovakia 99.0 [d]
21 Sweden 99.0 [d]
21 Switzerland 99.0 [d]
21 United Kingdom 99.0 [d]
21 United States 99.0 [d]

Ah, what a firm grip on the obvious!

Now that that has been settled, what do we do?

Accept same?

Pinpoint the reasons?

Suggest solutions....as I have in Post #7?

I kinda like the last one.

 

[bodecea]

If teachers showed this much passion and involvement in improving grades then we may be able to turn around the pitiful performances in many schools.

Maybe if STUDENTS showed this much passion and involvement in improving their grades....eh?

Maybe if they were exposed to a curriculum and methodology that engaged them, instead of one that they realized was bogus....

So, teachers should be Entertainers, not Educators.....gotcha.

 

[PoliticalChic]

PC is a confirmed rightwingloon.

btw, there are 1,000,000 Republican members of one of the largest teachers unions in the country.

Another pithy post by Ravi!

As an aside, the OP is neither about me, nor about Republicans. It is about the real villain in the disaster we jokingly refer to as the 'educational system.'

Here, take another shot (can I still say that?).... are our children less articulate than they were 50 years ago?
Care to pinpoint the reasons for same? Suggest a solution?

Or would you rather remain the Marquise of Marginal Messages?

I was merely schooling Windbag for calling you a Democrat.

C'mon... you either have children, or were one....

Get mad about this problem!

 

[PoliticalChic]

Maybe if STUDENTS showed this much passion and involvement in improving their grades....eh?

Maybe if they were exposed to a curriculum and methodology that engaged them, instead of one that they realized was bogus....

So, teachers should be Entertainers, not Educators.....gotcha.

Don't be flip.

When we made science more like arts and crafts, as any teacher will attest, rather than a difficult and rigorous discipline, the children knew just what was going on.

We should not be teaching down to them...They will rise to the challenge!

 

[kwc57]

I still say the problem is standardized tests tied to funding. If schools were told that they had to get their students to bark like dogs on command in order to get their share of federal funding, you'd see a lot of barking students. Teachers end up "teaching to the test" to get higher scores on standardized tests in order to get the funding they need to operate the schools rahter than educating children in the subjects thay are supposed to be teaching. Let each state and local school system design their own curriculum and you'll see education standards imporve.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I still say the problem is standardized tests tied to funding. If schools were told that they had to get their students to bark like dogs on command in order to get their share of federal funding, you'd see a lot of barking students. Teachers end up "teaching to the test" to get higher scores on standardized tests in order to get the funding they need to operate the schools rahter than educating children in the subjects thay are supposed to be teaching. Let each state and local school system design their own curriculum and you'll see education standards imporve.

1. Reform is a tripod, with the following as its supports: a). standards, b). assessment, and c). incentives.
a. Standards must be subject by subject, and grade by grade.

b. Tests . “Teaching to the test” is deplored in education circles, although that complaint is easily answered: if the test faithfully mirrors the skills and knowledge set out in the standards, then preparing one’s pupils to ace such a test is an honorable mission!

c. Accountability, based on the incentives that are provided for performance. And the sanctions for nonperformance, with a system that fairly apportions responsibility.
From “Troublemaker,” by Chester E. Finn, Jr. Former Assistant Secretary of Education under President Reagan.

2. The report card is fairly gloomy. Using the NAEP’s ‘proficient’ level as benchmark, just eight states showed even ‘moderate’ progress over the past 10 to 15 years. The National Center for Education Statistics reported that 12th graders reading performance in 2005 was worse than in 1992- and flat since 2002. U.S. Chamber of Commerce | Fighting For Your Business

 

[midcan5]

If you read the thread more carefully, rather than looking for some bone to pick with me personally, you might see that the thread is actually an attempt to ameliorate the criticism of your spouse, and other teachers.

An additional flaw in your post is that you simply want to pass the blame on to the parents, who neither passed exams said to indicate that they were prepared to teach children, or accept a pay check intended for remuneration for teaching children.

No, the problem is that old fashioned lefties like you, and the other clueless, don't want to place the blame on the progressives who have ruined education.
In post #7, I afforded you a link to the 'Massachusetts Miracle'..actual evidence that Hirsch's traditional education works.

It's your politics that puts the blinders on you, and prevents you from seeing the results in one of the 'laboratories of democracy,'...

My suggestion is that you get your nose out of the socialist 'Sojourner's' and pick up some of Hirsch's books....and pass them on to the wife and her fellow teachers.

BTW, did you know that one of the first books the Bolsheviks translated into Russian was John Dewey's 'Schools of Tomorrow,' in 1918, while they were still in the process of killing seven million Russians?

What did the Bolsheviks realize that you have yet to figure out?

No one ruined education, education is a reflection of the society in which it operates. Or rather everyone ruined education because we are all members of that society.

I don't know enough about Russian education to comment, but Stalin killed his fellow Russians, not a book. And are you assuming the Bolsheviks wanted to ruin their educational system? That made no sense anyway I view it. If you want dumb people, don't educate them at all, give them playing fields and reality TV, that'll make them happy and stupid.

I'll say it again, school encompasses years and years and having a few bad teachers, just like bad mechanics, bad doctors, bad USMB posters, is par for this life we live. If you don't want to learn, don't blame it on teachers, you've had lots of time to apply yourself if you are of average intelligence. Due to work, I have been to more classes than you can shake a stick at, guess how many teachers were super?

One thing that is rather stupid in the education system is the constant attempt to change the way of teaching or method or whatever the latest buzzword is, but again that is part of American culture, we want easy solutions to more complicated problems. That you can blame on the system - but it ain't no conspiracy of ideas that made our nation's students lazy, it is our way of life and our values. And to be fair many still do quite well and many teachers are super too.

"There is no test of the good society so clear, so decisive, as its willingness to tax - to forgo private income, expenditures and the expensively cultivated superfluities of private consumption - in order to develop and sustain a strong educational system for all its citizens. The economic rewards of so doing are not in doubt. Nor the political gains. But the true reward is in the larger, deeper, better life for everyone that only education provides." John Kenneth Galbraith, 'The Good Society'

 

[Quantum Windbag]

PC is a confirmed rightwingloon.

btw, there are 1,000,000 Republican members of one of the largest teachers unions in the country.

Another pithy post by Ravi!

As an aside, the OP is neither about me, nor about Republicans. It is about the real villain in the disaster we jokingly refer to as the 'educational system.'

Here, take another shot (can I still say that?).... are our children less articulate than they were 50 years ago?
Care to pinpoint the reasons for same? Suggest a solution?

Or would you rather remain the Marquise of Marginal Messages?

I was merely schooling Windbag for calling you a Democrat.

I did not call her a Democrat, I was just adding to the evidence she posted, and added a rant against the people. like you, who refuse to acknowledge the truth.