This may explain why SAT scores are falling!

KarlMarx

Senior Member
May 9, 2004
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The company I work for has been strapped for space lately. So, to alleviate the problem, they've resorted to leasing some office buildings away from the main campus. I now work in a building that is near a park that has several baseball fields, which double as football fields in the fall.

I often work until 8 or 9 o'clock on weeknights, in fact, I rarely leave before 6 o' clock. Every single week night, those fields are jammed with people watching their kids playing sports. I've often left after 9 or 10 o'clock and they're still going full guns!

Part of the justification for this obsession with sports? To keep kids off of drugs.

The school district I live in also spent nearly a million dollars on a sports stadium that regularly is submerged under the spring floods.

field.jpg

Stadium as it normally appears

19.jpg

Same stadium after the June 2006 flood

Too much emphasis on sports, not enough emphasis on studying, is partly to blame for plummetting test scores.

I fellow I worked with several weeks ago, who is also Indian, told me that in his native country, children often go to tutors and stay up half the night studying. There, of course, high schools are private and getting into the right school has a great effect on the type of job you eventually get.

Of course, if a kid's parents expect him or her to do their homework and to be in bed by 9 o'clock on a school night, there will be little chance for them to do drugs, IMO.

I've argued for private schools, and I still believe that's part of the answer. But, to paraphrase the Bard, "the fault is not in our schools, but in ourselves".
 
I couldn’t agree more. Several years ago in Atlanta, they lite all the inner-city basketball courts so the kids could play after dark. It’s common to see them playing at 12pm on a week night.

A lack of drive to succeed is a major factor too. I know a guy an his wife from Thailand. I asked him why he moved here. He said because of the schools. I asked him if it was for his son, he said no, for me. The schools in Thailand are very difficult to get into with a lot of testing and competition for few places. So they relocated here and both went to the U of Texas.

They currently own and run convenience store, their second business that I know off.
 
The problem is that public schools have become surrogate parents. From PE, to socialization, to religion, to politics. Public schools in the US have become the Big Brother of parents.

When my kid was in second grade she had gym three times a week. She had science once a week.

In 5th grade she brought home a project that required the kids to work in teams and meet after school at each others houses. That was part of the rubric.

In 3rd grade she brought home a ditto around the holidays that explained all the major religions, including Kwanzaa.

In 7th grade she had a test that required her to write an essay on the bible.

I found an online school that is costing me $2000 a year, but she's out of the public school now. It's working out great.
 
The problem is that public schools have become surrogate parents. From PE, to socialization, to religion, to politics. Public schools in the US have become the Big Brother of parents.

When my kid was in second grade she had gym three times a week. She had science once a week.

In 5th grade she brought home a project that required the kids to work in teams and meet after school at each others houses. That was part of the rubric.

In 3rd grade she brought home a ditto around the holidays that explained all the major religions, including Kwanzaa.

In 7th grade she had a test that required her to write an essay on the bible.

I found an online school that is costing me $2000 a year, but she's out of the public school now. It's working out great.

An online school? I didn't know they existed?
 
An online school? I didn't know they existed?

Yup, they do. It's a school that caters mainly to kids in the entertainment industry, but has been used for home schooling all over the country. It's fully accredited.

The downside is that my school district does still consider it home schooling so I am going to have to adhere to all those rules. But the online school has a lot of experience at it so they will provide me with all the reports and stuff I need to submit to meet the requirements.

Aside from the expense, it's great. My kid loves it.
 
I can postulate another explanation for lower scores. Our district this year for the first time is paying the fee for every child in the district to take the PSATs. If this is happening elsewhere, and especially if it is happening with the SATs, it means that kids who previously wouldn't have bothered taking the tests, are now. I would assume that those are the type of kids who would tend to bring the scores down.
 
Sports are wonderful, I'm loving my first year of football. My greatest vent of school is homework. It makes me dread going to certain classes knowing that its gonna put a damper on my evening, when I jsut want to relax and perhaps get to bed early so I can be enthusiastic about school the next day. Reading I can understand, that would be a waste of time to do in school, but worksheets and whatnot are just lessening the work-ethic of the youth. Homework isnt hard, it's just time consuming, and really, there's very little motivation at this point in my life. I'm doing a worksheet now on the declaration of independence. Aside from not wanting a bad grade in the class, there is nothing pushing me to get it done (which is why I'm posting on USMB right now, hehe).
 
I can postulate another explanation for lower scores. Our district this year for the first time is paying the fee for every child in the district to take the PSATs. If this is happening elsewhere, and especially if it is happening with the SATs, it means that kids who previously wouldn't have bothered taking the tests, are now. I would assume that those are the type of kids who would tend to bring the scores down.
I've posted this before, in our district EVERY junior MUST take ACT. Everyone. Even down's syndrome, those on respirators with nurses in attendance, those that are autistic. Last ACT 23, which is pretty damn good, considering.
 

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