Scout wrote:
"Bob Crantz" wrote in message
...

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/nati...56/detail.html


I feel such ambivalence about the report you've linked. My second career in
education has left me feeling that the education system is run by
incompetent boobs who are trying to placate an ignorant public (a vicious
cycle?) while pandering to self-serving politicos. I've worked with some of
the black males cited in the article. If there is a school-related answer to
their problem I'd sure like to hear it. Particularly, I'd like to know why
our society seems to ignore the fact that good family structure and support
(i.e., the lack of) is at the root of our educational woes. I often feel the
education system is in many ways an effigy, a whipping boy of society,
manipulated and modified so we can all vent our rage at the bigger problem
without offending anyone directly. Fix the bigger problems and education
will work the way it has forever. Transfer information, pass the torch, and
encourage the next group to carry it further.
This group is a great example of how people learn when they choose to learn.
I believe cyber-schools could work for the right type of student. It's a
simple process when the student puts a bit of effort into it. There is
nothing fancy here, just opinions and information sharing. Why does it work
here and in so many of our schools nothing seems to work at all? Try getting
some of these victims of the education system to do some homework. Try
getting them to take a book home. Why did you do your homework in high
school? I wanted to please my parents and had a healthy respect for them as
well. They took care of me and punished me appropriately when I acted in
ways that were educationally unproductive.
So standardized testing shows that black males are behind. Did we need to
spend a billion dollars to figure that one out? Did we need to turn the
education system into a bigger mockery where curricula are now geared toward
getting the right answers on those tests? I was taught by nuns and priests
who beat the **** out of me when I got out of line. Guess what, that's all
it took. Parents knocking me back in line at home, teachers knocking me back
in line at school. Simple, simple, simple. But no, let's spend billions more
on the education piñata.
And by the way, let's blame the education system for the aftermath of
slavery. Let's not admit that we can't point the finger at the lack of
family structure without noting that it's only in recent history that the
failing portion of our population lacks the thing that this country took
from them, history, family, tradition, and values that tend to evolve
slowly, over many generations.
Scout


Bravo! Can Mr. Sails come and work in your school?