On 08/29/2011 08:34 PM, Bob Sneidar wrote:
Some define success in education as making sure every child has the same
success as every other. Others define it as giving any child the best education
they can. This is why some of you say public education is failing, and others
say it is succeeding. You are defining your terms differently.
I personally think it an impossible task to educate all children equally, as
like it or not, some are just plain smarter than others. Also, some are more
disciplined than others. And some are so lazy and irresponsible and
unintelligent that no matter how good the educational system, you can never get
those children to perform at the level of the ones naturally born with a sharp
intellect and a will to do as good as they can at whatever is put in front of
them. Anyone who has put multiple children through school would probably attest
to this.
'Equality' and 'Equally' are words that should be popped in the cupboard
for 1 or 2 generations.
Words and phrases that might be more useful are "stimulating each child
so that they can maximise their full potential".
That last bit will piss some people off to no end because they define equality as "equal in
essence" whereas others define equality as "equal in standing". Again, the
disagreement is about definitions. But I know why I was mediocre in school. I was lazy. Pure and
simple.
So was I; but one could argue that both Thee and Me were lazy because
the educational systems we were in failed to provide the right "hooks"
to get our
mental juices flowing.
Teachers tried to get me to work harder, and when I liked the subject, I did
pretty well, but I was only going to do as much as I needed to in order to get
them to leave me alone, and then I would go back to my daydreaming. So I speak
from first hand experience. I failed my 6th grade math exit exam. I then, after
summer school to get me past it, went on to ace Algebra and Geometry and any of
the advanced mathematics. How can that be you say? Simple. I HATED memorizing,
and a lot of 6th grade math was about memorizing and problem solving over and
over again. Algebra and Geometry was about understanding how things worked, and
that interested me to no end, because I had a teacher who showed how that kind
of math applied to understanding aspects of nature that interested me.
That there are students in all ages that do not do well in school is in my estimation a
very bad way to measure success, because it ignores to the point of contempt what all men
with an ounce of honest sense have known forever, and that is that some people are better
at some things than other people. Some dogs are smarter than other dogs. Some are
stronger, some are faster, some are whatever. That doesn't make them less the creatures
that they are, just "different" or rather unique.
I personally believe that every person is "gifted" in one way or another. The key to success for any public
education system is IMHO to find out what the strengths of any student is fairly early on, and then focus on their
strengths, while not letting up on the basics, reading writing arithmetic. And the more we can get social
indoctrination out of the public schools, the better off we will be. But at this point we will have to fight civil wars
to make that happen. But any attempt to make all children "equal" is bound to lead, by way of initial and
regular disappointment, to "dumbing down" the curriculum, so that success "appears" to have been
achieved, and administrators can then keep their jobs, without which they will lose their homes, and possibly their
families.
Bob
Contrary to urban legend, public education is not deteriorating.
During the imaginary "good old days," students were usually segregated by race,
class, income, or address. Students who were not learning successfully were generally
kept out of public view. Expectations for such students were low. Unsuccessful students
often dropped out of school when they were still relatively young. Truancy laws were not
strictly enforced in downscale and nonwhite neighborhoods, nor were child labor laws.
For as long as public education has existed, there have been large numbers of sixth
graders who read at the second grade level. And so on...<snip>
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