A real wake-up call about the education of our kids.

[DaShellSellers]

http://www.2mminutes.com/

2 million minutes, what should our young adults be doing with their time in high school in order for them to compete in the global market?

A very shocking eye opener. We as adults need to become far more proactive in our schools! Our lack of interest is going to KILL this country. (I know that sounds very "chicken little" but I'm convinced it is the truth)

http://www.2mminutes.com/

http://www.youtube.com/user/2MillionMinutes

[sbp]

I am not very intelligent guy. But you might be right. Exam standard here are very low. Evey one who goes to school here gets pass/fail that is it. where is competitiveness.
I am from india and we have to fight for every grad. Exam are very tough out there.
Only drawback in that system is that, you have only one chance if you don't do good you will not get chance again.

When I did my master here at uofh I took 12 credit in semester with full time job and when I went to fist exam I feel like walk in with red carpet.

[SCone]

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

[DaShellSellers]

Steve, I agree with you, but it just seems that way too many parents view the public school system as nothing more than a glorified babysitter. If their kid can't read, or fails a subject they blame the teacher. Not once do they consider their own lack of involvement as the reason for their child's poor performance. And what is the deal with this teaching to the lowest common denominator? My son performs above average and he is allowed to sit and do nothing, learn nothing and participate in nothing; but the kid who is lagging behind gets all the help they need to succeed! What about the success of my child, no child left behind . . . except the ones that are already performing to standard?

[Breezy]

Well Dashell
It must depend on the school system.
I have a child that is dyslexic. The teachers didn't care, wouldn't do the testing to have the child placed in one of those plans that would follow us any where etc... The teachers would make MY child feel stupid etc... and offer no help.
So now I Homeschool because some teachers are NOT doing their jobs.
And no I don't agree with the NCLB crap but there is more to blame than just that.

[epoh]

In Texas, and I'm sure other states, it varies wildly between school districts and even individual schools. I moved to Texas in the middle of high school (in between sophmore and jr years). My parents got me into a better public school in Maryland in what was already considered one of the best school districts. I took honors classes and did reasonably well (mostly Bs). I moved down here and went to Crowley H.S. which was considered (at the time at least) one of the best h.s.'s in DFW. I was light years ahead of my peers, except in math (and I just suck at that.) I actually only needed 5 classes when I got here to graduate. 5! They didn't even offer French at the level I was at. It was pretty pitiful.

At the moment we plan on sending our kids to public school, but I will certainly be monitoring everything they are learning. And if I feel my kids are bored or not being challenged, we will find a private school.

[SCone]

I taught for a year (long story) and dealing with district, state and all was a joke. They were more concerned with leason plans than anything else. And when TAKS came around, it was clear the ONLY focus was scoring well to get more funding. I even taught a class to help "certain" students score better.

Come on vouchers

[DaShellSellers]

Originally Posted by Breezy

Well Dashell
It must depend on the school system.
I have a child that is dyslexic. The teachers didn't care, wouldn't do the testing to have the child placed in one of those plans that would follow us any where etc... The teachers would make MY child feel stupid etc... and offer no help.
So now I Homeschool because some teachers are NOT doing their jobs.
And no I don't agree with the NCLB crap but there is more to blame than just that.

Don't get me wrong, I have seen plenty of that as well. There are plenty of teachers and administrators that are there just to collect a paycheck (my son had one of those teachers last year). My point is, you would think that more parents would be concerned when that is the case. Instead I see so many of them just saying "well, the school knows best". Because of that, parents like me, who try to make the system work for them, get treated like they are insane for advocating for their children. I don't think that would be the case if more parents were truly involved in their child's education.

[Disney Chick]

We put our son in public school for kindergarten, and he did okay, though he was being bullied. During his first grade year things got worse. I was the PTO president, so I was at the school all the time seeing the way things are done. I heard the way the teachers talked about the students in the lounge, and I saw the way they treated them in the hallways. After the first six weeks, I pulled my son out of school and have been homeschooling ever since. There are many good teachers out there, and I was blessed to have several when I was in school. My son even had some, but I was amazed at how poor the public school system has become.

[Breezy]

The school my kids went to were horrible and they treated any parent who was involved like we were completely stupid. They taught for that stupid TAKS test and that was it. And when you have a principal who acts like kids should only be seen and not heard there is obviously and issue lol. Needless to say the principal isn't married and has no children.

Originally Posted by DaShellSellers

Don't get me wrong, I have seen plenty of that as well. There are plenty of teachers and administrators that are there just to collect a paycheck (my son had one of those teachers last year). My point is, you would think that more parents would be concerned when that is the case. Instead I see so many of them just saying "well, the school knows best". Because of that, parents like me, who try to make the system work for them, get treated like they are insane for advocating for their children. I don't think that would be the case if more parents were truly involved in their child's education.

[Breezy]

Rachel I completely agree with you. It is amazing how the teachers talked to the kids in general. Don't get me wrong mine don't get the "oh honey don't do that" crap but I don't scare the tee total crap out of them 90% of the time either lol

[Daniel Bates]

Originally Posted by SCone

I taught for a year (long story) and dealing with district, state and all was a joke. They were more concerned with leason plans than anything else. And when TAKS came around, it was clear the ONLY focus was scoring well to get more funding.

Yes, yes, yes. Yes.

But if your class scores TOO well on the TAKS test, because you actually TAUGHT them instead of sticking to poorly designed lesson plans and inadequate curricula - then you are persona non grata.

[DaShellSellers]

Originally Posted by Daniel Bates

Yes, yes, yes. Yes.

But if your class scores TOO well on the TAKS test, because you actually TAUGHT them instead of sticking to poorly designed lesson plans and inadequate curricula - then you are persona non grata.

BINGO!! And there-in lies a large part of the problem. The schools get more government funding for middle of the road performance. So why should they aspire to do better? Kinda sounds like the mind set of youth today. . .

[Disney Chick]

Is that some effort to keep schools from only teaching to the test?

[123canon]

here are my views for what they are worth-$$$ do not equal good education, if it did, the kids in detroit would be the best educated in the world.

lack of parent involvement is as much of a problem as poor teaching.

teachers and administrators are going to treat you the way YOU allow them to treat you.

WE must teach our kids how to deal with bullies and to have the CONFIDENCE to stand up for what is RIGHT. not cower down and wait for some overworked, underpaid teacher to step in.

in the real world, people who work hard and are determined to win are the winners. we don't teach our kids to know that you don't win just because you compete. life has winners and losers. if you don't like to lose, work harder

not being politically correct does not make something automatically wrong.

if you like the way things are done in other countries so much, move there and stop trying to make America like ___________________(insert county of your choice here)

we need to thank our men and women in the military for allowing us to home school our kids, bitch about our country, say what is not politically correct if we so chose and arm and defend ourselves from those who try to take these rights away

and last but not least we should teach that despite popular belief, the United States of America is still MAJORITY RULE and it is still legal to voice your opinion

as you can tell from my grammer, i did not recieve the best education in the world (due mainly to my lack of participation)