A lack of education for DUmmies

[thundley4]

LWolf   (1000+ posts)             Sun Oct-11-09 05:17 PM
Original message
Good luck trying to succeed as a kid in America   
   

 
Julia Steiny: Report: Good luck trying to succeed as a kid in America
01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, October 4, 2009

<snip>

If the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s most recent report had been an international comparison of test scores, the media would have gone berserk. Negativity certainly erupts when ODEC releases the results of their Programme for International Student Assessment test, since it generally shows U.S. students performing poorly compared with their peers in other industrialized nations. The PISA tests invariably get lots of press, with experts making dire predictions that our under-skilled kids and lackluster schools are taking us down to economic ruin.

ODEC is a Paris-based organization that collects and monitors statistics on 30 industrialized countries.

But ODEC’s most recent report, “Doing Better for Children,” examines child well-being, not test scores. Education data are included, but the focus is poverty, teen-parenting, environmental quality, and telling measures like whether kids have desks, calculators and other basic tools to do schoolwork at home. (Forty-eight percent of U.S. children do not. The ODEC average is 35.)

In short, by ODEC’s measures, the U.S. does a wretched job of caring for its children. The statistics are appalling. So why wouldn’t the press care?


Julia Steinby has a sharp answer to that question, and I agree with her. I've often pointed out that, if we really wanted to address poor performance in school, we'd start at the source, and invest in a stronger, broader, more vigorous social safety net.

Read the article, and tell me if she's wrong. Make your case.

http://www.projo.com/education/content/EDWATCH_04_10-04...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6753620

XemaSab   (1000+ posts)             Sun Oct-11-09 05:31 PM
Response to Original message
1. This is a flippant response
   
but what's wrong with doing

Worked for me as a kid, then later I did it while sitting in bed listening to music.

donco6   (1000+ posts)             Sun Oct-11-09 07:06 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Can't disagree with any of that.
   
If a child's success in life is left up to the school alone, we're all ****ed - not just the kids.

We're  as long as the left is using the  education system to indoctrinate instead of educate children.

LWolf   (1000+ posts)             Sun Oct-11-09 07:17 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. We've always known   
   
that home environment is a bigger factor in success at school (or anywhere else, for that matter,) than those at the top of the power chain want to acknowledge. If they did, they'd have to direct resources and reforms into communities.

The author is right. If this were a report about test scores, it would be all over the media. Since it's about "things that will not be named," it gets crickets.

This study was about a month old before this piece came out. Not exactly making the headlines.

Funny. Conservatives have for a long time wanted families to  participate in education. Maybe that is why they support private schools, many of which demand parental participation in school functions.

Yehonala (69 posts)           Sun Oct-11-09 07:03 PM
Response to Original message
3. It's a Matter of culture
   
It's a matter of culture. In Asia kids study in horrendous conditions, but they make good grades because education is considered a top priority. Nothing else. Bullying is not tolerated, parents take deep pride in their children's academic achievements, and the culture promotes relentlessly the importance of family honor and 'face.' Parents take a first priority interest in making sure their kids do well and work hard.

In America the schools are loaded with bullies, we bully 'geeks' and 'nerds' and wonder why they commit suicide by the handful. We're losing our best and brightest to either suicide, exclusion, or disinterest and parents are busy with their own lives to provide them with the basics in encouragement. Or worrying more as to my Junior isn't socializing well with the thugs at school.

That's racist !!!!  But , unfortunately, it's also true for the most part.

proud2BlibKansan   (1000+ posts)             Sun Oct-11-09 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. I think one answer is turning our schools into community centers
   
Locate health centers and community assistance centers in our schools. Provide adult education classes at night - including parenting courses. Provide child care so kids can come to school with mom in the evening and someone will be there to help them with their homework. Open up the school libraries to the community.

We need to change our culture, particularly in the urban core, to one that values education. There has been great success in NYC where they have the Harlem Children's Zone, which has many of the programs I listed.

More indoctrination at all ages, and throw  more money at the problem.

A lot of  talk about lack of family involvement, but not one mention of how welfare has helped to destroy the black family which most of them have alluded to in vague terms of "urban schools" and inner city schools.

[jukin]

There has been great success in NYC where they have the Harlem Children's Zone, which has many of the programs I listed.

Proof?

What I have found out is that if a program is working the teacher's unions do their best to shut it down. There was the school in Oakland that went under private management.  The school academic achievement went form last to first in two years. 

The reaction to this? The school unions sued to remove the private management and won.

Result? The school went back down to last.

Teacher's unions don't give a shit for the children.

[Karin]

proud2BlibKansan   (1000+ posts)             Sun Oct-11-09 08:36 PM
Response to Reply #10
12. I think one answer is turning our schools into community centers
  
Locate health centers and community assistance centers in our schools.

What a moonbat.  Let's just visualize this, shall we?  Your kid is sitting in school, doing his damnedest to figure out algebra.  Suddenly there's a ruckus down the hall, CPS is warring it out with an addict mother and kid-beating dad.   Another lovely couple are screeching at each other over child support payments.

Your kid gets a hall pass to go to the bathroom to escape the din.  In there are filthy drunken homeless people washing their hair and armpits in the washsinks.  

Your kid escapes the bathroom, and goes to the "health center" hoping for some peace and quiet.  In there are skeevy-looking guys scratching their crotches.  One extremely thin and pale man is covered in sores.  Typhoid Mary in the corner, hawking up big gobs.  

Capital idea!

[zeitgeist]

NEA General Counsel: Union Dues, Not Education, Are Our Top Priority

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Any wonder why little Johnny can't read, write, or do sums?  As the song says "Always look for the Union Label"

http://blog.heritage.org/2009/07/09/nea-general-counsel-union-dues-not-education-are-our-top-priority/

[GOBUCKS]

Reports like this always have a whiff of NEA about them. Our students are dumb as rocks and we
are causing it because we don't pay our union teachers enough. If we would just raise taxes, we
would see little LaShonda and little Jamaal solving binomial equations like a Japanese kid.

It's like those news reports you see all the time comparing the states. No matter what state
you live in, you will see reports that your state is in the bottom five. The NEA sponsors enough surveys
that they can find one tailored for making any state's results appear abysmal. That goes into a news
release attributing the poor performance to teacher salaries, in which every state also ranks in the
bottom five. It's like a reverse Lake Woebegone.

[VivisMom]

Throwing money at the problem does nothing but create more problems.

I taught in an inner-city school in Baltimore, one that was touted as one of the best schools in the city. What did I find? Lots of corruption, lots of kids with apathetic parents, and a teachers union that rolled over and played dead when teachers complained.

Baltimore has one of the highest spending-per-student numbers out there-they spend roughly $5k per student per year. (It's at the top of Page 6) And yet they are consistently among the lowest ranked schools in the nation. As my kids used to say, "Mo' money, mo' problems."

Until parents start becoming actively involved in their child's life and education, this cycle is doomed to repeat itself. No amount of money thrown at the problem, no number of "community center-schools" is going to fix this problem unless people want it to change.

[Chris]

Baltimore has one of the highest spending-per-student numbers out there-they spend roughly $5k per student per year. (It's at the top of Page 6) And yet they are consistently among the lowest ranked schools in the nation. As my kids used to say, "Mo' money, mo' problems."

5k?  That sounds pretty cheap compared to what gets spent around here... 9k in Nashville and 8k in neighboring Williamson County that has some of the best schools in the state.  I think the difference between Nashville and Williamson County schools might be the lower number of single-parent households in the latter.

[Chris_]

5k?  That sounds pretty cheap compared to what gets spent around here... 9k in Nashville and 8k in neighboring Williamson County that has some of the best schools in the state.  I think the difference between Nashville and Williamson County schools might be the lower number of single-parent households in the latter.

Last report I heard had DC schools taxing and spending in the neighborhood of $16,000-$20,000 a pop to warehouse and indoctrinate the little cherubs there.

[The Village Idiot]

Teacher's unions don't give a shit for the children.

You know what?? Even the state education departments in many states now offer home public school through online. You have to keep up a B average at minimum. The teachers are usually not that far away either. There are even Semester field trips. I know about 5 kids doing this.

[DumbAss Tanker]

I have a difficult time taking anything seriously that includes the word "Programme," since it almost universally indicates massive involvement by Euro bureaucrats and will cleave heavily to a Labour/Socialist line, as well as smacking of 'Scientific studies' with predetermined outcomes to fit the agend at hand.

[delilahmused]

You know what?? Even the state education departments in many states now offer home public school through online. You have to keep up a B average at minimum. The teachers are usually not that far away either. There are even Semester field trips. I know about 5 kids doing this.

These kinds of programs are quite a bone of contention in the homeschooling community. Once you let government in you invite government control (i.e. you have to keep up a B average). You lose some of your autonomy and put others at risk, even those wishing to remain independent. Government never loosens it's grip once it gets the slightest hold. Schools get funding for these programs as if students were physically present in the classroom. Personally, I have mixed feelings because I really believe parents should choose what works best for their children and families, even though I would never use one of these programs. However, I took a certain amount of flak myself for letting my son play on the high school soccer team. At that level it's the only way to get the requisite exposure and the (hoped for) invitations and scholarships to play on college teams. Turns out he joined the Marine Corps instead. Fifteen years of lost weekends, summers and Christmas breaks spent playing tournaments from Oregon to Germany, thousands of dollars worth of cleats and he figures out he'd rather lob grenades at a target than kick a ball into a net. Such is life.

Cindie

[BlueStateSaint]

These kinds of programs are quite a bone of contention in the homeschooling community. Once you let government in you invite government control (i.e. you have to keep up a B average). You lose some of your autonomy and put others at risk, even those wishing to remain independent. Government never loosens it's grip once it gets the slightest hold. Schools get funding for these programs as if students were physically present in the classroom. Personally, I have mixed feelings because I really believe parents should choose what works best for their children and families, even though I would never use one of these programs. However, I took a certain amount of flak myself for letting my son play on the high school soccer team. At that level it's the only way to get the requisite exposure and the (hoped for) invitations and scholarships to play on college teams. Turns out he joined the Marine Corps instead. Fifteen years of lost weekends, summers and Christmas breaks spent playing tournaments from Oregon to Germany, thousands of dollars worth of cleats and he figures out he'd rather lob grenades at a target than kick a ball into a net. Such is life.

Cindie

Cindie, I've got to ask--how many things did he break as a child?

He's being paid to break things!  By the government, no less!   

[VivisMom]

5k?  That sounds pretty cheap compared to what gets spent around here... 9k in Nashville and 8k in neighboring Williamson County that has some of the best schools in the state.  I think the difference between Nashville and Williamson County schools might be the lower number of single-parent households in the latter.

Keep in mind that Baltimore City has a very small tax-base, and I'd wager a lot that the majority of the citizens are in the non-taxable bracket.

[GOBUCKS]

Keep in mind that Baltimore City has a very small tax-base, and I'd wager a lot that the majority of the citizens are in the non-taxable bracket.

?
Isn't it Baltimrore's tax base that supports DUmmy undergroundpanther with all her self mutilations and bizarre tattoos?

[The Village Idiot]

These kinds of programs are quite a bone of contention in the homeschooling community. Once you let government in you invite government control (i.e. you have to keep up a B average). You lose some of your autonomy and put others at risk, even those wishing to remain independent. Government never loosens it's grip once it gets the slightest hold. Schools get funding for these programs as if students were physically present in the classroom. Personally, I have mixed feelings because I really believe parents should choose what works best for their children and families, even though I would never use one of these programs. However, I took a certain amount of flak myself for letting my son play on the high school soccer team. At that level it's the only way to get the requisite exposure and the (hoped for) invitations and scholarships to play on college teams. Turns out he joined the Marine Corps instead. Fifteen years of lost weekends, summers and Christmas breaks spent playing tournaments from Oregon to Germany, thousands of dollars worth of cleats and he figures out he'd rather lob grenades at a target than kick a ball into a net. Such is life.

Cindie

The 10 Commandments are on the wall, their grandpa is a preacher,  who goes to Brazil on mission trips annually and has recently been to Turkey, a Muslim country.

[franksolich]

?
Isn't it Baltimrore's tax base that supports DUmmy undergroundpanther with all her self mutilations and bizarre tattoos?

It seems to me you and I, sir, are supporting the subway cat.

Social security disability, medicaid, all that is money stolen from the American taxpayers, not just the Baltimore or Maryland taxpayers.

[The Village Idiot]

It seems to me you and I, sir, are supporting the subway cat.

Social security disability, medicaid, all that is money stolen from the American taxpayers, not just the Baltimore or Maryland taxpayers.

Maybe that was the parade she was in, the welfare queen gay tomcat parade