Quality of Education: (Was: Re[2]: [at-l] Follow Through On Global Warming (OT))

[daveh at psknet.com (Dave Hicks)]

Without committing on the content of Bryan's posted explanation, I would
observe the following additional/alternative observations (based on being
married to a school teacher for 40 year, observing the education of my
children and grandchildren, and long discussions with one of my daughters -- 
MA in Early Childhood Development, not from an Education Department ):

The impact of rampant litigation on what, why, how, when, etc. of
teaching/promoting/testing/etc

The impact of rampant legislation on what, why, how, when, etc.

The impact of distractions, unreal expectations.

The impact of decorum, self discipline, etc.

The impact of one dimensional cause/effect programs, theories, etc.

I could go on.  However, my point is that there is enough blame to go around
w/o focusing on one, or two elements/inputs.

For the most part I think it is a convoluted maze of many good intentions,
with unintended consequences.

Chainsaw

PS -- Once I had a real, "Why can't everyone see? / What am I missing
moment? about education."

There was  litigation / newspaper outcries / School Board hearings / etc
about the local High School (which my daughter was attending) having the
second lowest "completion-in-three-years rate" and the second highest
dropout rate in the State.  No one else seemed to notice (or care) that they
were one of the top five school in the State in SAT scores and had an
excellent college placement/completion rate, for their grads.  Also, no one
seemed to notice that one the Junior High / Middle Schools, which feed this
High School, was receiving rave reviews, rewards, administrator/teacher
bonuses, etc for the top retention/promotion rates in the State; at the same
time the student, which they pushed into the High School, could not compete
with the student from the other feeder schools.

BTW, 1) my wife was not a teacher in either of the subject schools at the
time,  2) that daughter graduated on time, with a number of AP courses, was
accepted at a number of top colleges, and got her BS in Biology from Penn
State, in three years, and 3) there was little difference in the
socio/economic makeup of the feeder schools to her HS.

IMHO a well intended program to reduce dropouts had the unintended
consequences of depriving a number of Junior High / Middle Scholars of a
shot at college, and maybe even a HS diploma.



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "J Bryan Kramer" <jbryankramer@msn.com>
To: <Bror8588@aol.com>; <GoVolsKelly@aol.com>; <ellen@clinic.net>;
<raystern@adelphia.net>
Cc: <AT-L@backcountry.net>
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 6:15 PM
Subject: RE: Re[2]: [at-l] Follow Through On Global Warming (OT)

SNIP
>>
Well I heard some woman speak on this subject, and I wish I could recall her
name since she made a lot of sense. Her explanation was this:
<<
SNIP