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weak in mind, and weak in body.
Something like 1/3 of enlistees are rejected due to excess weight, failing the physical.
u.....s......a!miami – nearly one-fourth of the students who try to join the u.s. Army fail its entrance exam, painting a grim picture of an education system that produces graduates who can't answer basic math, science and reading questions, according to a new study released tuesday.
The report by the education trust bolsters a growing worry among military and education leaders that the pool of young people qualified for military service will grow too small.
"too many of our high school students are not graduating ready to begin college or a career — and many are not eligible to serve in our armed forces," u.s. Education secretary arne duncan told the ap. "i am deeply troubled by the national security burden created by america's underperforming education system."
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101221/..._military_exam
weak in mind, and weak in body.
Something like 1/3 of enlistees are rejected due to excess weight, failing the physical.
Our education produces what it is tasked to produce. When saddled with the insane notion that all children will succeed, and all children are bound for college, you get a population tasked to the bar set by least common denominators.
This aint rocket science, but are the results of the progressive educational grist (and I don't mean progressive in the classic "liberal" connotation) that has fed the professional educators for the last 20+ years. We are reaping, and have been now for over a decade, the sickly fruits of that initiative.
There were lots, if not the majority, of classroom teachers who were dumbfounded by this counterintuitive approach to education. I was one of them and that was one of the primary reasons I exited that profession after a decade.
We just haven't thrown enough money at the problem.
http://www.verdictforamerica.com/con...my-report-card
The 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) recently published scores for 65 nations. These were based on uniform tests given to 15-year-old students. The United States scores tied for 26th place with Hungary by averaging 496. There were 21 nations that scored 500 or better, 33 nations that scored in the 400s, and 11 nations that scored in the 300s. Some may be glad that we are slightly better than average; . . . . but I beg to differ.
As discussed in Chapter 2: Education; the United States is spending at least $20,576 per student in elementary and secondary schools. I remind you that this is an average of all of the states with Idaho spending the least at $10,896 per student and the District of Columbia spending the most at $38,986 per student. These numbers are for the states alone; with the Federal government throwing in $1,917 to bring it all to the $20,576 total. I wonder what they are spending in other countries?
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) published a table of annual expenditures per student based on 2006 and came up with numbers that range from $1,286 per year for Turkey to $15,440 for Luxembourg. It should be noted that the United States admitted only to spending $10,267 per student; a claim that is patently untrue, which leads me to base the rest of my analysis on the premise that my calculation of $20,576 is correct due to the fact that all of the data is from official government records; and that the published data for other nations is assumed to be true.
The most populous nation in the world is China with a current estimate of 1 billion, 341 million people. China's education spending is not included in ED's data and I had to research a number of sites. The most accurate and reliable data I could find was on Wikipedia. In 2010 China spent $31.61 billion for approximately 250 million students; which computes to approximately $1,326.44 per student. This number may be slightly skewed based on the fact that it includes approximately 50 million pre-schoolers and 50 million "gifted" individuals who qualify for higher level education. This means that the actual money spent for elementary and secondary school students is probably lower than the overall average, but I will use that number for the illustration.
The PISA scores ranged from 368 for Peru to 577 for Shanghai, China. The second highest score for 15-year-olds was 546 from . . . . . Hong Kong, China. The third highest score was 544 from Finland, Singapore got 543, and Korea got 541. Allow me to make a little chart to explain a few things:
Code:Nation PISA score Spending/Student Per Capita GNP USA 496 $20,578 $33,070 China-Shanghai 577 $1,326 $865 China-Hong Kong 546 $1,326 $865 Finland 544 Unknown $23,550 Denmark 499 $6,713 $30,192 Australia 519 $3,981 $19,214 United Kingdom 500 $3,329 $24,487
Do you see a pattern? The correct answer is both "Yes" and "No" because there is no evidence of money spent having anything to do with the quality of education, but there is evidence that something else will improve the quality of the educational environment. In China the "something else" is the fact that the higher paying jobs are ONLY available to those who achieve the highest scores on their tests. The only alternative to poverty for the rest of your life is to score in the top 3 to 5 percent of your class. Fortunately; we have Australia and the U.K. as alternative examples that show students being stimulated by a premium learning environment. They have an almost carbon copy of what I propose in my book: Schools compete and parents are able to choose where they want their children to go. Bad statistics cause a school to go out of business. In the U.S.; bad statistics cause a school to demand more funding and the majority of our electorate feels guilty as sin voting against a school-funding proposition.
Wake up America!! We have everything we need to have the finest schools in the world. Our children can beat the test scores of children from China; but only if we give them a learning environment that stimulates them rather than interfering with their time on FaceBook and Twitter.
Just to keep things in perspective: We are importing approximately $272 billion in products from China in 2010. This means that we are giving every single person in China approximately $210 apiece. Every one of the 311 million Americans is sending about $875 to China. The per person GDP in China is $865. Every living American is providing full support for more than one citizen of the People's Republic of China.
Additionally, the abdication by American families of parental responsibilities for civilizing the next generation has so weakened the essential educational function of the classroom that neither education nor civilization is getting accomplished, either in the home or the classroom.
Teysha, I applaud your reasoning in departing the classroom. I'm afraid I did it because the pay was so awful that I realized that the service that I was providing to my community was much less valued than most anything else I could do with my talents.
So I went and did something that they valued.
I agree with everything said here outside of the use of china as an example unless you are going to take the two best US cities and compare against Shanghai and HK.
Why would the upper echelon want any other result?
A dummed-down workforce is easier to manage/control/feed lies to/take to war/send to war/tax under the table/dupe/grope/force to shoulder business losses of the ultra-wealthy/scam out of their retirements, savings, investments/rob of their fundamental liberties/take nude pics of.
Completely agree with this, but why do you think this has happened?
No...not really.Why would the upper echelon want any other result?
A dummed-down workforce is easier to manage/control/feed lies to/take to war/send to war/tax under the table/dupe/grope/force to shoulder business losses of the ultra-wealthy/scam out of their retirements, savings, investments/rob of their fundamental liberties/take nude pics of.
That's why I often refer to most colleges and a "University of Indoctrination."Why would the upper echelon want any other result?
A dummed-down workforce is easier to manage/control/feed lies to/take to war/send to war/tax under the table/dupe/grope/force to shoulder business losses of the ultra-wealthy/scam out of their retirements, savings, investments/rob of their fundamental liberties/take nude pics of.
And quite often you're wrong for doing so.
Varied and differing viewpoints are not exclusive tools of indoctrination.
It's indoctrination when agendas are taught in classes outside the agenda being taught.
How much we spend for schools is a regular topic here in Oregon. Time and again, the unions and liberals band together making real changes in the teaching system impossible. They keep saying "give us more money" and it never changes a damn thing. We have some of the worse schools in the nation, and the teachers are among the highest paid.
There are several generations now whose academic training is limited to choosing the correct answer only when it is put before their eyes.
No need to think for yourself...no need to question the answers provided. No room for deviation or individuality...conform or fail. If you haven't covered the material your told to, all is for not. And leave the politicians and religious fanatics to dictate the version of truth you get.
http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/curri...have_just.html
Is that what that blog told you to think?
That viewpoint totally ignores what actually happens in a classroom. Newsflash: A decent teacher handles idiotic mandates like this by teaching process over content. I know you dont have any real expertise here, but you can at least try to parse a blog before you swallow it.
Cmon man, I've been through the system myself. I know the difference between a quality education and the bubble-in-the circle-completely approach that gets passed off as education in most schools.
I am not experienced when it comes to teaching, but lets just say I have sat before tons of ty public school teachers (over twelve years in public schools, I can count the great ones on one hand), and some of the most brilliant minds you would ever want to meet. And any approach that relies exclusively on multiple choice exams is a less than half-assed approach that leads to dumbed down kids.
And I dont give a damn what you try to get across to the kids, if the only accountability comes on the tail end of a scantron, you didn't do the kids justice.
If the kids aren't thinking for themselves, they aren't being prepared sufficiently.
And yes, I think that this is by design.
that blog references the Texan approach to public education. And how CA is fighting the effects. Did you even read it? Its only a few paragraphs long.
Ill catch up with you tomorrow on this. Bedtime for Bonzo at my house.
Obviously.
LOL...
Good turn around. However, I went to a good one in my time, graduated in the 70's before the formation of the Department of (un)Education.
I don't think kids today get as good of an education that I had by the 9th grade.
Do you now? Please, let's hear the differences as you perceive them.
I totally agree. When the test is the ultimate metric, it become the de facto curriculum. I disagree with your summation that it doesn't matter what you try to teach kids vs. accountability. IMO, in that instance, it becomes more important to teach processes, because the test/curriculum sure as won't.
And by teaching processes, I mean what process did they undertake to reveal an answer aka teaching a kid to think. I still think this is being done, but with only so many minutes in a class, it definitely takes a back seat to the test.
Of course it's by design. I don't believe, however, that there is a cabal of uber powerful pulling the strings.
That is most definitely not the Texan approach to public education. It is the last gasp of a rapidly vanishing ultra conservative majority on the textbook committee. Also, this is not the first time this has happened. It was quite common to teach outside...sometimes waaay outside the textbooks that the committee strapped us with. Seriously. Any teacher worth their salt addressed deficiencies in the textbooks they were using...quite often with materials produced by the TEA resource extension officies.California is legislating an answer to a problem that already has an answer. But, they're known for that.
Examples?
it's an indoctrinated person complaining about the educational system indoctrinating people.
classic!
Thats a quality take in your area of expertise. ThanksThat is most definitely not the Texan approach to public education. It is the last gasp of a rapidly vanishing ultra conservative majority on the textbook committee. Also, this is not the first time this has happened. It was quite common to teach outside...sometimes waaay outside the textbooks that the committee strapped us with. Seriously. Any teacher worth their salt addressed deficiencies in the textbooks they were using...quite often with materials produced by the TEA resource extension officies.
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