Cliff's Journal: What are We Really Teaching in Our Schools?

Something from the submissions bin that I felt wasn't necessarily apropriate for an "Ask Slashdot". Of course, that doesn't mean it won't make a better JE:

Bamafan77 asks: "Earl Mardle's blog entry has gotten me thinking about something that has bothered me for a while -- the state of America's education system. I personally think it's fairly bad way to teach anyone anything and John Taylor Gatto agrees. Mardle links to an essay by Mr. Gatto called the, "The Six Lesson School Teacher",which explains what schools really teach young people and that success in school has little bearing on future success. Oh BTW, John Taylor Gatto was New York 1991 Teacher of the Year, but subsequently resigned after becoming fed up with the system. I only wish I had teachers with the insight of a Mr Gatto or a Marva Collins."

Thanks to Bamafan for the submission.

Have thoughts to share on the above? Please do. That's what Journal's are for. I'm interested in hearing what you all think about this issue.

Most Children Left Behind

[einstein]

My fiance has just started doing substitute teaching, but has been doing work in child care while she completed her teaching degree for the last 4 years.

she says since No Child Left Behind has been mandated, children (young kids, like kindergarten) are losing free play time, and being drilled so they can pass tests, so schools don't lose funding. What happens when you make kindergarteners study all day with no play? you get ultraviolent kindergarteners.

I can't wait until these kids get into high schools

Re:Most Children Left Behind

[GMontag]

Interesting. Apparently she is in one of the States taking the money. Many are letting the money sit in Washington and when they do that they do not have to follow the rules that come along with the money.

Also, I do find it odd that I keep hearing from other quarters how this is "under funded" in some way even though the States are not taking the amount of money available.

Re:Most Children Left Behind

[baldass_newbie]

I'm amazed that there are testing requirements for kindergarteners that require sacrificing 'free play time' for.
Must be some pretty intense tests.

FWIW, I know of a school in Philly, the Gesu School [gesuschool.org] who has a better than 80% high school graduation rate, even though the kids leave after 8th grade.
This is an inner-city school in one wicked neighborhood.
They just focus on the basics and keep drilling on things like phonics and the alphabet, things that Head Start and the Teacher's unions fight tooth and nail.

Re:Most Children Left Behind

[jeffy124]

NCLB is a horrendous piece of legislation. Near my home, more than one affluent school district that have had high marks and success for years are suddenly ranked poor due to obscure factors. It seems like that if one thing goes wrong or isn't quite what it should be - the entire school is labeled even if that little bit makes up a small bit of the equation and is otherwise controllable.

In Philly, there were something like 26 schools labeled "violent," and a total of 52 schools nationally were labeled si

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Like most conspiracy theories...

[gmhowell]

Be weary of ascribing any rational thought to achieving the end results imagined by these writers. What they say is largely consistent with the experience my wife had teaching. But these results come about without concious (sp) thought. An educational system is, by definition, a bureacracy (sp, again). How else can it exist without the work whistle and other accoutrements of corporate life?

I tend to agree with GMontag's view: if it costs more to come into compliance with NCLB than you would receive, why bo

No child left behind and...

[tf23]

First off, I've always thought the way European schools operated was a much better method than ours. From what I recall reading, they teach towards a kid's abilities. If the kid is more artistically inclined, they don't have to learn trig and calc. If a kid is good in math, there's no reason to have them take tons of grammer classes.

Yes, I'm being simplistic there, but I hope you get the idea.

My daughter, she likes math, hates history. (which is odd, her Moms a poli-sci grad). So why drill all the history

No Child Left Behind: A summary.

[buffer-overflowed]

Set requirements for funding. In order to meet these requirements, you would have to have the funding.

If you get the funding, you need to meet more requirements which would require more funding.

Isn't congress grand?

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

As a homeschooling parent, I have to say...

[M.C. Hampster]

...don't care a whole lot. :-D