TRUTH OF ALL TRUTHS: it's a waste of time and money trying to educate the bottom 50% of American kids.

Stupid in America

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"In just five years, the success of the Opportunity Scholarship Program has been remarkable and students have shown substantial improvement on standardized tests and in college placement. These vouchers let students leave behind a system where only 59% of students even graduate and only a fifth of those end up going to college. DC area private schools graduate close to 100% of their students and almost all of those graduates go on to college. In fact a quarter of them go to one of the top 10 colleges in the nation. DC charter schools also perform well, graduating 91% of their students and sending 83% of those graduates to college, almost 4 times the college placement rate of the DC public schools.

There are grassroots movements in virtually every major urban area where parents and community leaders — mostly of African-American or Hispanic heritage — are working to bring a program like this to their communities. They want to have more of a say in how education dollars are spent and to let competition drive improvement in education for everyone. They believe that the person most qualified to choose the best sort of school for an individual child is that child's parent.

A Senate hearing on Wednesday concluded that despite the fact that the DC voucher system was written out of the recently passed budget, it was a proven success and ought to be continued. President Obama reassured the families of the 1700 students currently using vouchers that he would see that they were at least able to keep attending their current schools until they graduate. He said that he would put aside politics and support solutions. Yet the teachers unions and the powerful education lobby are campaigning hard against this voucher system because they are afraid that it will set a precedent and encourage other school districts to open up educational alternatives for their students."

[link to blogcritics.org]

"Yet the teachers unions and the powerful education lobby are campaigning hard against this voucher system because they are afraid that it will set a precedent and encourage other school districts to open up educational alternatives for their students."

There are no words...

I'm not from the bottom 50%, but most of my students are.

Many of them come into the 9th grade defeated and numb - from previous failures.

We set the bar high - track them into honors/AP strands and offer a lot of after school hours help. If they can't or won't do the honors/AP strand, then they take the regular (albeit still college track) classes.

This year, three of my previous bottom 50% got full scholarships to Brown, Brandeis and Georgetown Universities.

75% of the others were offered placements and scholarships at other universities (state and private).

So - I'd rather not "throw" them away so early in the game.
I'd rather give them an opportunity to meet high standards, give them all the help they need to do so, and let them then decide where they want to go in life: college, technical schools, military etc.

[link to images1.wikia.nocookie.net]

It takes 3 major factors for a student to succeed in school:

1) parents
2) student motivation
3) teachers (this is the least important of the 3)

Students of the bottom 50% have shitty parents and a shitty attitude, so no teacher..no matter how well trained...is going to turn those bottomfeeders around.

I agree with the first part (especially with teachers being the least important.) But, I've had success with kids with the bad attitude turning around. So, as pollyanna-ish as my belief is, I still think they can be helped (mine have been and I don't work in a charter school). However, I respect your opinion and agree with the 3 factors.

For those interested in ‘education’ I suggest you read John Taylor Gatto and in particular, The Underground History of American Education. Schooling is a huge waste of time, talent, energy, and creativity.

additional reads:
Diane Ravitch, “No Child Left Behind”, And The Racial Achievement Gap’s Kryptonite Cause, By Steve Sailer

the whole school "system" SUCKS <imo>

God didnt even burn Sodom and Gomorah without seeking out the few who could be saved diligently and with some fucking compassion you retard! Besides those pieces of paper could never accurately gage the true potential of a child.

...for real!...a piece of paper means Jackshit...the irony is that in that "lower" 50% of kids there could well be many, many spiritual geniuses...visionaries...planetsavers...if only they were allowed to blossom...

I come from an intelligent family without a history of higher education.

My father was an entrepreneur/skilled trade worker.

He dropped out of College, and never attributed those few College credits to his success in life.

If you work hard, you'll become successful, whether you work hard studying for a degree, or go out into the real world and get a job.


I'm very well spoken, and love to read.

Yet, in High School my grades were average, at best. Nearly every lesson plan was busywork. I used to cut class 'cause I was bored.

Instead of sitting around analyzing the deeper meaning of Huckleberry Finn, for like, the ninth time, I'd rather have been working at a job, learning skills I might actually use in life.

I remember, my school cut the funding for cooking class, due to teacher's union politics.

Only recently, did I learn how to cook.

I wonder - how many teens my age don't know how to cook?

Although; I'm sure they can write a kick---- essay analyzing the deeper meaning of Huckleberry Finn!

Vouchers are a horrible idea. They will ruin the public schools. Some parents might even use them for Witchcraft School or Satan-Worship School!

BS, and just because I disagree does not mean I'm in the bottom 50%. Having an education does not equal living a good life. The finest universities are always swamped.

If you only give education to the top 20%, then the other 80% will not get an education. That is 80% of the population uneducated in a country. That would not keep the country competitive on a global level.

Running people by their numbers may be efficient but it is not effective in the big picture. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, remember that.

From a centralized planning standpoint, this is correct. However, since the US started providing free public education in the 1800s, it has been a tenet of US culture that all children deserve a chance to be educated toward the career of their choice. And indeed, there are examples of people diagnosed as retarded, severely learning disabled, etc. who have gone on to earn advanced degrees. (Actually, Einstein was labeled retarded in elementary school, but that was in Europe.)

So the US does what it believes is correct and not necessarily the most efficient.

...the moment you leave High School/College is the moment you start the University of Life...you will learn more from that moment on than you ever did at these so-called "educational institutions"...as you quite rightly state, and your Dad has proved, success is self-created and not taught in some dumb-ass school/college/university....qualifications mean shit and experience, willingness and faith in yourself is everything.... :O)

education has seriously diverted from truth

teach reading and writing not social engineering and sex-ed or population control.

there are no jobs anyway. it's a brainwashing factory of change-agents.

...i have had relationships with "highly-educated" university-attending women....and i can honestly say that in my experience, they have been some of the most stupid, closed-minded robots....they merely "parrot" what they have been taught in order to appear intelligent...i myself am not highly educated and have mostly menial jobs...to me it's just money to pay my bills...i do not want a "career"...although i have had them...my learning comes about as a result of how i treat and understand other people i meet in life...and keeping an open mind...EVERYBODY is a potential teacher...and i am their willing student....

Bill Gates - a college dropout.
How many others? Look it up, fool.
Perhaps, you all think you are really something, but this Nation probably would not have won WWII with your kind of thinking.

How are the fascists in Germany?
Your rearend!

Sodom & Gomorah were blasted into ashes from a orbiting "chariot" you fool. None were left alive. At least that was the intention. You don't fuck with teh "Lord"

The education system is flawed anyway. If we really wanted to "educate" innovators instead of corporate drones (hard-working or not) then the IQ test would have replaced the SAT a long time ago.

Wow...aren't you sanctimonious???

And how SMART of you to pass judgement on everyone reading this trashy little post of yours, who chooses to disagree with you! Fantastically brilliant!

Don't know WHERE you get your propaganda from since you LIVE IN GERMANY, but one thing is certain, it has an agenda and that is not one that tracks with the ideals in the Declaration of Independance.

Here's one for you: Do you KNOW the real reason behind the US public school system??

I bet you don't!

I'll give you a hint: it has to do with Almighty God...

Who, through HIS son said, "judge not lest ye be judged."

Your perspective REEKS OF EUGENICS; could that be because of your nationality?????? Hmmmmm.

The bottom half need basic skills -- how to use a phone book, tell time, balance a check book. But we're only fooling ourselves if we think everyone is college material.

I agree.
If parents become lazy, thinking the educational system will take care of their kids, they are delusioned.
Parenting includes teaching and maintaining active support, allowing for opportunities for children to question, to strategize, to figure things out. THAT should be the enticement.

I pose questions to kids all day long in our office. I ask them to tell me what they think and why.

I read to them and help them phonetically spell a word. I took time out of my busy schedule just the other day with a plump little 4 yr old girl, who eats lots of sugar and has immature language ( baby talk ) and I helped her form her letters on paper I lent her. I told her to work on certain things and lo and behold, her grandmother told me weeks later, she was! That she spent long minutes focusing and practicing. All these kids need is loving teaching attention and kudos for any small effort.

We have thrown so many worthy minds under the bus. All because of lazy family situations, parents who are more concerned with their selfish strife and money and work and what happened to leading by example as well? Do parents read? Do they encourage the child to help them read a recipe? Do they make sure the computer softwares have educational systems for them to learn by instead of game playing? Do they buy educational games at the store or mindless ones?

It HAS TO START IN THE HOME!

At least this man has it right:

[link to www.johntaylorgatto.com]

You are mean person. Everyone is America is a winner, don't you know by now???

I've seen his work. Hers too.
[link to www.deliberatedumbingdown.com]

Define knowledge job !

From my perspective the solution is simple.

White ONLY schools....

Thanx Fred.
Whoever wrote that statement and presumed that some people are not born to learn is one who looks at the half filled water glass as half empty instead of half full.

I believe everyone has the instinct to learn. Something! They may not be academicians in the higher sense but they may be artisans or photographers or engineers or manual experts that still engage in college work. He may be fooled but I am not fooled. Something innate has to be triggered to make a kid want to learn and it is usually what feeds them.

Where is the blonde hair and blue eyed requirement, does that come later Adolf?

That was a foolish post. Vouchers are only given for students who are keeping up with standards. Private schools offer the best quality education. We need to do away with public schools and make the whole system private.

Time to bring back the trade schools, apprenticeships, etc.

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