No I am not a Zebra I am a Sagitarrean who is Sheldon Cooper

Ok it is absurd to think any real teacher would actually enjoy tutoring! too boring... just one student? yuk

One morning after a night class I was phoned that a student was complaining./ I knew she would she had demanded that I provide her with private lessons

yuk

I was smart enough to not say no I can't rather oh it isn't possible because of my schedule

she called the prevost

yeah that is what she did

If adults had to put up with the gobblety gunk that 3-12 grade students get--- well they would not be so passive as to just fall asleep

Education people the capital E educators have a favorite word

paradigm

I think K-2 is still very seminar-esque in style

Art Bird Red Art*Fine*Contemporary*Modern

I am off to get a hot beverage

Art Bird Red Art*Fine*Contemporary*Modern

Nothing hot here because I like cold beverages , uh huh, cuz I'm feelin' kinda thirst-a.

(I can't believe that awful song is almost fifteen years old.)

57.875% of what?  We'ver been having an on-going debate about the relative merits of charter schools in my state.  As part of that debate arguments arise concerning standardized tests and what the results mean, e.g. "ACT College readiness".  When I see stats concerning the meaning of standardized test results I have learned you always have to look behind them.  

The SAT is a standardized test that scores with a max of 2400 (800 on 3 different sections).  The test is designed so that the median score will be 500.  The test was "recentered" in the 90s because many more students were taking the test due to certain states requiring all students to take it.  This large influx of test takes resulted in the median score drifting downward into the 400s.  

I am not sure what the percentages would apply to though.

ksmrkt wrote:

I'll get this out of the way first:

 

I do think that children need to know how to write cursive. I do not know if that is still a requirement in public schools. Probably easy enough to find if I just do a bit of googling.

 

But, by gosh, I do so hate these "education has gone to hell in a handbasket" threads. I really do.

 

There are some amazing things that go on in both public and private schools. The education is not all just "dumbed down" and worthless.

 

The standardized tests ARE a problem. The tests are a problem because of how they are used.

 

I could go on and on, but it is late (or early?)

I should think more before I say more.

When more than half of all graduating high school seniors cannot identify more than 80% of the words on either the 1953 or the revised GSL, and university graduates (BA or BS: source: HEW 2010) evidence a utilised (i.e. spoken) vocabulary of 1,900 words, and a reading vocabulary of less than 6,000 words (compared to figures compiled 112 years ago, this indicates that modern Americans have between one quarter and one fifth the 'average' vocabulary of those at the turn of the century) the problem goes a lot deeper than "the standardised tests [being] a problem."

.

Todays vocabulary.

Yo,wus up?

Where you at?

I ain't gonna do it!

Now I spose I can do that?

Me and him liked it very much.

I seen that too.

Just a general question for the boardies:

When was the last time you wrote a paragraph longhand?

Bob

For me it was about a year ago.  I was amazed at how badly my handwriting has deteriorated - it being such a long time since I had taken pen in hand.

Bob

I hope you're right.

About a year ago I sold a paperweight that had the name of an Indiana town set into it in a cursive script done in copper wire.  It went back to that town in Indiana.  About the same time, I read that Indiana was going to stop teaching cursive writing and it struck me as odd that suceeding generations might not know what was written into that paperweight.

Bob

My three children attended a Montessori preschool and kindergarten where they were taught cursive writing only. They also learned to write their own stories before they could read.

By the time they entered public school first grade, they were reading books and knew the printed characters, so it was easy for them to adapt to printing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfxYhtf8o4

-

I am glad that was not posted in any of my classrooms.  It is so harsh, and so grim; so dog-eat-dog.  I was born in the 1940s and educated in American public schools.  I am glad that we were allowed to indulge our youthful idealism, and to see life as bright and full of promise.  I'm glad no one ever told us that our futures held nothing more than slugging rats for ungrateful employers. I'm glad that my parents enjoyed their own lives and did not accuse me of wearing them down into boring nonentities through providing for me.

I am especially glad that Rule No. 1 was not posted in any school I attended.  Absolute fairness may not be attainable, but fairness is still the ideal.  In our personal conduct, we should always strive for fairness in all our dealings with one another.  At least, that is what I was taught at home and had reinforced in the public schools I attended.  


P.S.  For the record, Bill Gates did not write or ever quote those "rules," which are the work of Charles J. Sykes.

-