Comments on: Come Saturday Morning: The Sting Collapses

By: eggroll

eggroll — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:27:06 +0000

The school systems here in Northern Europe all allow the student to choose a trade or academic track at about age 16. Some special high schools (say musical performance) require exceptional academic performance, others just a certain minimum grade average. In Finland, where I live, the top PISA scores of the country’s 15-year-olds has been overshadowed by a couple of violent school shootups by bullied boys who bought guns online. Many young Finnish guys spend inordinate amounts of time playing computer games rather than reading or interacting with friends. Indeed, today’s paper had a rather horrifying revelation that teen males only read on average about one non-school-related book a month. Teen girls were more avid readers. Nevertheless, such reading levels are good by post-literate US standards.

There are no charter schools, of course.

By: BooRadley

BooRadley — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:35:35 +0000

Thanks PW

digg

By: mracine

mracine — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:53:23 +0000

My dream education reform would be the end of college athletic scholarships. They don’t have them anywhere else in the world and it thoroughly distorts our public education system.

It means there is an entire alternate path to high school success which undermines the academic side of the system. Imagine if all the resources that went into afterschool teams could be channeled into in school physical education programs. It also widens class distinctions because now the only kids who make it onto high school teams are those whose parents have been expensively preparing them for it since kindergarten. (Not all sports, not all schools, but definitely true in my town.)

For all the talk about how parents need to be involved in school, I don’t think that is true at all. In other high achieving countries, the kids are just dropped off in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. In a study done in Germany, parents rated as the worst thing about teaching. Getting parents off teacher’s backs might get better teachers into the system.

By: RieszFischer

RieszFischer — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:30:35 +0000

What % of the student body are minorities?

By: pluege

pluege — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:18:21 +0000

the big republican/conservative lie of privatization – its nothing more than dog whistle for lining the pockets of republican hacks with the taxpayers hard earned money to buy worse services than the government can offer. Its always a win-win-win for republicans: the hacks get richer, the government does less, and the average American is kept in a constant state of struggle so they have no time or ability to focus on the republican/conservative pillaging of America.
.

By: rwcole

rwcole — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 17:10:04 +0000

We may need more options for kids. Not all kids have the interest or ability in college prep classes. Every school district should have a college prep program whether it be on a separate campus or not. Kids who don’t make the grade should go back to the “general population”. We may also need to re-engineer “distributive education” so that kids who don’t have a taste for “book learning” can be working in apprentice programs in the afternoon while doing classromm work in the mornings…we may also need thug programs where kids who think that school is a place to act like an asshole can just “do their time”.

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:54:30 +0000

I had Thanksgiving at home with a few friends. Going to relatives Xmas, so ask again on 12/30. *g*

By: Twain

Twain — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:53:36 +0000

Teddy’s upstairs.

By: demi

demi — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:51:49 +0000

Sad. I thought it was only the dfh’s who have problems with short term memory.
How was your Thanksgiving? Leave anything this time? Sorry to tease you. (hugs).

By: eCAHNomics

eCAHNomics — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 16:50:33 +0000

As I said above, after what happened to George Allen, you’d have thought they’d learn instantly. After all, the first job of a pol is to get elected.