Maybe the schools aren't the problem!

[Joanne98]

I watched the ACT and America's Choice show on c-span last night and I think it's time to start "thinking outside the traditional box" when it comes to test scores.

They had all this bad data on America's schools. We're last or next to last in everything. Why is this a surprise?

I have my own theories which I never see or hear on the tee vee so I'm going to throw them out there.

I think our children aren't learning because of the shape the county's in.

Here's some FACTS about the US.

We live in an extremely stressful country. Right now a huge portion of our population is behind on their mortgage payments. Six million people are still looking for jobs and we have NO safety nets anymore which is driving PARENTS to desperation.

Also we are the most violent developed country on Earth. Due to the worship of war forced on our citizens in movies, video games, newspapers and everything thing else we see. The constant promotion of violence has filtered down to the schools. Now gangs provide protection for the young and take up all of their learning time. How about this for a theory? Maybe the children have PTSD?

Instead of testing the children for all the disorders that fill the pockets of the drug companies. Why don't we test them for PTSD instead? We live in a war zone now thanks to conservative filth and their corporate backers. Maybe the children just can't concentrate. Makes sense to me.

Another glaring cause which is never investigated is the extreme lack of financial security in this country. Maybe children in other countries with safety nets for families can concentrate better because they're not always one paycheck anyway from homelessness? YA THINK?

It makes sense to me that children whose parents are having a hard time surviving would be thinking about that all the time.

Another cause of the children failing could be lack of a health care system their parents can afford. When the 10,000 people lined up at the LA stadium there were a lot of children there to see the dentist.

Maybe children with TOOTHACHES are having a hard time concentrating? DUH?

To put it simply, when we live in a country that grinds down the parents in a cruel and inhuman financial system it seems to me that children failing in school would be a result of that.

Maybe all the geniuses that compare test scores between countries could take into consideration how good or badly that country treats it's citizens. As in the PARENTS!

This is a country without hope. This is a country that's killing it's own people with benign neglect. Is it any surprise that the children are failing too?

I'm not hopeful for the upcoming school reforms. I don't know who ACT or America's choice is but all I heard was the same old failed ideas.

We live in a country that's in crisis. A good portion of our population is traumatized at this point. I think this is the reason behind the school failures.

Giving money to "reformers" who either don't have a clue or only care about getting a piece of the education pie is a waste of money.

Bring back the safety nets. Bring back the housing.. When there's more security and families feel safe again their children will be able to concentrate on learning instead of just surviving in a constant state of worry and fear.

[Hannah Bell]

1. or maybe they're catapulting the propaganda to get people to support school privatization.

which they are.

it doesn't matter *what* the statistics show. the ruling class & their flunkies want privatization.

[Joanne98]

2. They better not be!

[Hannah Bell]

10. they *are*. look at what the think tanks & foundations are promoting & see the future.

"liberal" or "conservative," they're universally promoting charters, testing, & forms of privatization.

[old mark]

4. So their own kids get all the best schools which only the rich can afford,

and the rest of the kids get factory schools that prepare them for mindless worker bee existence and the GOP/RW "christian" "philosophy" of life.

Years ago, I worked in a drug rehab program for teens - they were
afraid to attend the local city high school because the drug gangs controllds much of it. Later, we had junior members of the Latin Kings in our program and they didn't care about school because they had been making a ton of money holding the drugs for corner dealers. The youngest I had was 12 - our minimum age.

mark

[HughBeaumont]

9. One of the last things Uncle Milty (Friedman) did was go to Nola to push charter schools.

Right after Katrina. These people just lost their lives and all he saw was opportunities and crony dollar signs. It's all in the beginning chapter of The Shock Doctrine.

This gives a mighty telling insight on just what kind of bastard he was.

[notesdev]

3. It's not in politicians' interest to have people understand what is going on

so they don't hold anyone to account for poor educational achievement.

If people were educated there is no way this crop of goons would continue to hold power. I am middle-aged and there are people in Congress holding the same seats they have held since before I was born.

[quaker bill]

5. maybe, the goals lack realism

You make and excellent point. The one variable that consistently correlates to academic performance is the socioeconomic status of the parents. So as others have noted elsewhere, as the relative status of middle class and farther downscale parents has declined as a share of our national wealth, the "schools are performing poorly" becomes a meme. Is the notion that the schools should "improve" in an environment of increasing wealth disparity realisitc?

Further, under "free trade" the US has been supposed to become an "information economy", where brainpower and innovation is the source of our "comparative advantage" in global trade. This has placed greater stress on education to prepare a larger and larger proportion of our children for a college education, at some level. What is has not changed is the natural capacity of human beings. Of the people here, just like everywhere else, half have less than the median IQ, by the very mathematical definition of the term. Being a mathematical truism, there is nothing an education system can ever do to change this.

Some of us are simply not capable of making meaningful use of an advanced education. There is no training approach that will ever change this. It is entirely possible that we have created a demand for "knowledge workers" beyond the very biological capacity of our species to provide. This conceptual failure to understand our nature and incorporate that nature into economic policy, I see as being shoved off on the "failing schools". The notion that "accountability" measures will do anything to change this is simply the political class proping up truly destructive economic ideas by off-shoring their failure on teachers.

It is actually worse than just that. The meme is now spreading through all aspects of society. Even though the deck is now stacked firmly against a person of average capacity living a successful life, the standard for a successful life has increased in difficulty. Further, as under republicans, the individual alone is held accountable for any failure to meet this standard, guilt is passed to society at large individually, for the failure to live up to their unrealistic economic models.

It is a sickness.

[Hannah Bell]

11. the supposed need for "knowledge workers" & "more training" is just the excuse the ruling class uses

when asked why half the population works for less than $15/hour, while the rulers make millions/month.

there is no such huge need for knowledge workers in this economy. nor for 16 years of schooling as minimum entry, either.

[quaker bill]

12. Agreed

but the underlying assumptions of free market globalization are justified off this illogic. It has produced the only outcome it ever could, and you sum it up well, half the population making less than $15/hour and the robber-barons making millions. This was the intent and why Reagan (or his help) came up with it.

(they really did not like unions, or anything else that gave hourly workers any power)

[Cid_B]

6. I invite you to see a real warzone...

"We live in a war zone now thanks to conservative filth and their corporate backers. "

Honestly.. what melodramtic spew...

[Joanne98]

7. Your concern is noted

[NOW tense]

8. Missing Boot Straps

The reality is we stopped handing out boot straps along time ago. The number one reason for poor performance on test scores is the income gap in the U.S..