Read This and Weep for Our Children

[teacher gal]

Dear DUers,

I ask you, please read this: http://www.edutopia.org/accountability-readiness

But not only read it, do something about it.

Let me just say that one thing you can do that will only take a few seconds is click here http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?1teacher&1 and sign the petition to dismantle NCLB (that is, return to the pre-NCLB Elementary and Secondary Education Act and start over). We still have time to get many more signatures on this petition. If we can eventually get hundreds of thousands of signatures, that would send a powerful message to Congress, the Business Roundtable, and the next president that mere tinkering with this unjust law will not do. It requires overhauls so extensive that once it is "fixed", it essentially won't be NCLB anymore.

High-stakes testing (here I go again...please forgive me) works as an elaborate sorting device separating the wheat from the chaff, expanding the already great divide between the haves and the have nots, demoralizing children and robbing them of precious time to develop their own unique capacities, talents, and interests. They are being treated like standardized clones for corporate consumption. This is NOT the purpose of public education. We can have great public schools for all of our children if we have the will to stand up to those in power and say no more of this. Surely there is no excuse when we can pour billions into a war that should never have been.

And what about letting children be children? What about their joy and happiness? They have only one brief childhood and they can never get it back once it's over.

I know some of you have already signed. But I would like to urge those of you who haven't to do so if you agree and are willing.

Thank you!

[teacher gal]

1. Could use some help

with comments! Thank you!

[LWolf]

2. I'm proud to be one of the first 2,000 signatures on that petition.

Here is a direct link to the signing page, which I scrambled around to find from the homepage:

http://www.petitiononline.com/1teacher/petition-sign.html?

[teacher gal]

5. Yes I remember that you were!

And I thank you again, kindred spirit.

And thanks for thinking of the direct link for signing (I always need all the help I can get, don't you know).

By the way, did you hear about the teacher in Seattle who has been suspended without pay for refusing to administer the WASL to his 6th grade students? His name is Carl Chew. I put a link to it on my lonely little blog http://aplacetorespond.blogspot.com if you care to take a look.

[LWolf]

9. I heard.

I applaud his courage.

:hi:

[ColbertWatcher]

3. NCLB is another example...

...along with Katrina and Iraq which shows why this administration is a failure.

Thank you for posting this.

[teacher gal]

8. You are so right.

There is a very consistent pattern with this administration. What priorities!

And keeping our troops in Iraq to serve their own selfish ends, insisting that they continue to risk their lives and be apart from their families for months and years on end. It isn't right.

[ColbertWatcher]

24. Here is a gift thread for you...

...post away!

[mac2]

12. It's all to destroy public schools and make a profit by

Bush cronies or family.

[wildbilln864]

4. k&r!

Just signed and thanks for your efforts. :hi:

[teacher gal]

6. Thank you so very very much! n/t

[rubberducky]

7. Signed. I have a 9 year old grandson , and this old hippie sees exactly what you are saying.

Kicked and rec`ed

[teacher gal]

11. thank you old hippie! n/t

[roody]

10. But isn't all this money for testing and practice testing

good for the economy?

[teacher gal]

13. It's been especially

profitable for McGraw-Hill. The Bush and McGraw families are old cronies, going back to the 1930s I believe.

[mac2]

14. Let's give you are test to see if you are a responsible person

to say that? Just fooling but it could happen in the future.

Boot click.

[ClayZ]

15. Done K and R

[rubberducky]

16. I`m so happy that you`re on to the greatest!

When my son was in school, I continually fought with them over grading "art". How in the hell does anyone "grade" art? Then I got into a huge battle with them over "family trees". Not only was it NOT the schools business, but many, many children come from broken homes. I`m watching my grandson`s progress in school as closely as I watched my son`s. He has such a wonderful teacher this year, I wish she could teach him through high school.He`s only in third grade, but this wonderful woman has turned on such a "love of learning" in him. Teachers have a very tough job. Some "shine", some coast, but we NEED our public school system to work.

[mac2]

42. Yes...a nephew of mine was doing his genealogy in school.

My sister-in-law was amazed that she could not get answers about marriage and birth dates, etc from her in-laws. Yes..it is an invasion of privacy to do that as a school project. I told her to leave some of it empty.

One teacher in school failed a family member in art because he did many boxes and abstract designs. He is an engineer now. That Cubist artist would have failed grade school art, eh?

Teachers today are doing a great job considering this cappy RW federal government agenda to ruin them. Our large publicly educated population is the reason for our success and strength (which they seem to hate...even most of them a product of it).

Immigration with so many different languages is a wonder they learn at all. They allow so many immigrants but won't fund them on a local or state level. It is for cheap labor and corporate profits at the expense of our children's future.

[teacher gal]

48. Thank you

for these words about public education. Yes, America's public schools face challenges unprecedented in the world....the most diverse nation on earth as well as the highest rate of poverty of all the wealthy nations. Not to mention the seemingly endless misguided mandates from on high that divert our time and energy from the kids, from planning and teaching - to being accountable on paper. And let us not forget America's schools and teachers are being held accountable for societal and cultural conditions they are not to blame for.

[JackDragna]

17. Another signature from this teacher.

NCLB is a god damned disgrace.

[teacher gal]

18. thanks Jack! n/t

[teacher gal]

19. I'm going to

try to keep this issue near the top for a while.

[zeemike]

20. I don't have any marbles in this game

But I am with you 100%
I see the undermining of public education as one of the most sinister crimes of this administration.

[teacher gal]

21. And to me

perhaps the most reprehensible aspect of all is that they mask their agenda under a cloak of concern for poor and minority children, reaping the reward$ while these children are the ones harmed most by this archaic law.

It is nice to have your support and thank you for commenting.

[teacher gal]

22. kick n/t

[mac2]

43. I don't either

but would like those who care and feed me in the future to be able to read and write.

[roody]

51. Writing is not on the test.

[mac2]

60. I'm talking about future workers.

[sandyd921]

23. Turns out I already signed!

Went to the petition and found out I had already signed this a while ago. But I hope lots of other folks sign! The real goal of NCLB is to dumb down education and our kids! It's effects have permeated all areas of education. I work in the early childhood field with children birth to five with disabilities and the requirements for documenting meaningless academic-type goals even for these very young children often appears to stifle our work with the kids on more important developmental outcomes.

[Elspeth]

25. High stakes testing actually REDUCES student motivation

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/2518379.stm

... Constant testing at school could be highly detrimental to pupils according to new research.

A government-commissioned study by the Assessment Reform Group, carried out at Bristol university, says repeated exams are putting children off school and reducing their learning ability.

The research concludes that repeated testing leads to poor motivation, less effort and lower results.

It says pupils see the point of school in terms of passing tests rather than understanding what they are learning...

[teacher gal]

27. Not surprising

is it? On the PISA, an international test, little Finland tops all the other countries. It is my understanding that there is NO standardized testing of the children at the elementary ages. I'd have to check but I don't think they take any standardized tests until about 8th grade. Oh, the irony! And they don't start regular school until they are 7 years old, thus they are not putting pressure on little ones to perform at levels which are developmentally inappropriate for them. They have a childhood and can actually ENJOY learning!

Policymaking needs to rest with teachers, parents, and local communities who know their students and their needs best because there simply are no one-size-fits-all solutions. I believe attempts to standardize children and try to force them to perform at levels they are not yet ready for are very harmful to them.

[Elspeth]

31. But not well known in the US where we assume that testing brings excellence

My own :tinfoilhat: theory is that constant and relentless testing is part of the dumbing down process.

[teacher gal]

32. I agree! nt

[Elspeth]

33. I wonder if those British results deserve their own thread?

I think people need to understand that testing is counterproductive.

[teacher gal]

35. You want to go for it?

If you want to start the thread I can come back in a few minutes and contribute to it. There is the recent study from Rice University showing a direct link between high-stakes testing and the increasing dropout rate.

Funny how our politicians are now all in a tizzy about the dropout rates when they themselves implemented policies contributing mightily to it.

[Elspeth]

36. THANKS! I will

It needs its own thread. :)

[teacher gal]

38. and another kick for this one n/t

[roody]

26. At my school, teachers administer the test

and one of them volunteers to be the test coordinator. Not being ready to refuse to administer the test, I call on all teachers to refuse to be the test coordinator!

[teacher gal]

28. haha!

Now there's an idea.......

[TalkingDog]

29. The purpose of government sponsored education

is exactly this: "They are being treated like standardized clones for corporate consumption."

You may not teach for that reason, but that is the reason government sponsored public education exists.

It's a supply and demand problem. If you don't send children to school there is an increased need for police presence, fewer institutional jobs for teachers, administration, service and physical plant jobs all the way through college, decreasing that steady and substantial revenue stream into the economy.

Children can be employed for much less money, depressing wages for everyone. The longer they are kept out of the employment pool the lower adult unemployment numbers remain.

You probably took pedagogy courses similar to the ones I had. If so, you know there is a substantial difference in the educational and physical resources available for areas that pay fewer taxes (read: parents that work in minimum wage jobs). You also know that studies have shown that children from areas that pay lower taxes are educated and treated differently than children from areas where there is a higher tax base.

Low income children are given lots of repetitive learning, rote memorization and little instruction in critical thinking. It "trends" them nicely into service jobs, factory work and other jobs that don't need or want independent thinking.

Moving up the tax base scale in educational styles show an increase in tasks that involve independent thought and autonomous action, paving the way for our country's future entrepreneurs.

Do teachers willfully set out to teach rich kids and poor kids differently? No, that's not my point at all. But a system sponsored and underwritten by an entity with a highly vested interest in the outcome is automatically suspect. And if one chooses to work in that system, no matter how noble their intention; they cannot help but have their actions and outcomes subverted to the desires of the system.

[ColbertWatcher]

30. O'Rly?

"The good Education of Youth has been esteemed by wise Men in all Ages, as the surest Foundation of the Happiness both of private Families and of Common-wealths. Almost all Governments have therefore made it a principal Object of their Attention, to establish and endow with proper Revenues, such Seminaries of Learning, as might supply the succeeding Age with Men qualified to serve the Publick with Honour to themselves, and to their Country."

--"Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pensilvania", Benjamin Franklin, founder of the University of Pennsylvania.

[NashVegas]

45. Yeah Really

What Ben Franklin wanted is a far cry from what the Rockefeller wanted.

Which of these quotes regarding education is not real?

1. "School produces mental perversion and absolute stupidity." --Vincent Youmans, world-famous American physician and academic (1867)
2. The creation of the compulsory public schooling system was ordered by "certain industrialists and the innovative who were altering the nature of the industrial process." --James Bryant Conant, President of Harvard University from 1933 to 1953 (1949)
3. "We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning or men of science." --Rockefeller's General Education Board (1906)
4. Education is "the development of critical reasoning and the acquiring of basic facts relating to science, history, the arts, and similar areas." --Education Department (1968)


In case you haven't guessed, the answer is #4.

[ColbertWatcher]

53. Strawman much?

The purpose of schools was not to teach students to become employees, just as the purpose of Christianity is to love thy neighbor, not get filthy rich off your neighbor.

The problem is not in the intent, but in the undertaking.

Nice bumperstickers quotes, BTW.

[NashVegas]

54. Confused Much?

The purpose of schools today is to teach students to become employees, and docile ones at that.

[ColbertWatcher]

55. Read much?

That's what it has become, not how it started or how it is designed.

It's like any system, take for instance search and rescue operations. Let's say you have an infrastructure to rescue people after a hurricane hits, all the parts are there, including professionals willing and able to do their jobs. That doesn't necessarily mean, however, the managers will use it for that purpose.

[teacher gal]

34. You make some

powerful points and I would agree that those with money, power, and influence have long managed to control public education in such a way that there are gross inequities in funding and outcomes for poor children. It serves them well (the ruling elite). Nevertheless, IN SPITE OF these things, public schools and teachers do their very best for these children despite unprecedented challenges and demands and I believe we do make a difference.

[teacher gal]

37. How do we the people wrest control

from the powers usurping our government?

You may recall that President Reagan and many Republicans really wanted to just abolish the U.S. Department of Education. And Reagan favored vouchers. But fast forward to Bush term 1 by which time they sought not to abolish the DOE but to use it as a strongarm to undermine and destroy public education, hence the highly punitive and absurdly unrealistic mandates of NCLB.

And of course Democrats as well as Republicans are complicit in this mess up to their eyeballs. I've never doubted that some ignoramus politicians of both parties were actually duped, maybe even meant well, and now wish like hell they'd never voted for the thing. Now they are stuck with trying to save face and make 'revisions' to it.

[mac2]

44. I don't agree.

"They are being treated like standardized clones for corporate consumption."

You may not teach for that reason, but that is the reason government sponsored public education exists."

Public education is being destroyed for cheap labor and less educated, informed citizens. It keeps them down.

[teacher gal]

39. another kick

for the kids

[unkachuck]

40. done....

....and keep up the good work, teaching....you have one of the most difficult yet rewarding jobs in the world....our future is in your hands....

[teacher gal]

41. thank you unkachuck

my last post and kick for the night.

'Nite all

[dysfunctional press]

46. my wife and i decided that not having kids was the best decision we ever made.

this is not the kind of world to bring them into.

[DesertRat]

47. k&r

[teacher gal]

49. thanks for the k&r DesertRat

and I want to give this another kick before I leave the house.

Thanks to all for the support given this thread.

[LeftishBrit]

50. Important post

Can't sign as I'm not a US citizen, but a kick nevertheless!

It's even worse in the UK, because children start school younger.

[teacher gal]

57. hey there!

Yes, and note the growing childhood poverty in both the US and the UK. On the most recent report from UNICEF (and there's another study out now too confirming it) guess which two countries are last and next to last in child well-being among the wealthy nations?

Right.

Currently, the United States, as usual, is number one in economic competitiveness and productivity. But all that wealth being created just doesn't trickle down. It manages to defy gravity and accumulate in the hands of the already obscenely rich.

It isn't right.

Thank you for commenting.

[LeftishBrit]

52. Some people were aware of the dangers in Victorian times...

Here's an excerpt from a post I made a few months ago, concerning the history of education in the UK:


At the beginnings of state education in the UK in the 19th century, teachers in state schools were paid by 'results'. This almost strangled state education at its beginning.

Here are some fascinating excerpts from the 1867 'General Report' by Matthew Arnold, well-known English poet *and* school inspector, referring to the effects of this system, introduced in 1862. (Part of the report was reprinted in Stuart Maclure's "Educational Documents"; Chapman, 1986.)

'The mode of teaching in the primary schools has certainly fallen off in intelligence, spirit and inventiveness during the four or five years after my last report. It could not well be otherwise. In a country where everyone is prone to rely too much on mechanical processes and too little on intelligence, a change in the Education Department's regulations, which by making two thirds of the Government grant depend on a mechanical examination, inevitably gives a mecahnical turn to the school teaching, a mechanical turn to the inspection, and must be trying to the intellectual life of a school...

More free play for the inspector, and more free play, in consequence, for the teacher, is what is wanted.In the game of mechanical contrivances, the teacher will in the end beat us... by ingenious preparation (of children for tests).'

[teacher gal]

58. wow

Do you mind if I share this on some other lists I belong to?

[LeftishBrit]

63. No problem - feel free to use it!

I only wish more people were aware of this.

[Greylyn58]

56. Done! n/t

[teacher gal]

59. many thanks n/t

[teacher gal]

61. and a kick

as I say good night.

[Two Americas]

62. kicking

K and R, and while I am at it, a quotation from Lincoln on the importance of edcuation in a free society.

How can labor and education be the most satisfactory combined?

By the "mud-sill" theory it is assumed that labor and education are incompatible; and any practical combination of them impossible. According to that theory, a blind horse upon a tread-mill, is a perfect illustration of what a laborer should be - all the better for being blind, that he could not tread out of place, or kick understandingly. According to that theory, the education of laborers, is not only useless, but pernicious, and dangerous. In fact, it is, in some sort, deemed a misfortune that laborers should have heads at all. Those same heads are regarded as explosive materials, only to be safely kept in damp places, as far as possible from that peculiar sort of fire which ignites them. A Yankee who could invent strong handed man without a head would receive the everlasting gratitude of the "mud-sill" advocates.

But Free Labor says "no!" Free Labor argues that, as the Author of man makes every individual with one head and one pair of hands, it was probably intended that heads and hands should cooperate as friends; and that that particular head, should direct and control that particular pair of hands. As each man has one mouth to be fed, and one pair of hands to furnish food, it was probably intended that that particular pair of hands should feed that particular mouth - that each head is the natural guardian, director, and protector of the hands and mouth inseparably connected with it; and that being so, every head should be cultivated, and improved, by whatever will add to its capacity for performing its charge. In one word Free Labor insists on universal education.

Address before the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
September 30, 1859

[teacher gal]

64. Thanks Two Americas

I'm bumping this up one last time.

[laylah]

65. Done and done =)

[bronxiteforever]

66. Kick-Thank you for this

[LibertyLover]

67. I read that story

and see my own little girl in it. She is almost 6 and in kindergarten - all day kindergarten where they are teaching them to read and write and do math problems already. She comes home at the end of each day exhausted, too tired to play most days, but with homework to do, or rather to have mommy and daddy do the homework because it involves reading lots of instructions that she can't read yet. I resent what has been done to kindergarten and what is being done to my own little sprite, who, like the little girl in the article, loves to wear princess dresses, tiaras and talk to her stuffed unicorn, Uni. Of course, my daughter's school does not permit the wearing of tiaras, or any hats except in the winter for that matter. A rainbow poncho would have to go in the closet. There is no 'dress up corner' in her kindergarten, but there are computers for 'learning games', nor are there many toys other than educational blocks with the alphabet and numbers on them, because we don't want to distract the children from learning. My daughter goes to what is conventionally known as a "good" school, but there are times I wish I was not the breadwinner in the family and could stay home with her to home school her, or that my husband, who doesn't work, would agree to do so. I've signed the petition, and can only hope that the next president, whether it's Obama or Clinton, will terminate NCLB as one of their first acts as president.

[Luna_C_06]

70. Really, I mean no offense to your husband, but it is his kid too, why won't he take

the time to teach his own child? Hell my own father is a full blown alcoholic and he still taught my little sisters and I how to read and count.

[Luna_C_06]

68. Done and done. nt

[blondeatlast]

69. "It appears you've already signed this petition" and damn glad of it! Kick from a public school mom

who DESPISES NCLB for handicapping my son's ability to think!