| Agreed. If as you stated earlier, kids were taught basic math to include long division, without calculators, basic reading skills and basic writing/grammar skills, they would be much better off than the newfangled ideas they try to impose on them in elementary school. I know you disagree with me on the homo issue, but I was not kidding a couple of weeks ago about the NYC elementary kids having social skills, including reading books such as Heather has two Mommies, in their curriculum. Parents were outraged but the chancellor had his own agenda. Stuff like that is deemed to be more important than teaching basic skills and acceptable behavior. There's plenty of time for critical thinking in college and maybe even some advanced high school courses. Most kids even as juniors and seniors don't care about anything but the opposite sex, jobs, sports, and partying, at that point in their lives. Most teachers aren't able to indulge in critical thinking anyway as they need to teach standardized tests to maintain their funding. If the standardized tests cover basic skills, I see nothing wrong with that. I have no problem with vouchers. I think "at risk" is a crutch. I support parent choice. If they pay me $1,500 a year/child to send my kids to private school, it saves the taxpayers about $5,500/year/child that the public schools don't need.knc |
