Constant criticism, much of it by complete idiots, will do that to people. When you see people criticizing schools (for example) because they aren't doing things they really are doing, or because of weird random schools- that are only news because they are weird, you get a little burned out on criticism.
You know what would be nice? Research. If facts are presented to school districts they change. Even if they don't want to change, they have to, because of a little thing called WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges)- the accreditation body that looks at school performance. Having been Wasc'ed several times, I can tell you- resistance is futile. WASC expects improvement plans, and they will watch you to make sure you are improving.
I understand that some people buy in to the propaganda that schools are not performing, but in reality most are- and they are performing especially well for Asians and white students, because those students (for the most part) are literate, and come to school with a desire to learn (or at least with their parents' desire that they learn). Where schools are underperforming, they are underperforming with primarily minority populations. If you look at little Finland, their minority populations are in trouble also. All across Europe you can see this phenomenon. Interestingly, there is more tracking in Europe, so kids who are a problem in school get bled off to the trades, and low functioning careers, so they don't wreck the upper levels of high school (the college prep classes) for the motivated kids. This is illegal in the US. We are not supposed to "track" kids- because that system was abused. So we are stuck with a very different system. I'm sure your sister probably has a better handle on all of this than I do.. |
