Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : America Under Siege: The End of Innocence -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonder who wrote (20933)	12/27/2002 9:58:21 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27666

You are only partially right on that one! You see, I have seen many children born to immigrant parents best (from elementary to high school and even beyond) lots of other children of the "home-grown" variety. The lowering of standards has much to do with the new fangled notion that the self-esteem of the student has to be maintained at all times. In line with making this possible, compulsory testing is done away with to preclude failure and stress which tend to destroy self-esteem which is a sacred cow and the sine qua non for success! To me, the whole thing is quite "funny". When the former Soviets beat the Americans to putting their man (Yuri Gagarin) in outerspace in 1959, the Americans felt humbled in the eyes of the world. It was feared they might lose the race to the moon and more. Frantic efforts were made to restore America's image as the number one nation in science and technology. As a consequence, new schools popped up like mushrooms after a summer rain and new programs of studies (like CHEMSTUDY and sophisticated science courses) were devised and taught in a seemingly desperate attempt to produce more scientists and engineers. However, the new programs proved too tough for most students. Maybe the students were too lazy or the teachers were not up to par. Anyway, by about 1967 when it became evident the U.S. had caught up with the Russians in outerspace endeavours, a sigh of relief was heard all over N. America and the free world. With the stress of having to play catch up gone, people became lax. CHEMSTUDY and other advanced courses of studies were stashed aside in favour of mickymousy programs. And all the new stuff had the blessing of the psychologists who tout the self-esteem philosophy. Since then the emphasis has been on "nurturing" and "caring" in schools with the result that decent standards became a thing of the past. Today in many classrooms, slightly handicapped or mentally challenged students are lumped with the rest. Nowadays the nurturing and caring are accorded to all students regardless of whether they need it or not. In a sense, all because of a few handicapped kids and the need to maintain self-esteem at all times, everything is reduced to the lowest denominator. To be sure, with stress gone, school is a fun place to be in. In line with the self-esteem philosophy, students are allowed to choose their programs of studies and allowed to keep changing them on a whim and to take their own sweet time to get through high school. And so much time was wasted by students visiting and talking to their Guidance counsellors. Is it any wonder that a relatively big chunk of taxpayers' money is spent/wasted on education each year? As long as the school kids are happy, the majority of parents are happy. And as long as the parents are happy, the teachers are not hassled and stressed by unreasonable or irrational demands from students and parents and from politicians, too! And everything is seen to be humming along smoothly or going swimmingly fine. And many superficial folks say, "What's wrong with the education system? Neither a fume nor smell of corruption is perceptible anywhere. All I see is an incredible amount of nurturing and caring which must be good. How can so many satisfied kids and parents be wrong? What's the matter with you?"