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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (45841)	5/20/2004 6:21:39 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793939

Any chance you could offer something about Kimberly Swigert? It's "Dr. Kimberly Swygert." Here is her bio. kimberlyswygert.com Here is a clip from a Glenn Reynolds article that led me to her and two others. ......Then there's Marquis Harris, who was denied a teaching job because school officials said he was too smart: Recently, I interviewed with a school in one of the metro Atlanta counties, only to receive an e-mail from the principal stating, "Though your qualifications are quite impressive, I regret to inform you that we have selected another candidate. It was felt that your demeanor and therefore presence in the classroom would serve as an unrealistic expectation as to what high school students could strive to achieve or become. However, it is highly recommended that you seek employment at the collegiate level; there your intellectual comportment would be greatly appreciated. Good luck." In other words, the school administrators don't want their students to aim high. We're not going to hold our own against the Indians, the Chinese, and the rest of the world that way. The educational system is broken. It's been broken for so long that it's easy to tune out stories like this, but in fact, the damage that is being done is significant, and as America's lead over the rest of the world erodes, ignoring that damage is getting far more costly. It's time that the subject gets more attention -- and, even more importantly, action. There are a lot of educational bloggers who cover these kinds of topics in a lot more depth than I can. Joanne Jacobs (from whose blog these examples come) and Kimberly Swygert are two good examples, and their blogs have links to many more. You should also look at Erin O'Connor's blog, Critical Mass, which does the same thing for higher education. This stuff matters. America is richer than the rest of the world because we have smart people who work hard, under a system that encourages them to do so by letting them keep (most of) the fruits of their labor. But America's wealth isn't a birthright. Like our freedom, it has to be earned by each successive generation. It can't be protected by legislation, it can only be protected by hard work. Part of that hard work lies in educating the next generation. It's pretty clear that we're dropping the ball in that department. Instead of worrying about outsourcing, maybe we should be worrying about that msnbc.msn.com