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

To: Lane3 who wrote (67734)	9/7/2004 1:03:31 PM
From: gamesmistress	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793927

I'd still like to address the problem of getting competent parents. I think "involved" or "uninvolved" parents is a better terminology. IMO communication between school administration and parents tends to be sporadic to lousy. It's also usually top-down - backpack notices, calls from the teacher or secretary, back-to-school nights, etc. Parents have to make a lot of effort to find out what's really going on sometimes. This is one of the issues Raspberry's group seems to be addressing. A complicating factor is the language barrier. Lots of families with Spanish as the primary language here.

To: Lane3 who wrote (67734)	9/8/2004 9:02:00 AM
From: Mary Cluney	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793927

<<< Have you looked at the standards? I haven't. If the standards are set for Nobel scientists, then I agree with you. I had the impression that the standards were set more for brick layers and even at that we struggle to reach them. I'm not sufficiently motivated to look at the standards and make a judgment.>>> I have not looked at the standards either, but if our objective is to give everyone an education that would be sufficient for brick layers, we would not need 12 years of public education plus kindergarten and pre school. Besides, if that were the case then why should a lot of smart kids have to be held back to go along with the brick layer standard. Our whole public education system is set up to give everyone a shot at becoming a nuclear physicist. I think that is good and it is noble, even though it is expensive. But, the system is set up where a lot of kids are not going to be happy. Many will fail and or drop out. The challenge is to steer kids into an easier, less demanding and more appropriate, curriculum as soon as possible and also allow kids to get back on track if they change their minds. Those that remain in the less demanding curriculum should not be branded as losers. A good example of appropriate standards that many smart people can relate to is in mathematics. How many smart peole have suffered through mathematics? But how much mathematicss does anyone really need (btw I was okay with math). As far as unresponsive parents are concerned, that is mainly a product of parents not having had a good experience in our education system.