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

To: LindyBill who wrote (102217)	2/25/2005 5:48:15 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793820

Number two pencil - Setting some standards for high school Stephen at Cold Spring Shops wonders if college students can sue high schools for malpractice: I'm finishing a stack of blue books. There were sufficiently many spelling errors that I posted the following announcement on the class website. I don't want to deduct points for spelling errors. On the other hand, I expect juniors and seniors to have a basic understanding of the meanings and spellings of simple words. "There" means "in or at that place." "Their" is the third-person plural possessive. "Affect" is a transitive verb. "Effect," in most circumstances involving economics, is a noun. There is a transitive verb form of "effect," but it leads to cumbersome constructions such as "I expect students to effect improvements in their spelling and punctuation." A firm that has expenses in excess of revenue "loses" money. The NIU womens' basketball team loses a lot of games. Note that "a lot" are two words. "Loose" is the command to release a pack of dogs. It can also be used as an adjective to describe Paris Hilton. "To" is a preposition. "Too" is a conjunction. Oh, and it's "i before e, except after c." Plurals do not take an apostrophe. Contractions and possessives do. Note in the preceding sentence that both nouns are plurals, hence no apostrophes. Got that? Editorial comment: can these students sue their high schools for malpractice? Stephen's not the only one to think that these kids weren't taught enough in high school (via Joanne Jacobs): Citing the paltry skills of many high school graduates, the nation's governors are calling for more rigorous standards and harder exams than states have already imposed, often with considerable difficulty. Despite the zeal for academic standards and exit exams that has swept across states in recent years, a high school diploma does little to ensure that graduates are capable of handling the work awaiting them in college or in the workplace, the National Governors Association said in a report issued yesterday. Graduation requirements remain so universally inadequate that it is possible to earn a diploma anywhere in the nation and still lack the basic skills required by colleges and employers, the governors reported. Indeed, more than 4 in 10 public high school students who manage to graduate are unprepared for either college courses or anything beyond an entry-level job, the governors reported, requiring billions of dollars in remedial training to endow them with the skills "they should have attained in high school." Sadly, part of the problem is the objection to any sort of set of objective standards for high school students: When Mr. Warner looked at the exit exams of 13 other states in 2003...he said that nine of those "that talked tough about high stakes had retreated and pulled back from their consequences." In that light, getting states to adopt an even stricter curriculum than they already have, and then possibly denying diplomas to those who have failed to master it may not be easy. "The idea of consequences, and sticking to your guns about it, that is still is very controversial," Mr. Warner said. Sad, but true.

To: LindyBill who wrote (102217)	2/25/2005 5:49:36 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793820

Abbas obviously wants to keep the lid on terrorism, so he can run the Pal government. But he can't do it completely. How will this come out? TWT. No. He doesn't want to "keep the lid on terrorism", because that would mean he had to do something about the terrorists. Abbas wants to sweet talk the terrorists into cooperation, so that they are quiet now, but available later. Since that's not going to work, Abbas will try another game of pretense. And maybe Sharon will accept it this time. Everybody is making their own calculation of whose side time is on.