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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JohnM who wrote (253364)	6/19/2014 8:10:37 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 541478

John, the other day I closely read the long article you posted about the Haitian boy struggling with the requirements of Common Core. I've been doing a fair amount of reading about demographic shifts underway in the country, falling test scores in the schools year by year, and then this country's relative standing in the world vis a vis school performance. I find myself wondering if the education gurus should be considering whether or not we're simply asking too much of our school children at too early of an age. If memory serves, it's Finland that does not begin formal education until the age of 7. Children are not asked to start reading before that age. And Finland is a homogeneous country. We, on the other hand, are not. Our two largest minorities are close to becoming the majority of the country re student populations while at the same time these are producing the lowest academic achievement scores on average. It's a cruel thing to send an underachieving child off to school and have their sense of self-worth ground away. It was no surprise to see the young Haitian boy developing thoughts of violence as he became more aware that he couldn't keep up with his peers. So I find myself wondering if it's time to get honest about these demographic changes and maybe back off on what's expected of American kids today. I'd be curious to know if you and also Epicure have any thoughts along these lines. I think the fear of being stigmatized as racist is keeping all beneficial discussion in this country to a minimum. You may remember that I live in Arkansas. The largest school district in the state is Pulaski County where Little Rock is. Right now the white population of the public school district has dropped to 22% and it's more a function of demographics than segregation. Our private academies, charter schools, and church funded schools are fully integrated. In fact, the South as a whole is considered better integrated than the rest of the country as you'll see in my link: civilrightsproject.ucla.edu