Answers inline. > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Friday, May 31, 2002 8:42 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: From the makers of the Palm Beach Hanging Chad... > > > (I sent this yesterday afternoon and it never came through... > methinks > the mail service is having a case of the hiccups) > > As the son of a teacher, I will never say that they are the best paid > people in the world. I've often heard that there are two professions > that people should not go into if they want to make a lot of > money, and > those are education and the ministry. It is a sad honesty > and it is a > truth that has been around for a very, very long time. > > I wholeheartedly agree that teachers should make more money than they > do. I also know from working retail that the majority of the > graduating > classes have problems doing simple math and think that the > world should > be handed to them on a silver platter. > > I distinctly remember one kid that we hired (I used to work for Radio > Shack) and had to have arrested SEVEN DAYS later for stealing store > merchandise. There were three other occasions when people > would show up > for interviews dressed in the Group-of-the-day T-Shirts and ripped > jeans. This was at a time when the dress code included > slacks and a tie. > > I'd love to see graduates with social skills, talent, ambition and > motivation, but what I saw truly made me sad.
At the same time volunteer for social causes and community charities are considerably up from previous generations, right back to the baby boomers. Its an interesting contrast where both political polarizations really ignore the actual numbers. The Pew Charitable Trust (btw nice CF site), and the National Opinion Research Center has been doing some very interesting work in this area. Generally the ages studied - 15 through 24, show much more awareness and involvement in the community than previous generations. Myself I prefer to look at the actual data rather than depend on anectdote. > > .. then again, I also have to say that as my wife and I > anticipate the > arrival of our first child, I am seeing where I need to be an > influence > and a resource for her. A lot of the things that people say > the schools > need to do are acutally duties that a parent would do much better. > > As far as the problems being PC (politically correct) based, > the article > states: > "The new final exam for American and world history classes > was developed > by school district officials to ensure students learn state- required > lessons that include history about women, Africans, African-Americans > and the Holocaust." > > That is where I took that it is at least partially PC based. I also > love that it's a test written by district officials and not > the teachers. > > Hatton > -------------------------------------------- > Who said it had anything to do with PC. K-12 schools have had > problems for a > long time. When you have school boards that are not willing > to pay beginning > teachers much more than you'd make as a manager at a > McDonald's well you > sort of get what you pay for. It must be fun to advocate a > simple solution, > while conveniently ignoring endemic problems for years. > > Instead of complaining about PC this or PC that how about > some realistic > solutions. Here's one, decide what are the necessary core > academic subjects > that a person needs to be a citizen. Then ensure that the > kids graduating > from your school systems are at the very least competent in > those subjects. > This would mean treating teachers like professionals, and > paying them such. > Giving them the tools to teach - not 30 year old books that > were useless > when new. How about school upkeep? For instance in Florida Gov Bush's > administration has actually cut spending on educational > infrastructure - > buildings, labs and classrooms. Not getting distracted by red > herrings such > as the fad du jour for education, or the rant of the week by > any extremist > pressure group. > > > > > larry > > > (*sigh*) now this is really sad. > > IMO this is what we get for trying to be PC in school, pander > to every > philosophy and culture known to exist and make every individual feel > accepted. > > It scares me to no end that the US will, some day, be in the hands of > "non-competitive" people. We'll have a football season with everyone > winning the Super Bowl! Non compeditive? Hm you have not looked at all the graduation exams. A considerable percentage require actual performance in order to graduate. both the Virginia and the Maryland SOL's are not easy to pass. I am very much in favour of competency standards for graduation. However this doesn't mean the current effort for standardized tests as advocated by the Bush administration, that's already show itself to be bankrupt. All too often the schools go for teaching the test rather than the student. > > . level playing field... hah! Maybe they ought to level the playing > field up instead of down. I feel sorry for the kids graduating from > schools that feel they have to give them everything and then > going into > a workforce that actually requires them to pay attention and > put forth > an effort. I did some educational development in Houston Texas as part of a grant project 6 years ago. This project allowed me to go into 10 schools in the Houston area. For all the vaunted educational improvements promised by the current state administration, nothing had been done. Level playing field? Hell the students I saw and interviewed would be lucky to have a mountain slope to climb up on, all too often it was a cliff face. The schools were in terrible shape. The infrastructure was falling apart in most of these schools. I saw leaking roofs, bathrooms locked because of broken plumbing that could not be fixed. There was cardboard in some of the windows. At the very least these kids should get to go to schools that are inhabitable at least. > > Notice they'll make it so that everyone can pass but they'd > never go for > a mandatory military or public service. > > And they wonder why good workers are so hard to find. Yes and there has been a lot of efforts to zero out the funding of the Americorps in Congress. The military draft as a method of social improvement. Lets see how much do you want to fund education, you can do it two ways, early on buy improving those schools I mentioned or later on and much more expensively in the military? Some choice. In order to be effective soldiers they are going to have to have at least a certain level of education. Its no longer a matter of showing the kid which end to aim. Additionally in general you get what you pay for. if you pay someone crap, you tend to get crap. larry -- Larry C. Lyons ColdFusion/Web Developer Certified Advanced ColdFusion 5 Developer EBStor.com 8870 Rixlew Lane, Suite 204 Manassas, Virginia 20109-3795 tel: (703) 393-7930 fax: (703) 393-2659 Web: http://www.ebstor.com http://www.pacel.com email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Chaos, panic, and disorder - my work here is done. -- ______________________________________________________________________ Signup for the Fusion Authority news alert and keep up with the latest news in ColdFusion and related topics. http://www.fusionauthority.com/signup.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
