[Winona Online Democracy] "I believe some have failed their mission worse than Enron and World Com."
With all due respect Tom, you just can't be serious. Worse than World Com? That's just not possible because NO public school districts have ever been shut down. I will admit to being (a bit) intentionally provacative with a couple of my statements and I do enjoy a good debate but I don't want this to become overly heated so I want to make the point that I do respect and admire your contributions to this board. That being said.... I think the problem is that we have consistently been blasted by a media that says our schools are "failing" when the truth is that the media just isn't using that word correctly. I spent some time in the "gang" high school of a major american city so I agree that there are schools that have serious problems but even in those schools the majority of students are not failing. Even our worst public schools produce at least a few college entrants each year while World Com will never again produce another long distance phone call. We have some schools that are struggling, but failing? By what standard? Imagine if our schools really did mirror our economy where people are allowed to fail, where 5% of the population is unemployed (and that doesn't include the dropouts), where another 12% live below the poverty line, where nearly half of all new businesses fail in the first few years. By those metrics our schools are still amazing successes. What motivates the bottom 15% of our students to perform in school knowing that their reward is likely a spot in the bottom 15% or our economy either way? In our economy the unemployment rate improves when someone becomes so discouraged that they stop looking for work. In our schools a poor dropout rate causes you to be cited under NCLB. Our schools are failing our students in almost exactly the same porportions as our economy is failing our workers and why should we expect anything different? Bryon _______________________________________________ This message was posted to Winona Online Democracy All messages must be signed by the senders actual name. No commercial solicitations are allowed on this list. To manage your subscription or view the message archives, please visit http://mapnp.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/winona Any problems or suggestions can be directed to mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] If you want help on how to contact elected officials, go to the Contact page at http://www.winonaonlinedemocracy.org
