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Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Schools Under the Microscope: Final Words

I'm ending my discussion on this topic by sending you all to read the article in The New Yorker, Sept. 27, 2010, p.27, entitled Comment-Schoolwork, by Nicholas Lemann.

www.newyorker.com/


His final words:

"We have a moral obligation to be precise about what the problems in American education are-like subpar schools for poor and minority children-and to resist the heroic ideas about what would solve them, if those ideas don't demonstrably do that."

10 comments:

Brian Miller said...

agreed. wondring if you got my email in time to catch larry king...was pretty interesting and directly in relation to this series...

Rosaria Williams said...

Sorry, Brian! Thanks, though, for all your support and encouragement.

Everyday Goddess said...

on my way to read.

thanks for posting it.

Vagabonde said...

I read all your past posts and enjoyed them. As for schools, now that my daughters are grown and my two grandchildren are 2 and 3 ½ I have not been paying that much attention to the problem. But I can tell you that the problem is not new. When my daughters were teenagers I wished to send them to France to study there and stay with my mother. My mother checked and all the schools said that coming from America the girls would have to do a two year remedial to be to the level of children of their age. So I checked with French speaking Canada, there it was one year remedial. So we did not send them.
A new private Evangelical Christian school has opened close to our home so I read a bit about what they teach. I was surprised to find out, from a report in Christian Today, that according to the data 36% of Muslim schools failed to meet requirements on tolerance, but evangelical Christian schools were even higher, 42.5 % failing to meet standards in promoting tolerance and respect for other cultures and faiths. That does not sound good for the future when more people are enrolling their kids in religious schools I also read that many “home schooling” textbooks were written to please the parents, which is, they omitted a lot of unsavory history or science that people do not agree with. Education in America is certainly an interesting subject.

Rob-bear said...

After all I've read, I still have trouble getting the picture.

Part of the problem is the extended gap between the rich and the rest of us. The rich, it seems, flee the public system so their children don't have to see, and live with, how the other "half" lives. It's an outgrowth of the curse of individualism.

Part of the problem, for me, is that I don't see clear educational goals being spelled out. And when it comes to "standardized testing," my first question is, "Whose standards?"

Thank you for raising this issue, Rosaria.

Alexandra MacVean said...

I agree with pretty much everything you and others have said on this school topic. Thank you for your passion and sharing/talking to us all about such a very important topic. Hugs!

Cloudia said...

The time IS NOW






Aloha from Honolulu

Comfort Spiral

the walking man said...

Brown V Board of Ed never really became the law of the land. Though there were attempts they were mostly half hearted and as is usual, we fall to the lowest common denominator.

Arkansas Patti said...

Clicking on the link now. Thanks.

Unknown said...

There is so much wrong with our educational system... and our health system and our justice system... but glad you've chosen this particular one about which to show and share such passion.