What a bad Joke

Standardized testing is the most ridiculous form of testing ever created. It was obviously put in place by the laziest person ever because it is the easiest way to grade a very large number of people without really testing how smart they are. It does test how good someones memory is and how well they can parrot what has been drilled into them without allowing them to analyze anything. It does not allow kids who learn differently show that they are just as smart as kids who have been taught how to take a test. There are kids whose needs are not met by these "standard" tests because they are bad test takers, don't understand questions, learn different. If we want to really find out what kids know and test them, which is what we want to do, we should do it at lower levels with people who know the kids and know how they learn and where they are in life. The higher these tests go the less people care about the kids and the more they care about results, and that is not the way people should be treated, much less the future of this country.

Who is the standard anyway? There is no Standard.

Teaching Made Easy

Instead of making kids think deeply about questions about why teachers have been made to teach what. The reason the what is being taught is because the why is the most difficult thing for kids to comprehend. The what is also on standardized tests and that is the current policy dictating how schools get money. So teachers tell students what they want parroted back to them because that way no one has to think and students can answer the questions on the exam they have to take at the end of their time in high school. We are killing critical thinking in the middle school and high school with this kind of teaching. We need to stop teaching to an exam and teach kids how to think for themselves, how to gather information without giving them long research papers. But to teach them how to discern information themselves from the text books we make them read. We can do it by giving them more outside literature so that by the end of their time spent in our classrooms they are not "parrot smart" but can actually think for themselves. It is our job to give these kids the tools that they need in the real world, and having kids repeat what the teacher just said is not the way to prepare anyone for anything.

dollar bills

I was not shocked when I read this article. It has been the main focus of most of my currins classes that, statistically speaking, minorities in this country are not getting the education that they need. The hidden curriculum is the biggest thing that has been talked about, and how it alienates people who do not have the same upbringing as the teacher. We preach about a "fair" education but when you really stop to think about it who is really getting the better education? The wealthy.

My alma matter just played against Milw. Washington in the state championship over the break in Madison, I learned a little bit about this school during the game. Oshkosh does not have the same "problems" as Milwaukee, but the Milw. Wash. team has a basketball court of lineolium and metal detectors at the doors. Oshkosh North has a state of the art new basketball court that is updated ever 1-2 years at the longest, and has just gotten a new computer lab. I know that sports are not the main point here, but education is, I do not know the graduation statistics for these two schools, but I would bet Oshkosh North graduates a higher percentage of their kids, and is a wealthier school.

That was a long anecdote about how wealthier schools have the capability of handling different needs for different people. People in America, generally speaking, do not care about the poor. The key to success is education, but many schools have been neglected because it is not economically sound to spend all of Milwaukees money on schools, so instead each school gets a little bit of money and if the school fails they get a little less money. Where as in the Whitefish Bay's and Oshkosh's of the world do not have to worry about supporting any more than 2 schools and can therefore afford to give out more money to one school.

Money, it makes the world go round.

yea, because that creates a the learning environment needed

Most kids hate going to school to begin with, but with the addition of over the top security measures, kids hate going to school even more. In order for poor students to gain access to a better life they need to have access to a good education, and they have to actually attend school in order to get an education. When these kids are turned off by seeing these metal detectors at the door that just scream "you can not be trusted" they want to go there even less. There is a time and a place for extra discipline in the school, it is either a military academy or private school, not public schools. In my infinite experience; the more you push someone into adapting your culture the farther they will go in the opposite direction to prove that they don't need someone to tell them what they should be. If there needs to be safety precautions then they should be taken, just not at the students expense. There should also not be more money spent on metal detectors and cameras in the hallway than on text books and other school supplies. Education = Success in order to get these kids education, we need to get them to school and no one wants to go somewhere they are not trusted.

You Should All Believe the Same Things as Me

I feel really good about our group project, because I feel really good about the people in my group. This is the umpteenth group project I have done and it won't be the last. I have not agreed with homework, ever, but if this is supposed to better my understanding of a subject then I can not argue about doing or not doing it. I like the way our group is approaching the subject and I feel confident that we will be able to bring all of our ideas together in a nice, neat, coherent presentation. The question that we have is quite difficult to answer because it is predicated upon an opinion, and those are the toughest questions to answer.

We will be answering "What texts and other curricular resources, supported by solid, educational research and theory, are available for Language Arts and Social Studies teacher to aid students in creating a positive self-identity and that will discourage the use of drugs, gang activity, and other destructive behaviors, often incited by peer pressure?"

The "experts" in this field are constantly changing their minds or flat out do not know what will discourage one person and not encourage another. There are just too many variables in and out of the school that factor into these children's decisions. We will do our best to persuade you into believing the people whom we have believed in.

My main hope for our project is that you do not fall asleep because we are so boring, beyond that it will be all gravy baby.

Teens in Todays Society

Did you know that 71.5% of all statistics are made up? That would be helpful information while deciphering the daily news paper and its rallying cry against teens as the moral corrupters of society. These teens did not grow up in a vacuum in which they had no one to influence them, there are people older than them who they look up to and imitate. If we want to look for someone to blame for this "corrupted youth" we don't have to look very far. What makes it into the news papers? Violence, Sex, and Crime. Who are these kids looking up to for their moral standards? In the 90's we had a president who was accused of having extra-marital sex with his secretary, and then lied about it. The biggest trial of the 90's was OJ Simpson and whether or not he killed his wife. We have TV showes like The Girls Next Door all about Hugh Hefner and his three busty girlfriends who are dumber than my 4 year old sister. Other showes include Flavor of Love, Rock of Love, Victoria's Secrets Lingerie Show, Law and Order SVU, etc... I could go on for an entire blog about the showes that promote Sex and show violence and sometimes show violent acts of sex.

The media has brought this upon us, Sex and Violence sell, and both are everywhere, what are we going to do about it? The best thing we can do is Education, but who doesn't like Sports Illustrated Swim Suit Edition? Commies, thats who.

I was deeply disturbed by the child "beauty" pageant article. The saddest thing is that, this isn't the only area where little kids are pressured into something by their parents. All around the world parents are trying to live their dreams out through their kids and most of the time the kids can not tell it is happening.

Adolescense-Gross

This was not the first that I've read/heard about adolescence being socially constructed. In pre-industrialized societies there is no adolescence, only childhood and adult.

G. Stanley Hill has some really really bad science. There are examples strewn throughout the chapter that seem a little less than reputable. There is also no time line for this adolescence "metamorphosis".

There is also a "metamorphosis", that does not make much sense.

Hill gives adolescence it's own "life" which is not fully developed, because America was not as old or conservative as Europe.

Hill makes a good point when he talked about adolescence being "plastic" bending and molding to different peoples views.

The thing is, adolescence is constructed for educational purposes. We have invented this "transitional" stage. The hormones have always been there but the social construct was such that there was no need to really deal with them. Now we stick all of these immature, MTV, reality show watching kids into a school and try to give them some sort of direction; but they have already picked out their role models and people our society has deemed "cool". Anyone who can not fit that mold is ostracized. Once ostracized it is very difficult to become "cool" and then clicks are formed and then the trouble starts. When teaching these youngsters we have more to deal with than just subject matter, we have all of these social problems to deal with as well, and that is more frightening than anything else.