Hulver's site || Comments || Well, that was a complete and utter waste of my time

No Child... by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #3 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 10:57:10 AM EST

Commentary from The Atlantic.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
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What, you expect me to read? by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #4 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:04:13 AM EST

I've been frustrated with the educational system since I was participating in it. People who genuinely want to learn are discouraged because they'll bury their peers, and people who don't give a crap about learning are the ones setting the pace. The very title "No Child Left Behind" reinforces that image and then they bring it home by coming right out and saying that we're getting better test scores. Let's try to ignore that we did that by changing the meter, not by increasing actual educational value.

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I was lucky, I went to public schools by wiredog (2.00 / 0) #7 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:11:22 AM EST

Fairfax County Public Schools. Better than most private schools. All the parents are well educated, involved, and rich. Middle-class, anyway. So lots of money, and lots of motivation. Also very multi-cultural, especially these days, so none of that creationism BS.

Even back in the early 80's, when I was there, you could take enough AP courses to test out of your first year of college. I know a guy who tested out of his freshman year at Chicago.

Earth First!
_{(We can strip mine the rest later.)}
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: I was both lucky and unlucky. by nightflameblue (2.00 / 0) #8 Tue Jan 29, 2008 at 11:15:54 AM EST

I went to the highest rated school system in my state. While that meant we got some damn good funding, it also meant the touchy-feelies were in charge much of the time. People who failed weren't seen as people who failed, but as pet projects for educators, while people who were frustrated with the slow pace were told to slow the fuck down and stop making everybody else feel bad about how stupid they were.
We're now stuck in a permanent rut of allowing the touchy-feelies to make important education decisions. Cut those bastards out of the decision making process and let them do what they do best, coddle the people who can't cut it. Some people are gonna suck at school. You don't need to lower the bar to make them feel better, you need to accept that it's gonna happen and that life blows. Otherwise we're gonna be a nation of morons created by our need to make everybody shiny-happy feel good.

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