EURweb

Back to the Article » Click Here

Click here to post your comments.

Name: bigeoppa

Comment: I guess this pretty much describes the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND situation. Teachers are so concerned in having children pass the test that the fundamentals of education are not being taught. Interestingly enough Mr Phillips does not write on positive cures for this situation or the political ideals he holds so dear, that created this situation.

Name: Quietstorm

Comment: My son goes to a public elementary school and the teachers are allowed flexibility and creativity in delivering the lessons. In fact, the district encourages it. It's a public school so State and Federal guidelines are forever going to be an issue but that doesn't eliminate a teacher's ability to be creative in teaching the material to the students. I think we all had teachers when we were in school who were utterly boring and some who were creative and fun. That's not gonna change and I don't attribute that to the new gov't mandates. It's up to the teachers.

Name: MzTee

Comment: Is your ideology shifting, JCP? You're advocating choice...starting to sound a little liberal to me. (LOL)

Name: DOne

Comment: No, MzTee, his ideology isn't shifting at all, in fact this article is right in line with the right wing agenda. First, the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND, by its very nature leaves children behind. If you take funds from failing schools, what happens to the children whose parents don't care enough or don't have the resources to get them across town to a different school? What happens to kids who don't have parents advocating for them? They get left behind at the failing, now under funded schools. Second, in my opinion, the entire school choice issue is a way for middle class whites to get their kids away from us. You see, as blacks move into the surburbs, they move further out, but blacks follow them so where to they send their kids to get them away from us - private school. The problem is many of them can't afford the private schools, but school choice would take care of that by allowing public funds to be use for private education.

Name: MER82

Comment: Speak on it DOne-that's the truth. JCP is a joke.

Name: Train

Comment: The no child left behind policy has been a total failure because it puts too much emphasis on passing tests instead of learning the fundamentals. I'm tired of everybody blaming teachers for the failures of these kid's not learning anything. Parent's and the yougsters need to step up because several relatives (teachers) of mine have told me over the years that they have to spend 85% of the time getting kid's to shut the hell up and the remaining is spent of teaching. The school district seems to me that they don't have the teachers back when it comes to disciplinary issues.

Name: queeniebunz

Comment: >Train - it's more like 95% of the time getting the class to behave. And, I don't know where he got his figures from but every school I worked in as a teacher was overcrowded and I worked in 2 counties that spent a lot of money on education. Perhaps before commenting on education, Mr. Phillips should venture into a school more than once for a meeting. Go there for a week, maybe 2, then you can comment.

Name: DoctorSmooth

Comment: Some of you are missing someting here. I agree, No Child Left Behind is not a perfect system, but what is? The fact is that if the previous system was not failing our kids, we wouldnt even have to come up wiht the NCLB program. The fact is, unless you closely monitor for a child's progress (through appropriate testing) you'll end up with 16/17 year olds about to graduate high school who can barely read at a 4th grade level. The previous system had no ACCOUNTABILITY. Maybe No Child Left Behind is not a perfect system, but I at least give this administration credit for coming up with a system that demands accountability and institute a system of appropriate testing to prevent schools from shuffling illiterate kids through the system. I think it's a good first step, and should be improved upon, not simply done away with.

Name: xavixavi

Comment: JCP is not a joke this is very serious, and I don't agree w/ him on this. He speaks of choice, because he and many of the people who advocate choice are usually educated and informed enough to make that choice. I'm sorry to say that the majority of the people are NOT educated enough to make that choice. Not the many immigrants who barely speak english, nor many of the poor who didn't get the education they should have gotten either. All they know is that the public school system failed them. First off, we have to STOP blaming govt. My mother may not have been a college educated scholar, but she understood the value of an education. She made sure that I valued it, or I would be worrying about my azzz. She made sure that I studied, and respected my teachers, and the knowledge they had. Teacher/Politicians/Students don't care b/c Parents by and large don't care. Many kids w/ timberlands don't even know what the word timber means. Same for nike too. To use jcp's analogy w/ the business/consumer model: The consumer (parents/students)does not deem the good valuable enough to make sure they are getting their money's worth. For some adults, school is an 18-year state run babysitting service. When we ALL stop viewing it as that, our money will be more spent.

Name: xavixavi

Comment: meant to say our money will be better spent.

Click here to post your comments.

Back to the Article » Click Here

...