Re: America's educational system...
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2014 8:57 am
While my stepfather has not specifically spelled out what he thinks of No Child Left Behind, he has seen a resultant drop in enthusiasm among the teachers who now have to teach to the test. I personally think that the consequences of teaching to the test, the squelching of creativity, the demoralization of the good teachers, is a whole lot more serious than a pot shot about the "leftist chorus".asiab3 wrote:I don't know if he's saying that, but it IS true. The Bush family has had close family ties with the McGraw family* since the 1930's. Harold McGraw was placed on the Board of Directors of oil company ConocoPhillips, the Chairmanship of the National Council on Economic Education, and the Education Task Force of the Business Roundtable.hippiewannabe wrote: Are you saying your stepdad joins the leftist chorus that the No Child Left Behind shovel full of sand thrown against the 50 year tide of decline and entrenched mediocrity was not an honest attempt to improve things, but was instead a conspiracy to enrich Bush cronies?
*McGraw-Hill Education was one of the three biggest profiteers in the NCLB program, (if not the largest.) They sold the company for $2.5 billion cash in 2012. After grossing over a billion a year with the program.
It doesn't stop with NCLB… CommonCore and the Pearson scam continue in the direction, so I guess every decade has its own. I wish I could type more from my phone.
Next week,
Robbie
You should see what the rightist chorus wants to put in textbooks . . .
The 50 year decline towards mediocrity includes a severe de-funding of higher education that has been a hallmark of republican goals, not to mention attacks against teachers unions, local property taxes that fund local schools, and the fomenting of hostility towards intellectual thought starting with Adlai Sevenson in the 50's all the way up to sneering at Obama's education at Harvard.
Currently, Texas wants Moses introduced into American history textbooks and wording about climate change to be deleted and descriptions of Islam to include that beheading is sanctioned by their sacred texts. Oy. You like entrenched mediocrity? Texas is shoveling a whole new pile of idiocy upon us.
Colin