Posted on 12/27/2006 5:59:04 PM PST by wintertime
1) Mandate high school graduation or equivalency as compulsory for everyone below the age of 21. Just as we established compulsory attendance to the age of 16 or 17 in the beginning of the 20th century, it is appropriate and critical to eradicate the idea of "dropping out" before achieving a diploma. To compete in the 21st century, all of our citizens, at minimum, need a high school education.
2) Establish high school graduation centers for students 19-21 years old to provide specialized instruction and counseling to all students in this older age group who would be more effectively addressed in classes apart from younger students. ( Huh?..."graduation center" prisons?)
6)Act early so students do not drop out with high-quality, universal preschool and full-day kindergarten; strong elementary programs that ensure students are doing grade-level work when they enter middle school; and middle school programs that address causes of dropping out that appear in these grades and ensure that students have access to algebra, science, and other courses that serve as the foundation for success in high school and beyond.
12) Make high school graduation a federal priority by calling on Congress and the president to invest $10 billion over the next 10 years to support dropout prevention programs and states who make high school graduation compulsory.
And finally,,of course, the high school diploma will be worth even less than it is today. In my office I will not even interview a person with a high school diploma. They only way I can know that an applicant can read is if they have had at least some community college. ( By the way, the job could be done by any normal Amish kid.)
With all due respect, you're part of the problem. Insisting that people get at least some community college when all you need is someone with a real 8th grade education just builds up the fraudulant education industry.
Hm,,,I can see it now, "Graduating Centers" for recalcitrant 60 year olds..hm?
Yeah, just check out the GOP voter registrations and take down license numbers outside of churches.
Interesting discussion. We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84
It took months and a lot of money to prove SS was wrong. In the end, they dropped it, but only after she and her husband signed a paper promising not to sue them. In other words, they blackmailed her because they screwed up.
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The NEA and the SS walk hand in hand down the same path to Marxist hell.
>>If they don't have a clue, I know that either they never digested the material in the first place, or "pressed clear" when the course was over.<<
Depends on who you are interviewing. My undergrad degree was in Economics. If you ask me a macro question (even 1 month out of school), you'd get the "don't have a clue" response since I honestly didn't quite get macro. But if you wanted to talk micro and industrial organization, you would have found that I was quite well versed at the time.
However, now, I'm not sure I remember much of that stuff other than marginal cost = marginal revenue as the sweet spot on the curve (not even the best way or even a good way to phrase it). And I'd have to think long and hard to remember why. But I did grasp the overall broad concepts economics teaches and use those regularly.
Thanks. I have pinged it for later.
OMG. Your Niece must have been a nervous wreck! Thank God that got dropped.
I am a strong proponent of choice in schools and although I teach in a public school, I don't think the public school is always the best choice. My SIL lives in inner-city LA (her husband is a minister) and she homeschooled her 2 and has sent her 9th grader to a boarding school in Wisconsin (Lutheran Prep).
There simply is no 'one-size-fits-all' policy. I am one of those with no hesitations believe in the 'alacarte' high school where kids come to take what they want from the public schools. One of my daughter's best friends takes Chem and then is home-schooled the rest of the day.
I always try to remember that these are children we are working with, no faceless numbers. You have to do right by the kid before all.
I hope we do not get to the point where we resemble the EU, although I am fearful of it. There are some scary correlations between 21st century America and 2/3rd century Rome. The Goths are always at the gate and many people in this country forget that.
Wrong. They know the difference and they have their preferences.
Meantime, there are other proposals for improving our educational system. Arguably the most important is the recent report by The New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce, which has received much more publicity, and has been discussed (but perhaps not in depth) at FR here and here. I also found a preview/rationale of the report here.
In short, this proposal says that most students should not remain in school after age 16 - somewhat different from the NEA proposal.
I'd suggest that debating the pros and cons of each specific proposal is probably more constructive than rejecting proposals based on who proposed them. As my grandmother used to say, even a blind hog finds an acorn now and then.
More jobs for union teachers and more MONEY for the education sector. VERY BAD IDEA. If they cannot do it in 12 years can we trust them to do it in 16? 18? Birth-to-death programming (I mean, education).
We should eliminate compulsory education/ programming altogether. Abe Lincoln seemed to do ok without it, and the pioneers, and the Patriots/ Founding Fathers/ Minutemen/ Revolutionary War patriots.
I've no problem rejecting anything that comes form the NEA. I challenge anyone from the NEA to define an acorn without looking it up :P
Okay, then, how about this proposal:
Expand students' graduation options through creative partnerships with community colleges in career and technical fields and with alternative schools so that students have another way to earn a high school diploma.
Do you think it is a good or a bad idea? Why or why not?
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