EDUCATION 





                  Education, now that's something we're all in favor of right?  We all want the best
education possible for ourselves, our kids, our grandchildren, and others
(well most of us do anyhow).   But what is the "best" education?
I know that I noticed a decline in educational standards from when I was
in school compared to what my children received.  I can even remember
(almost) the year when I first started to notice it.   Things were changing
and I didn't like the changes I was seeing.
One of the changes that really annoyed me was "social promotion"; i.e. it
doesn't matter if the child can do the work or not; if he/she is xx years of
age, he/she belongs in a certain grade.  No wonder so many children
were graduating from high school not knowing how to fill out a job
application, let alone having the qualifications they needed to do the job!!
Being "left back" (having to repeat a grade) did have an impact on us,
it made us strive all the harder to succeed and get promoted to the next
grade.  Nobody wanted to endure the shame of being 'left back', BUT I don't
know of anyone whose life was ruined because they had to repeat a
grade once or twice.
The lowering of standards across the board sat in my craw real bad too.
Not only were the standards for passing being lowered but dress codes
were going out the window!  I was having a difficult time figuring out who
were the teachers and who were the students many times when I visited
my children's middle and high schools.  No more were teachers dressing
in shirt, tie and jacket for the men; and dresses, skirts and blouses for the
women; now the teachers were dressing like the students, or was it the
other way around?  Is it possible to "look up" to a teacher who looked
(for the most part) just like the student?  Now before anyone gets the wrong
impression, I have to tell you that I don't believe 'clothes make the
person', but I do believe that the way people dress and keep themselves
has a lot to do with performance.
You can see just how far down our educational system has gone, just
traveling around the WWW.  I'm appalled at times coming upon web sites
with bad english usage, and horrible spelling.  I see 'wear' used in places
that 'where' should be used, 'weather' instead of 'whether', 'there'
instead of 'their'; (these are just a few examples) whatever happened
to English class?
The above  may not be true everywhere in the country, but it is in
Philadelphia, PA and a lot of the larger cities in the nation.
Since I am complaining about the decline in educational standards you'd
think that I'd be giving three cheers for the new
"Goals 2000: Educate America Act"  that was passed in 1994 wouldn't you?
Well I'm not.  To see why, check out some of the things here and
that I've linked to, read especially the letters from parents.
Check out the copy of "Education 2000", which was
President Bush's education proposal, its not short, but the one that was
passed makes the one here look very small in comparison.  And if someone
can come put with a reason that 'midnight basketball' connects with education
could you please let me know.  At midnight kids going to school should be in
BED!!!!
You may ask why I'm not in favor of the new education act.  Well read some
letters from parents whose children have been experiencing what this
new education reform is all about.  There are educators (gee when did
we stop calling them 'teachers'?) that don't like this new reform either.
Almost every school in the country is using this new reform, and all of them
are one form or another of Outcomes Based Education, just under different
titles.  Outcomes Based Education has already been tried folks, in Russia,
it didn't work there, why would anyone think it would work here?
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Education 2000
(Pres. Bush's Plan)
Goals 2000
(Final education reform plan, passed)
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This page last updated November 17,  1997