Quote:

The way to encourage the best and brightest is not to give them awards but to get out of their way, and when you recognize that they may be go on to greater things than you ever did, don't try to cut them down to size because you're afraid of how small you will feel when they do.

I'm not sure how recognizing these kids will 'cut them down to size'. Yes, there is certainly much more to nurturing these high-performing kids than just paper awards, metals or trophies. But we need to recognize these kids; if we did the same for them as we did our athletes (actually, instead of athletes), then our country would value and respect real high academic achievement instead of marginalizing it or making it into a joke.

great ticker, KD...

i am so discouraged about the education our kids are getting....


as bad as the public schools are, ultimately the blame belongs to the parents...

even if you cannot to afford to send your kids to a better private or charter school, if you are reading this message, you have access to a computer and if not that, public libraries....the point is *parents* are the ultimate 'teachers' and as parents you simply cannot hand that responsibility over to others...

what has happened WRT the dumbing down of our students is beyond reprehensible...

just a little insight as to how bad it is on the college level...

a close friend's daughter recently graduated from her college 'MAGNA CUM LAUDE'...i was chatting with her and complimenting her on her achievement and (don't ask me why i did this) asked her do you know the meaning of words 'magna cum laude'?

she looked at me quizzically and said no, not exactly, but i know it means i did very well....

so i probed a bit more and said, well how about this? you know the terms are latin right? and she responded yes....so i said, well how about some other english words with the root 'laud' in them, does that help you?

again, quizzical expression...

so i said how about the word 'laud' itself, as in 'he was highly lauded for his work in the field of DNA research'....or perhaps 'laudatory' as in 'her thesis in the field of economics produced laudatory comments by her peers'

she responded with "i don't believe i've heard those words before'

so i said, why not google the term magna cum laude since you will be putting it on your resume (actually the resume was what prompted the exchange, as she was asking her dad about including 'graduated with honors' on one line and 'magna cum laude' on the next)...

i responded that might seem redundant, and that's when i asked her, if she knew the meaning of the term 'magna cum laude'

imagine the state of education in a world where the student who graduates magna cum laude doesn't know the literal meaning of the words

Outersquare: I got to the University of Washington but pick up any intro level text book and you will see that the general implication is that the fed has nearly complete control over short term rates and money supply. They cover their bases and leave it a little vague but someone that doesn't know better will probably get that idea. In fact ill do you one better ill link you to the online version of the text book we used from what i understand its free or something so there are no copyright issues http://www.econ.washington.edu/user/cnel....

What a wonderful Ticker on another beautiful day in Las Vegas.

I really am enjoying the tangent to the so-called education system. I remember those days well. Work. Then a little recess. More work. Then an institutional meal, unless mom had time to pack a lunch. Then more work. Maybe another recess. Then more work to the bell. I seem to recall even first grade might have 8:00AM to 3:00PM, the 8 hour day.

Of course back then, we also endured the ultimate fear system: the bomb was looming. We would all be herded down to the furnace room, like that was going to protect us from a hydrogen bomb. Kind of as dumb as thinking hiding under a desk will help if a F5 tornado hits.

Anyway Karl, have a nice weekend. Treat your daughter to some ice cream and cake, while it is still available. I am going to cash my Celtics ticket from yesterdays circus and then go be shocked at the grocery store. As a total sidenote, the weekly circular used to have the meats on the front page. Now the prices are so high, the meats are on the back cover. Just started this week.

"From everyone to his abilities, to anyone according to his needs" is Lenin's quote, it designates the main postulate of communism. Socialist principle is "to anyone according to his effort" for the second part. We learned it in the 3rd grade. So you guys live in communism without ever knowing it.

What really*****es me off in modern schooling is not egalitarism and direct pencil tax. It is the fact that little people are not taught to search for necessary information and data, to take decisions based on this information. Unless their teacher is especially gifted, pupils are not encouraged to dig deeper into the subject than what's specifed by the curriculum. They are not taught to build bridges between subects nor to establish relationships between things. They are not taught to work hard. They are raised into perfect consumers who know that Tylenol exists for fever, buying cooked foods saves time, vaccination prevents disease and government knows their job. They would be much less able to take charge of their life if **** hits the fan or a doctor is not around.

I am very grateful to my parents who transmitted to me profound distrust for the state. It was our socialist state then, wile now it's basically any state apparatus. I will try to do the same for my kids, and it will be a bit more difficlt this time around when their life is so much better materially than ours was. In our Western societies those parents who load their kids with coursework or punish them are immediately demonized. That's a load of bull**** as an approach to parenting. In real life those kids who knew no constraints at home, get punished much harsher. Really, parents shouldn't feel guilty when they charge their kids with difficult tasks or just plain household help. Parents should not forget to give lots of encouragemet though (that's where the going gets tough - what's so simple for us can be a difficult problem for them). A lot o people around me are conditioned to believe that parent's duty is to make kids feel good (at that I suck at times, I am a demanding mom). In general, in educating my kids I have to fight such a well-entrenched system of principles and beliefs that I often get frustrated. A woman has to stay at home in order to dismantle those for their kids one by one. A working mom does not have the time to do that to the degree I would like to. This is in everything - starting literally from vaccination and into everything - into toys and books and whatnot else. A child should see when he or she might be profited from (becoming a source of income as a consumer). Labeling and pricing of food, politics, you name it - everything has to be explained. So many things, so litte time. Sorry for the rant, it's Friday evening, had a stressful week. I guess I will start my 10-year old on the Theory of Games and Econmic Behaviour next week.

Great Ticker, one of the best ever. One of my relatives is a retired public schoolteacher, and she was frustrated by it too. There's all sorts of administrative and political bull**** going on.

Bad parents are sue-happy, threatening to sue if anything at all bad happens to their precious little kid, who never gets any discipline at home and thus is spoiled rotten.

Funding gets taken away, forcing school districts to turn to advertising and sponsorship to fill the gap. All the better to create obedient little consumers.

Not to mention the outright boredom from dumbing down the curriculum to the lowest level. The smart kids get bored, and ironically are punished for not paying attention or acting out. The dumb kids get socially rewarded for beating up the smart kids. And you wonder why the jobs have all gone to China, India, and Taiwan.

Here's a well-written article: http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html

My Kids finished 6th Grade this year.

State tests were during the first week of April. In the remaining 6 weeks of school there was not even 1 day of actual instruction ... all game playing and entertainment. The day after the test(s) one teacher even told the kids "we're all done for this year."

Great rant! Here in the UK some schools are abandoning Sports Day because creating winners creates losers too.

Also if you had a boy in school here your rant would be increased by 2 decibels because of the methods of teaching maths and physics. I hope boys in the USA aren't as disadvantaged by the education system as they are here.
(Boys examination performance lags behind girls in all subjects).
Coolmama to one of each.

so does this mean I should dump my RSS feed for Musings?

Quote:

I'm not sure how recognizing these kids will 'cut them down to size'. Yes, there is certainly much more to nurturing these high-performing kids than just paper awards, metals or trophies. But we need to recognize these kids; if we did the same for them as we did our athletes (actually, instead of athletes), then our country would value and respect real high academic achievement instead of marginalizing it or making it into a joke.

Sorry I wasn't clear, I didn't mean that awards were punishment for smart kids. (???) What I meant was that whatever encouragement a smart kid gets from an award is vastly outweighed by the negative reinforcement from all the people -- adults, other kids, and even their own parents -- who are threatened by the kid's smarts. It's not good enough for a kid to be one of the best and brightest, he or she has to be damn tough as well to live with the peer pressure not to stand out. This is one of the best reasons for sending a smart kid to schools and colleges with high achievement-based admission standards -- not that the teachers are better (though they may be) but rather that the other kids are smart too and will reinforce each other.

Smart kids are discouraged in less overt ways as well, for example by not being challenged.

But you have a point -- awards may be for the parents more than the kids. Parents who decide that their tribe must value something because the school gives awards for it are less likely to discourage their kids. Yes, that makes sense -- awards as a sneaky way to get shortsighted parents to expand their horizons about what their kids are capable of!

Damn it Karl! Why did you have to go and write THAT ticker?

After all our disagreements lately I thought I was about done here. Now you've reminded me of what made me join this forum in the first place.

Really excellent take on some very important subject matter.

Wanted to mention that I did take notice of the conspiratorial aspect, and let you know that unfortunately I agree. There are serveral "foundations" that have been influencing our education system in this very direction. The term conspiracy theorist gets thrown around a lot (too much in fact) but, when you stop and think about it; every historian IS a conspiracy theorist, because history is littered with conspiracies. It just a fact, they do happen. Another poster mentioned that he teaches his kid that the other kids will grow up to be his competition. Could that be why those families in power don't want your kids to be able to challenge their kids? You're damn right it is.

I believe that (as a parent) it is MY job to make sure my kids have the necessary life skills no matter what kind of school they go to. No amount of tax dollars paid for public school tuition or additional dollars paid for private school tuition will ever change the fact that I bear the ultimate responsibility for my offspring. Sadly, many people just don't feel that way.

Now write something we can argue about... it's more fun than writing this pansy-assed "I agree, great job" stuff. Sheesh! (had to include my obligatory joke)

Quote:

Now write something we can argue about...

Well there's a ****ing mountain of people on here that don't know the difference between a ****** and black man or geek and a nerd. Go argure with them. They'll argue until hell freezes over about how enlightened they are since they drank the KOOLAID before they were daddy's little squirt.

"Some" of us would send their kids to public schools about the time HELL freezes over. We are just dying for ******DOWN, drugs, primiscuous ****ING, no DIVINITY recognition, ****TARD teachers that suck principal COCK and **** school superintedents that are climbing the political ladder to PIGMEN heaven.

NO COMMI BASTARD BULL**** for this HICK. **** YOU TIDBITS.

KD - this is your best ever. Because despite all that is going on today, it's a result of 20+ years of this stuff, and its going to be a VERY long battle to get things back to normal.

As my wife and I read this ticker, it re-affirms to us that school, even the best private school, will only teach our kids maybe 25% of important material. The rest is up to the parents. Thanksfully for our two children, they were born to parents who GIVE A DAMN about their future and will teach them.

Oh, and not to nitpick, but as a Kansas local, please let me correct your typing "the infamous 1895 eighth grade graduation test from Salnia, KS." - actually, its Salina, KS.

"Schools are actually considering cutting out gifted programs because they've embraced that 'everyone is gifted"

I have two girls in the 3rd grade facing that very issue. Here the gifted child program is part of the "Children with Disabilities Act" and is required to be funded. If we say adios to the Children with Disabilities umbrella, we could be subjected to funding cuts. So we stay with the stigma.

My kids are taught that awards with no effort are trashed. All of them are meaningless so the swimming and gymnastics awards were tossed out. Awards that are displayed in my house are first place in math league, and spelling bees for one girl and 3rd place math league and music awards for the other. If it's not earned, it's worthless. One of them enters violin contests and consitently wins monetary awards. She just got through playing the Bach Double with an Asian girl and won some serious cash for a nine year old.

The thing that bothers me the most is how dumbed down some of the parents are. Houses full of gameboys, WII's, Nintendos and other babysitting, mindnumbing gadgets that don't foster any creativity and imagination. In some meetings with other gifted child parents and school officials it's clear to see that the child didn't get their smarts from the parents on how to solve root cause problems independently. On a positive note, the teacher is my kind of teacher. "Life is not fair", "You're expected to work until you fail", is why I moved to this school district. She also has a sign in her classroom that says "Whine = $5".

I have been somewhat of a pain to the school. Refusing to let my kids "sell" stuff for fundraising, ranting about teachers being vending machines for Scholastic and McGraw Hill, seriously poor nutrition products in the cafeteria, etc. The last one is the worst. I cook breakfast, make lunches and fix diner every school day. Some of these kids are starving for nutritional foods, instead they are served Nascar Burgers, Clux Deluxe and fruit rollups. Needless to say, my kids can read a nutrition label.

I could go on but will say that my wife teaches at the largest girls private school in the nation and none of this crap happens there. No excuses, awards only for exceptional performance and on and on. This end product difference is vast.

BTW KD I understand the small business problem. Years ago, I need a machine control/interface programmer with assembler and C experience. Two tests, maximum four hours. Most applicants quit after 30 minutes, but some stayed the entire four hours. All failed but one from Texas Instruments. He completed both tests in ten minutes and wrote some of the tightest code I've seen. Hired him on the spot. He was also one of the few who could actually write an algorithm.
Also needed a machinist for a WS3A Chucker lathe. 65% of the applicants could not convert 1/8" to a decimal equivalent. Sold the business after five years of operation.

Pulitzer prize is on order for this one



My younger sister had triplets last year and I cant fathom what it would be like to even raise one kid in these circumstances.

My partner at work tells me all the stories about his twin daughters that are gonna be seniors next year and the social engineering crap they go through.

Toss in all the new rules for teenage drivers etc its a a scary contrast to when we were all that age.

Our .gov was supposed to be FOR the people since we pay them to keep an eye on corruption etc. That went by the wayside long ago and we are slowly being enslaved by overlapping obscene lobbyists etc.

Bottom line... Great ticker and Kudlow still says buy.


After this all blows up people are gonna teach classes on media/collusion/corruption and how this country was destroyed by the few greedy people that thought they were smarter than everyone.

I have faith in people recognizing the complete horse**** they get fed daily but its not an overnight thing.

Unfortunately the only way people will catch on is the slow pain that is intentionally hidden by the press etc.

Excellent diatribe against the sad state of education in the US, Gen. I've had many of those same thoughts myself. It's nice to see them all together in writing.

1) I'd bet that 90% of college grads would not pass that test. I know I wouldn't pass the test right now; but maybe if I had 8 YEARS preparation in THOSE subject modes.

2) For the most part, in public schools, teachers hands are tied by your fellow citizens and neighbors who vote for the people who govern what the teachers teach and how the teachers teach. There is also a matter of discipline involved with some of the kids. Some parents really care that their kids get a good education and some parents just don't give a ****.

3) If I had kids, I would TRY and send them to private school.

it's worse in Japan
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo....

The stage was set, the lights went down and in a suburban Japanese primary school everyone prepared to enjoy a performance of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The only snag was that the entire cast was playing the part of Snow White.

For the audience of menacing mothers and feisty fathers, though, the sight of 25 Snow Whites, no dwarfs and no wicked witch was a triumph: a clear victory for Japan's emerging new class of “Monster Parents”.

For they had taken on the system and won. After a relentless campaign of bullying, hectoring and nuisance phone calls, the monster parents had cowed the teachers into submission, forcing the school to admit to the injustice of selecting just one girl to play the title role

Did you really mean "poop out babies" or were you going for "pop"?

Thanks for putting my frustrations into words KD.....great ticker!

Initially, we had our kids in California public elementary school but the school spent all its time on discipline problems and very little time was left over for education. It was so bad that we eventually pulled them out and put them in private schools.

Now, in the private schools, we are happy with the classroom education in math, english, sciences, etc. The downside, however, is that there are certain values that the kids are learning from the spoiled richie kids that we don't subscribe to. So, this is something that we have to constantly fight against to correct.

The whole CELEBRATION OF MEDIOCRITY thing is better when it comes to classroom achievements and failures, but it is worse in other ways as the richie parents always have to ensure that everything is so over the top. For example, the school had an 8th grade graduation ceremony and DAMN you would have thought it was their wedding day. Kids were buying $300+ full length gowns to wear to the event, going to the salon for professional makeovers and manicures, and getting laptop computers and other extravagant gifts from their parents. All to celebrate just having shown up to class for 8 years???

Meanwhile our daughter spent 3 days in tears because we told her she's not getting an expensive gown, she can just pick out something from her closet to wear, and no she's not getting a makeover, and no she's not getting a laptop. We gave her our speeches about not celebrating mediocrity and about maintaining our values in the face of peer pressure but would you be surprised to hear that it did not make her feel any better?

On a tangent, another parent told me that the text book publishers produce two versions of the text books, one for California, and one for the rest of the nation. According to the story, the California version is dumbed down to meet California education standards because the school system does not want material in the books that they don't teach in the classroom. Does anyone know if this is a true story or is it just an urban legend?

Thanks Gen— this is EXACTLY how I felt when I put my kids in school
I thought I was the only one

Now when they give me a list of supplies — I buy stuff with designs on them and I write my kids name on EVERYTHING I can
I notice that this has eliminated the use of SHARING most my child's supplies LOL

I also stay extremely close to my kids studies — tutoring them and supplementing their education probing them to question a lot of what they are taught — basically teaching them to think for themselves.

"just about everything you are taught in school will be proven wrong at one point in time in your life"

Some of my friends laugh at me because my kids at 7 & 8 know what a recession is:

They set up a store in the house and complained that no one was buying anything, I told them that no one had any money because we are in a recession. —they weren't happy

— Also, they watch the price of Gold on TV as my daughter wants to buy a brick of it when it gets low enough

Maybe I'm a little too factual but I try and take advantage of every opportunity to teach my kids something new.

Vegas-

I've been doing pretty good on my shorts. Why don't you send me the website for their online store. Maybe I can purchase something. Some of us still have disposable income.

California teachers protest state budget cuts
6/6/2008 3:16 PM
By: CNN

Tens of thousands of Los Angeles teachers skipped first period Friday to protest proposed state budget cuts to education.

Those cuts are expected to cost the nation's second-largest school district more than $350 million.

The governor's office said the district isn't slated to receive all the money it asked for, but said it will get $200 million more than it got this school year.

California is facing a $15 billion budget deficit.

Mortgagedude

sure... how 'bout I ship you one of their 'special' pencils for $1.50— what makes it special is that it has an invisible eraser

Los Angeles teachers stage protest against budget cuts


www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-07 03:22:02 Print

LOS ANGELES, June 6 (Xinhua) -- Hundreds of Los Angeles teachers staged a mass protest against possible education budget cuts on Friday, calling for increased funding.

In the protest, the teachers spent the first hour of the school day picketing instead of teaching. They went unpaid for the hour they spent protesting.

Protesters were carrying picket signs calling for increased education funding. Some teachers even marched alongside some downtown-area streets. At some schools, students joined the teachers, chanting and shouting at passing vehicles.

"The teachers of L.A., once again, along with the health and human service professionals who work at the schools, have taken a bold step and have said loudly and clearly: one hour's pay for the kids of L.A.," said United Teachers Los Angeles union President A.J. Duffy.

At some schools, 100 percent of the teachers participated, Duffy said. Many parents of students encouraged teachers with their verbal support and, in some cases, by bringing doughnuts, he said.

There could be more teacher protests in the future, he added.

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) officials went to court on Thursday seeking a court order preventing the protest, but a judge rejected the effort.

An LAUSD spokeswoman said information was still being compiled on the protest, including the total number of teachers who participated.

Superintendent David Brewer said he supported the teachers' message, but not the method.

"Protest an hour before school starts. Protest an hour after school," Brewer told ABC7. "Basically, teach and have the children write letters to the governor's office, the legislators. That would send a powerful message to Sacramento (capital of California)."

LAUSD officials feared that the protest would jeopardize students' safety, because there would not be enough administrators to look after them while teachers were out of the classroom.

District and union officials have said Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget would slash about 353 million dollars from the district budget.

Officials with the governor's office disagree, insisting that the district's budget would actually increase by about 200 million dollars under the most recent spending proposal. District officials counter that LAUSD is receiving less than what it requested, and the proposed allocation does not cover cost-of-living increases. They also claim funding would be cut to other programs, further impacting the district budget.

H.D. Palmer, deputy director of the state Department of Finance, said the governor added nearly 2 billion dollars to education funding when he revised his budget proposal in May, despite a 15.2-billion-dollar statewide budget shortfall.

Palmer called that commitment "a testament to the fact that this governor puts a very high priority on education."