Yeh, that sounds elitist, doesn’t it? S’all right. I’m really just one of the “dumb set” bystanders.
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I know there’s a Carnival of Education (recent carnival linked), and I’ve read some of the posts. Some pretty good stuff, and I’ll be reading more. Still… here’s something I’ve been waiting for. Speaking of public schools, Jerry Pournelle (like you’ve not seen that name here before) write,
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…Whatever modern education has done for the averages, the effect of No Child Left Behind is that No Child Gets Ahead — which is in fact the only way to assure the No Child Left Behind result.ÂNext week I will start a new page (or pages) dedicated to what can be done. One section will be devoted to homeschooling: materials available, recommended reading, and the like. I know there are home schooling networks, and it may be that those are Good Enough, so that all that’s really needed is to link into them. I will also look into supplementary reading and supplementary education materials for those who can’t do home schooling.
Oh, there’s more viewpoint in that post, including the nearly-agreeing-with-my-assessment,
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In my judgment the failure of education in the US has reached a crisis stage: one could almost say that compulsory education in the public schools comes very close to child abuse.
Where Pournelle falls short in that statement, IMO, is “one could almost say.” Prisons for kids is more like it. *sigh* Still, pop on over for a read.
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And note the last sentence in this snippet. It’s one reason why polemicists are often at cross purpose with folks like Dr. Pournelle: he’s open to reason.
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…there are pockets of excellence left in the public school system but increasingly No Child Left Behind==No Child Gets Ahead is destroying those in the name of equality and diversity. I’m open to refutation of that hypothesis also.
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