Quote:
Originally Posted by MountainMike
In many cases, when families are contacted for behavior issues, the first response from home is a threat to sue or complaint to board members.
No Child Left Behind fixates on test scores. Millions of dollars are spent on testing each year. Schools have responded by teaching to the tests. However, there is little through given to why students couldn't care less about education or lack the self discipline required for better learning. Currently, mostof the enrichment activities that make education exciting have been dropped to drill and kill methods of rote memorization for tests.
|
I remember reading a funny little Calvin and Hobbes comic when I was a kid that stuck with me for a long time. In fact, I'm sure in one of my myriad collection books of them it is lying around still. It asks Calvin what year some event took place and Calvin responds with the correct year. After that, he comments after the answer "I have memorized what I see as a useless fact. I have gained nothing from this semester except learning how to successfully manipulate the system" or something to that effect, then makes some quirky comment to end off the strip. In many ways I see this as quite the foretelling of the education system to come.
Teachers are so worried about getting kids to pass these tests so that they might keep their jobs, that actual teaching and grasping of the concepts takes a backseat to rote memorizing of select portions of the subject.