OKHARPMAN'S ARTICLES IN CYBERSPACE
August 28, 2006
Robbing Our School Children
Are you celebrating the first day of school this year? I'm not. I can't help remember what happened in Beslan, Russia on September 5, 2004, when over 330 children and adults were killed by terrorists· The families in Beslan, Russia, will remember that day from hell, for the rest of their lives. It's the day the Chechen Terrorists snatched a time of celebration from the town's people and made it into a living hell. Having lost a child, we can grieve with them, and we do, every September; but sadly, a sinister team of demogogues has stolen our children and their first day of school from us for 6 long years.
To celebrate my granddaughter's first day, I went into her building and took some pictures of her class and a couple of others, dashed off 3 cut-lines, and sent them to the newspaper. Without those three pictures, there would have been nothing on the front page of our local daily except a picture of Iraq and a story of the pig stie that exists over there. Why is that? Because of President Bush's war in Iraq. Every day it's another picture of Iraq and another article. Bush and crew have robbed our children and their parents of a birthright in America, a positive school experience, because of Iraq and the neocons who stole our first day of school celebrations.
"I'm going to hold Bush personally responsible for everyone of our kids that we lose over there," said my octogeneric, Korean War veteran, who is fighting ahlzeimers. Yes, ... and he knew what would happen in Iraq. Quagmire. Even with minimal ahlzeimers, ol' Andy was smarter than Bush and his posers.
That first year, one of our teachers fainted in her class due to the stress of having her husband's unit called up. It scared the students to death. She is a first grade teacher, and what a way to remember your first grade year. Of course, every other student in the school lived through the crisis as well, as the ambulance pulled up and took the teacher away. Whose fault? He's in the White House, and it is still happening.
Islam had and has a lot of dirty laundry that needs airing out. That doesn't mean we should have jumped into it. Since when is the United States a Whirlpool? If we could bring back all of our loved-ones who died in the Twin Towers, and let them and only them vote on the Iraq War, we wouldn't be there now. But, anyone with half a brain, knows that Bush and team were chomping at the bit, for an excuse to invade Iraq and gain some control over their rich oil fields.
Do you have any idea who our Secretary of Education is? I do, but I expect 95% of the rest of the US hasn't a clue. Why is that? Because Bush's failures have shoved the important things in life to the back of the check-out lane. Bush claimed he was a joiner, ... no, he promised he was a joiner. Well, what the heck has he joined? The United States is polarized worse than any time in history except, maybe the Civil War. And look at Iraq! You call that outcome anything that a professional "joiner" could claim?
Bush has built his house on the sand of hypocrisy. He claimed to be an educational president, but what has he done. No Child Left Behind has been a disaster for smaller schools across the United States. They can no longer offer electives. But the pathetic thing about Bush, is that he is anything but educated himself.
Tony Blair had the foresight to shut off the mic, while Bush's, testronic boistering could be heard all over the world. But it wasn't that, that Blair didn't want the world to hear; he didn't want the kids in England hear Bush butcher grammar, like a languaged delayed moron.
Time magazine had an article about the top schools, and spent a lot of time writing about the Ivy League Schools. Bush couldn't get accepted to The University of Texas, and if I were a betting man, it would have had to do with his essay. Heck, he can't even read the words on the prompter in front of him without screwing up.
But Bush is not alone, when it comes to Yale graduating, less than quality, students. We had a preacher that graduated from Yale. I asked him to write a letter to my daughter's college band instructor, to allow her to go on a mission trip to New Mexico. When I read the letter, I nearly regurgitated. We are talking, not even the first draft here. If I had plugged his letter into a reading assessment program, it would have come up with a 7th grade reading level. Our daughter didn't go on the mission trip. Yes, Blair is a class act; he turned off the mic because he didn't want the world to hear the biggest "hick" president since Andrew Jackson. And the man is supposed to have a MBA from Harvard.
The only thing that Bush is good at, is giving his workers nicknames. "Doing a great job, Brownie?"
"Hey Meatball," I yelled at a hefty friend in the 7th grade. Everyone called him that, so I felt comfortable doing it.
"That's not my name. My name is Reford."
"I'm sorry; I didn't think you minded it, since everyone calls you that."
"Randy started it, and there is nothing I can do about it. Yes, I mind it." Randy was the biggest, meanest kid in class, having flunked two grades, he had under arm hair that could be braided. And, ... even after Bush gives you a "lovable nickname," as a friend, don't expect him to stand behind you. We all know what happened to his friend, "Brownie."
We should have bumper stickers on all of our cars that have "M," a picture of a peach, and then a picture of a bush. The bumper stickers should be on every car whose owner is disgusted with this presidency. The Democratic Party should make 'em, and we'll buy them.
Rightwing Republicans sent out emails after the Iraq invasion, comparing Bush to Abraham Lincoln. Get real. George W. Bush has set the low-end standard on the Bell Curve, for presidents. It's time for a bushel full of peaches, the M kind.
(c) Dale Hill (2006)
We all know that Canadians refer to our president as "moron in chief." In fact, many, many Americans use the term, moron, loosely to describe our president, also. Of course, we always get the retort, "Prove it?" by the "lemminged" Bush lovers. Now, I've been thinking about this for some time, and I think we can come up with some proofs that the man, if not a moron, he's a great actor. So this is how I figure it!
President Bush has a "danged" hard time reading and pronouncing big words. We all remember the moronic, "subliminable," when the word, subliminal, has been a household word since The Beatles pressing vinals.
I spent 34 years in the education business, and when I retired, I retired as the only Certified Gesell Examiner in my county. A Gesell examiner, using some developmental tasks, can come pretty darn close to a child's developmental age as compared to their chronological age. Now, I am not even suggesting that Bush needs a Gesell Developmental Test, but I would bet a hundred bucks that if we put Bush in a room with an electric typewriter and the task of writing a 500 word essay on, "What Happened In Iraq," we would get a paper that suggesting that Bush writes at about the 9th grade level.
As an elementary counselor, I also administered all
"Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales" interviewing and then did all the scoring. Given that exam, it gives a professional a very important summary at what "Social Age" a person is functioning. The Vineland works for children and adults and is a mandated test for all Special Education students, who, by the way, these anti-public school, schools simply refuse to take.
Our own youngest daughter had serious Learning Disabilities and is and was probably the most tested child in Oklahoma. She didn't start talking until the age of 4 and then couldn't really be understood until she graduated from Kindergarten. Given an IQ test, though her IQ always scored between 115 to 125 - very convincingly an LD indicator.
A moron, if defined, would be anyone who has an IQ of 70 to 85 range. It is at the 8-12 year age when children become "adult fluent" in their speech patterns. Average students can speak big words easily, while LD students will be having trouble reading those words. Our daughter could say subliminal in a second, but on page, the written word, subliminal, would stub her tongue and switch off her brain. Incidentally, our daughter graduated from high school in the National and State Honor Society and easily passed the state certification test on becoming a professional beautician. But back to topic.
Children between the ages of 8-12 will have trouble pronouncing big words. It is also at this age that a child learns proper grammar and syntax, and syntax is purely a developmental thing for children. Syntax is using the right verb with the right subject or pronoun, and it is very, very common to hear children with the lower IQs having significant syntax problems.
During one of Bush's last press conference, many asked him how the war on terror was going. Now, Bush has a big problem reading teleprompters and often has to stop and take a breath and make a double-effort at reading everything right. It is at press-time questioning that really defines his developmental age.
During one of the last conferences he uttered, "... there are those people out there who don't like people who loves freedom." I've seen the transcript of that conference and transcripts change his moronic speech. Of course, in the above example, the word "LOVES" should be replaced with "LOVE." Long, run-on sentences with unclear subjects, are really difficult for the 8 to 12 year olds. But as 12 year olds, students should be blessed with adult-like vocabularies, and, certainly, by 18 years old, the normal student should have no difficulties with syntax, ... subject/verb agreements. How does George W. Bush score on a verbal, age-developmental test? Not good. In fact, his speech is emblematic of an adolescent - a moron!
How about these?
"It sure are, ... it sure are... not to mention adults," Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004
"... a parent can choose all kind of tutoring options, whether they be public or private. ..."
"Here's what we're going to do. We're going to continue to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations, is what we're going to do."
"Laura and I's spirits are uplifted any time we go to a school that's working, ..."
" If you don't have high standards, you get lousy results, particularly in some neighborhoods. And that's unacceptable to a person like Lynn Swann and me." (The miss-use of me is a dead give away, ... when it comes to ones verbal development. I would expect to hear this in a Special Education setting.)
"Community colleges are practical. They design curriculum that meets the needs of today's world." Curriculum sounds great, but it is not plural as the sentence requires.
The gwbush website has documented 3,874 times, Bush has screwed up his sentences, but that didn't include the one above. We can't trust transcripts, because those who are writing the transcript will change Bush's verbal lapses into acceptable English.
Another adolescent problem is learning how to speak and what to say at the proper time. Parents and teachers, alike, have to keep reenforcing the rules that cursing is not acceptable in the classroom or in public places. In fact, lawsuits have been upheld on that same principle. It is absolutely ignorant for an adult male to use the F word at a professional job and the word SHXT, when a microphone is on during a formal dinner event. I would expect that kind of behavior from an 8 to 12 year old. But the "F" word is his favorite expletive. If I can keep from using the F word, so can Bush. He's either lazy or a moron, and Laura should have an aluminum bat at home to keep his "druggy" language out of household areas. If Bush wants to curse, like a smoker, he can do it outside.
Oh, one more thing; it is in the junior high years when students are most likely to give other kids nicknames. 'You are doing a great job, Brownie."
Go check out "gwbush.com" and try to count the number of times Bush has trouble with syntax. As a develpmental examiner, I would have to conclude that this client, with a degree from Yale and Harvard, who has made 3,900 developmental syntax mistakes during his public speaking career, is a MORON and was able to get into and graduate from Ivy League Universities, because of his last name, on which the Time magazine so aptly focused.
Go ahead and use "moron" to describe George W. Bush, because it IS a psychometric description of him.
(c) Dale Hill (2006)
Public Education has gotten a bad rap under the Bush Administration and the Republican agenda. As a retired 34 year educator, I have seen our public schools evolve from serving only those children who want to go to higher education, to a smorgasbord of opportunities for students of all ages, from one day old to 18 and in some states up to 21 years old. And something that most patrons do not realize, every school district is responsible for the cost of every student, even those who are placed in out-of-district programs such as placements in therapeutic programs in state facilities.
My first year of teaching was in 1968, and that year I taught high school Economics, Oklahoma History and 7th and 8th grade math. I never intended to be a teacher, but a less-than-physically capable label by my draft board and a death of a middle school teacher, put me into a career in education.
Now, to be honest with you, the history and economics classes were the only ones I was certified to teach. The math classes made me work to keep ahead of 75 totally lost junior high classes. Most of the states had decided to switch to a new method of teaching math called, SMSG Math.(SCHOOL MATHEMATICS STUDY GROUP) It was a great program for college-bound students; but for the average Dick and Jane, it was a nightmare. Do a google on SMSG Math to find out what it was. My experience with SMSG math made my elementary certification in math a cake-walk. Hopefully, Bush’s NCLB will go the way of SMSG.
Browsing the Internet, I found a site that listed the amount of money each school district received and found it interesting. I decided to do an article on how our school districts were using there new moneys from the NCLB federal mandated program.
My first call was to our own superintendent, to find out how we were using that money. He didn’t know a thing about the new moneys. Now, his school district is considered a large school district in Oklahoma, so I phoned some other school districts at random across the state and asked them the same thing. Not one had any idea that they had received the amounts of money with which they were credited. No Child Left Behind has slammed our small school districts back to the 50’s: no music, no art, no band, ... . Virtually all of the few electives they could teach are gone.
Forget about college minors, every academic class has to be taught by a teacher who has a major degree in that subject. That is a big time expensive change for schools. I know most teachers in our school district are considered Master Teachers, but the program forces the schools into some strange decisions.
Our Special Education teacher for Trainable Mental Retarded, built a special room made for her and her students with a lavatory, a restroom, and a door to access our other Special Education students in a new section of one of our newest buildings. NCLB forced her out of her room to the junior high, since her students were all low-function teenagers. It blew me away, when I went down to talk to her the other day. At 76, she is a wonderful teacher and often used me as a technology source for her computers.
Today’s school districts are a little bit like Arlo Guthrie's’ “You Can Get Every Thing You want at Alice’s Restaurant.” Our schools deal with head lice, clean clothes, food for two meals, which is wonderful, athletics, drama, music, Spanish, and art. Personally, I think all school districts should at least offer those as electives.
What’s happened, though, is just the opposite for small schools in rural districts.Those elective teachers have moved on to larger school districts, where they can be afforded. The Internet can help some, and so can “distance teaching” over satellite feeds and state net works, but like Iraq, bombs simply do not take the place of “grunts on the ground.”
We now know that the Houston School District that was used as a model for NCLB and its “first documented success,” had their reporting cooked and the program simply did not achieve as promised. The teachers were basically teaching for the test, and claims about the school’s significant decrease of their dropout rate was falsified. Testing is a growth industry and has seen huge growth, like military expenditures, since Bush became president.
There is an in-progress law suit against the Houston Public Schools, related to falsifying reports and other documents on the districts drop-out rate. We know, too, Texas, like most states under the NCLB spends an inordinate amount of time, teaching for the specific normed and criterion referenced tests.
Our teachers in the grade schools have to test every student every week for reading progress, and then, when the middle of January comes around, our teachers spend the next 2 months either getting ready for testing or being tested. Like Haliburton, our test companies are getting rich off of Bush’s federal mandated testing that may or may not be reliable or effective in pinpointing success in life or in higher education. In fact, many states have voted to not comply with NCLB standards. Too expensive! All states should save their money and adopt that same approach to NCLB.
Special Education students, who already pre and post tested every year, has to take NCLB testing as well. We wouldn’t allow our youngest to be given any test on writing.
Our public schools are much like Arlo Guthrie’s song, “You Can Get Everything You Want At Alice’s Restaurant.” Those of us who attended schools in the 50’s and 60’s can remember a time when we matriculated from grade to grade without the burdens of standardized testing. Thus, ... those who are calling for public schools to get back to the basics, are asking for an education WITHOUT any type of mass testing and cutting important
Robbing Our School Children
Are you celebrating the first day of school this year? I'm not. I can't help remember what happened in Beslan, Russia on September 5, 2004, when over 330 children and adults were killed by terrorists· The families in Beslan, Russia, will remember that day from hell, for the rest of their lives. It's the day the Chechen Terrorists snatched a time of celebration from the town's people and made it into a living hell. Having lost a child, we can grieve with them, and we do, every September; but sadly, a sinister team of demogogues has stolen our children and their first day of school from us for 6 long years.
To celebrate my granddaughter's first day, I went into her building and took some pictures of her class and a couple of others, dashed off 3 cut-lines, and sent them to the newspaper. Without those three pictures, there would have been nothing on the front page of our local daily except a picture of Iraq and a story of the pig stie that exists over there. Why is that? Because of President Bush's war in Iraq. Every day it's another picture of Iraq and another article. Bush and crew have robbed our children and their parents of a birthright in America, a positive school experience, because of Iraq and the neocons who stole our first day of school celebrations.
"I'm going to hold Bush personally responsible for everyone of our kids that we lose over there," said my octogeneric, Korean War veteran, who is fighting ahlzeimers. Yes, ... and he knew what would happen in Iraq. Quagmire. Even with minimal ahlzeimers, ol' Andy was smarter than Bush and his posers.
That first year, one of our teachers fainted in her class due to the stress of having her husband's unit called up. It scared the students to death. She is a first grade teacher, and what a way to remember your first grade year. Of course, every other student in the school lived through the crisis as well, as the ambulance pulled up and took the teacher away. Whose fault? He's in the White House, and it is still happening.
Islam had and has a lot of dirty laundry that needs airing out. That doesn't mean we should have jumped into it. Since when is the United States a Whirlpool? If we could bring back all of our loved-ones who died in the Twin Towers, and let them and only them vote on the Iraq War, we wouldn't be there now. But, anyone with half a brain, knows that Bush and team were chomping at the bit, for an excuse to invade Iraq and gain some control over their rich oil fields.
Do you have any idea who our Secretary of Education is? I do, but I expect 95% of the rest of the US hasn't a clue. Why is that? Because Bush's failures have shoved the important things in life to the back of the check-out lane. Bush claimed he was a joiner, ... no, he promised he was a joiner. Well, what the heck has he joined? The United States is polarized worse than any time in history except, maybe the Civil War. And look at Iraq! You call that outcome anything that a professional "joiner" could claim?
Bush has built his house on the sand of hypocrisy. He claimed to be an educational president, but what has he done. No Child Left Behind has been a disaster for smaller schools across the United States. They can no longer offer electives. But the pathetic thing about Bush, is that he is anything but educated himself.
Tony Blair had the foresight to shut off the mic, while Bush's, testronic boistering could be heard all over the world. But it wasn't that, that Blair didn't want the world to hear; he didn't want the kids in England hear Bush butcher grammar, like a languaged delayed moron.
Time magazine had an article about the top schools, and spent a lot of time writing about the Ivy League Schools. Bush couldn't get accepted to The University of Texas, and if I were a betting man, it would have had to do with his essay. Heck, he can't even read the words on the prompter in front of him without screwing up.
But Bush is not alone, when it comes to Yale graduating, less than quality, students. We had a preacher that graduated from Yale. I asked him to write a letter to my daughter's college band instructor, to allow her to go on a mission trip to New Mexico. When I read the letter, I nearly regurgitated. We are talking, not even the first draft here. If I had plugged his letter into a reading assessment program, it would have come up with a 7th grade reading level. Our daughter didn't go on the mission trip. Yes, Blair is a class act; he turned off the mic because he didn't want the world to hear the biggest "hick" president since Andrew Jackson. And the man is supposed to have a MBA from Harvard.
The only thing that Bush is good at, is giving his workers nicknames. "Doing a great job, Brownie?"
"Hey Meatball," I yelled at a hefty friend in the 7th grade. Everyone called him that, so I felt comfortable doing it.
"That's not my name. My name is Reford."
"I'm sorry; I didn't think you minded it, since everyone calls you that."
"Randy started it, and there is nothing I can do about it. Yes, I mind it." Randy was the biggest, meanest kid in class, having flunked two grades, he had under arm hair that could be braided. And, ... even after Bush gives you a "lovable nickname," as a friend, don't expect him to stand behind you. We all know what happened to his friend, "Brownie."
We should have bumper stickers on all of our cars that have "M," a picture of a peach, and then a picture of a bush. The bumper stickers should be on every car whose owner is disgusted with this presidency. The Democratic Party should make 'em, and we'll buy them.
Rightwing Republicans sent out emails after the Iraq invasion, comparing Bush to Abraham Lincoln. Get real. George W. Bush has set the low-end standard on the Bell Curve, for presidents. It's time for a bushel full of peaches, the M kind.
(c) Dale Hill (2006)
Moron or Not?
August 29th, 2006
We all know that Canadians refer to our president as "moron in chief." In fact, many, many Americans use the term, moron, loosely to describe our president, also. Of course, we always get the retort, "Prove it?" by the "lemminged" Bush lovers. Now, I've been thinking about this for some time, and I think we can come up with some proofs that the man, if not a moron, he's a great actor. So this is how I figure it!
President Bush has a "danged" hard time reading and pronouncing big words. We all remember the moronic, "subliminable," when the word, subliminal, has been a household word since The Beatles pressing vinals.
I spent 34 years in the education business, and when I retired, I retired as the only Certified Gesell Examiner in my county. A Gesell examiner, using some developmental tasks, can come pretty darn close to a child's developmental age as compared to their chronological age. Now, I am not even suggesting that Bush needs a Gesell Developmental Test, but I would bet a hundred bucks that if we put Bush in a room with an electric typewriter and the task of writing a 500 word essay on, "What Happened In Iraq," we would get a paper that suggesting that Bush writes at about the 9th grade level.
As an elementary counselor, I also administered all
"Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales" interviewing and then did all the scoring. Given that exam, it gives a professional a very important summary at what "Social Age" a person is functioning. The Vineland works for children and adults and is a mandated test for all Special Education students, who, by the way, these anti-public school, schools simply refuse to take.
Our own youngest daughter had serious Learning Disabilities and is and was probably the most tested child in Oklahoma. She didn't start talking until the age of 4 and then couldn't really be understood until she graduated from Kindergarten. Given an IQ test, though her IQ always scored between 115 to 125 - very convincingly an LD indicator.
A moron, if defined, would be anyone who has an IQ of 70 to 85 range. It is at the 8-12 year age when children become "adult fluent" in their speech patterns. Average students can speak big words easily, while LD students will be having trouble reading those words. Our daughter could say subliminal in a second, but on page, the written word, subliminal, would stub her tongue and switch off her brain. Incidentally, our daughter graduated from high school in the National and State Honor Society and easily passed the state certification test on becoming a professional beautician. But back to topic.
Children between the ages of 8-12 will have trouble pronouncing big words. It is also at this age that a child learns proper grammar and syntax, and syntax is purely a developmental thing for children. Syntax is using the right verb with the right subject or pronoun, and it is very, very common to hear children with the lower IQs having significant syntax problems.
During one of Bush's last press conference, many asked him how the war on terror was going. Now, Bush has a big problem reading teleprompters and often has to stop and take a breath and make a double-effort at reading everything right. It is at press-time questioning that really defines his developmental age.
During one of the last conferences he uttered, "... there are those people out there who don't like people who loves freedom." I've seen the transcript of that conference and transcripts change his moronic speech. Of course, in the above example, the word "LOVES" should be replaced with "LOVE." Long, run-on sentences with unclear subjects, are really difficult for the 8 to 12 year olds. But as 12 year olds, students should be blessed with adult-like vocabularies, and, certainly, by 18 years old, the normal student should have no difficulties with syntax, ... subject/verb agreements. How does George W. Bush score on a verbal, age-developmental test? Not good. In fact, his speech is emblematic of an adolescent - a moron!
How about these?
"It sure are, ... it sure are... not to mention adults," Washington, D.C., Jan. 23, 2004
"... a parent can choose all kind of tutoring options, whether they be public or private. ..."
"Here's what we're going to do. We're going to continue to challenge the soft bigotry of low expectations, is what we're going to do."
"Laura and I's spirits are uplifted any time we go to a school that's working, ..."
" If you don't have high standards, you get lousy results, particularly in some neighborhoods. And that's unacceptable to a person like Lynn Swann and me." (The miss-use of me is a dead give away, ... when it comes to ones verbal development. I would expect to hear this in a Special Education setting.)
"Community colleges are practical. They design curriculum that meets the needs of today's world." Curriculum sounds great, but it is not plural as the sentence requires.
The gwbush website has documented 3,874 times, Bush has screwed up his sentences, but that didn't include the one above. We can't trust transcripts, because those who are writing the transcript will change Bush's verbal lapses into acceptable English.
Another adolescent problem is learning how to speak and what to say at the proper time. Parents and teachers, alike, have to keep reenforcing the rules that cursing is not acceptable in the classroom or in public places. In fact, lawsuits have been upheld on that same principle. It is absolutely ignorant for an adult male to use the F word at a professional job and the word SHXT, when a microphone is on during a formal dinner event. I would expect that kind of behavior from an 8 to 12 year old. But the "F" word is his favorite expletive. If I can keep from using the F word, so can Bush. He's either lazy or a moron, and Laura should have an aluminum bat at home to keep his "druggy" language out of household areas. If Bush wants to curse, like a smoker, he can do it outside.
Oh, one more thing; it is in the junior high years when students are most likely to give other kids nicknames. 'You are doing a great job, Brownie."
Go check out "gwbush.com" and try to count the number of times Bush has trouble with syntax. As a develpmental examiner, I would have to conclude that this client, with a degree from Yale and Harvard, who has made 3,900 developmental syntax mistakes during his public speaking career, is a MORON and was able to get into and graduate from Ivy League Universities, because of his last name, on which the Time magazine so aptly focused.
Go ahead and use "moron" to describe George W. Bush, because it IS a psychometric description of him.
(c) Dale Hill (2006)
You Can Get Everything You Want, ...
August 30, 2006
Public Education has gotten a bad rap under the Bush Administration and the Republican agenda. As a retired 34 year educator, I have seen our public schools evolve from serving only those children who want to go to higher education, to a smorgasbord of opportunities for students of all ages, from one day old to 18 and in some states up to 21 years old. And something that most patrons do not realize, every school district is responsible for the cost of every student, even those who are placed in out-of-district programs such as placements in therapeutic programs in state facilities.
My first year of teaching was in 1968, and that year I taught high school Economics, Oklahoma History and 7th and 8th grade math. I never intended to be a teacher, but a less-than-physically capable label by my draft board and a death of a middle school teacher, put me into a career in education.
Now, to be honest with you, the history and economics classes were the only ones I was certified to teach. The math classes made me work to keep ahead of 75 totally lost junior high classes. Most of the states had decided to switch to a new method of teaching math called, SMSG Math.(SCHOOL MATHEMATICS STUDY GROUP) It was a great program for college-bound students; but for the average Dick and Jane, it was a nightmare. Do a google on SMSG Math to find out what it was. My experience with SMSG math made my elementary certification in math a cake-walk. Hopefully, Bush’s NCLB will go the way of SMSG.
Browsing the Internet, I found a site that listed the amount of money each school district received and found it interesting. I decided to do an article on how our school districts were using there new moneys from the NCLB federal mandated program.
My first call was to our own superintendent, to find out how we were using that money. He didn’t know a thing about the new moneys. Now, his school district is considered a large school district in Oklahoma, so I phoned some other school districts at random across the state and asked them the same thing. Not one had any idea that they had received the amounts of money with which they were credited. No Child Left Behind has slammed our small school districts back to the 50’s: no music, no art, no band, ... . Virtually all of the few electives they could teach are gone.
Forget about college minors, every academic class has to be taught by a teacher who has a major degree in that subject. That is a big time expensive change for schools. I know most teachers in our school district are considered Master Teachers, but the program forces the schools into some strange decisions.
Our Special Education teacher for Trainable Mental Retarded, built a special room made for her and her students with a lavatory, a restroom, and a door to access our other Special Education students in a new section of one of our newest buildings. NCLB forced her out of her room to the junior high, since her students were all low-function teenagers. It blew me away, when I went down to talk to her the other day. At 76, she is a wonderful teacher and often used me as a technology source for her computers.
Today’s school districts are a little bit like Arlo Guthrie's’ “You Can Get Every Thing You want at Alice’s Restaurant.” Our schools deal with head lice, clean clothes, food for two meals, which is wonderful, athletics, drama, music, Spanish, and art. Personally, I think all school districts should at least offer those as electives.
What’s happened, though, is just the opposite for small schools in rural districts.Those elective teachers have moved on to larger school districts, where they can be afforded. The Internet can help some, and so can “distance teaching” over satellite feeds and state net works, but like Iraq, bombs simply do not take the place of “grunts on the ground.”
We now know that the Houston School District that was used as a model for NCLB and its “first documented success,” had their reporting cooked and the program simply did not achieve as promised. The teachers were basically teaching for the test, and claims about the school’s significant decrease of their dropout rate was falsified. Testing is a growth industry and has seen huge growth, like military expenditures, since Bush became president.
There is an in-progress law suit against the Houston Public Schools, related to falsifying reports and other documents on the districts drop-out rate. We know, too, Texas, like most states under the NCLB spends an inordinate amount of time, teaching for the specific normed and criterion referenced tests.
Our teachers in the grade schools have to test every student every week for reading progress, and then, when the middle of January comes around, our teachers spend the next 2 months either getting ready for testing or being tested. Like Haliburton, our test companies are getting rich off of Bush’s federal mandated testing that may or may not be reliable or effective in pinpointing success in life or in higher education. In fact, many states have voted to not comply with NCLB standards. Too expensive! All states should save their money and adopt that same approach to NCLB.
Special Education students, who already pre and post tested every year, has to take NCLB testing as well. We wouldn’t allow our youngest to be given any test on writing.
Our public schools are much like Arlo Guthrie’s song, “You Can Get Everything You Want At Alice’s Restaurant.” Those of us who attended schools in the 50’s and 60’s can remember a time when we matriculated from grade to grade without the burdens of standardized testing. Thus, ... those who are calling for public schools to get back to the basics, are asking for an education WITHOUT any type of mass testing and cutting important