Public education

I really don’t want this to be a rant on public education, but hey, why not?  I have a very typical viewpoint as I believe that our country’s education is terrible but “my school” (not mine anymore) is pretty OK.  Let me qualify though, while I really like the boy’s (former) elementary school, I do not think it is good for my children.  I think they do the best they can, given the restrictions, the expectations, and the teacher unions. (not to my teacher friends, I do not mean the teachers themselves) but rather the collective bargaining unit which dictates things and has basically made as much of a mess of the education system, as the UAW has of the car industry.  Mostly I mean, that competition and choice are removed from parents.  You must attend the school you live near regardless (yes yes, I know that you can get a few boundary exceptions but you know what I mean").  To me this is like telling people ,

“Well, you can only shop at a the one grocery store that is closest to your house.  Sorry, too bad that the one across town has fresher produce, or the one in the next neighborhood always has that sausage that your husband likes.  If you don’t like it, you are welcome to go to the private ones what cost 10x as much (though you still need to pay for the local one) and buy whatever you like…..What?  Oh you can’t afford to go to those??? Well, then stop complaining and enjoy the one you are assigned to, learn to live without those sausages, and be happy with what you have, at least the store has food, unlike those stores in the inner city.

 

Makes no sense does it?  At any rate, I digress, my point is not to complain or redesign the entire education system, (though I’d love to and would be damn good at it ) it is actually to post an article I read this morning about how our failing education system is negatively impacting our economy.  For me, the greater point of the article is more that our standards are a fantasy and the results are worthless.  In order to improve education in our country we need to get real about where we actually are.  International standards seem to be a good start.  And shame?  a great motivator for sure.

Here is Laura Vanderkam’s article from USA Today: http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2009/06/the-permanent-recession.html

She also has a blog, worth a look: http://giftedexchange.blogspot.com/2009/06/permanent-recession.html