The system is the way it should be and the way it has always been. Learning how to critically think has been taken out of the equation in all the box store edifices that are called places of learning. I'm not just speaking of K-12 but especially all post secondary education (indoctrination) institutions. This was done so the corporate state would get a continuous stream of homogenized non-questioning supplicants to keep the oars of this slave ship moving. We have abrogated our parental rights so willingly because we were brought up in the same feudalistic system as our parents were and collectively we didn't even know it. The most critical time to make a psychological imprint with children is during these early years. So all children spend the majority of their waking life in front of who? …for most of us it is the state designated parents, the teachers (strangers) and administrators (strangers). This arcane system of mass psychological propagandizing has been institutionalized so long that the well meaning teachers /administrators and we parents think it's normal. Go read the Bertrand Russells and the Edward Bernays of the world. We have become the surrogates (strangers) to the same children we brought into this world. We all speak about changing the system but the system will never change. The system is what keeps us from our inalienable rights of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. This tyranny has been has been in place for thousands of years and it will continue unabated until we wake up. This moment is the moment to take back what has been taken from us. It is time to do not to hope.

There is another way. Try home schooling. I was a classmate of Marshall Fritz, a strong spokesperson for "Separation of School and State.". He is a strong supporter of school choice, including Home Schooling. Try these web sites:

http://www.schoolandstate.org/stats.htm
http://www.allianceforschoolchoice.org/New/index.html

I am _so_ glad that I quit teaching when I did (late-80's).
Had I spent a full-career in education, and then saw it deteriorate to 'today's education' near retirement -- I would feel like I had wasted my life, and that I had betrayed/failed a 'once-important/respectable' Profession.

Great article.

Notice how a great education is not part of the presidential campaign currently being stage managed by corporate media and their associates in the three remaining campaigns?

Btw, there are great public schools out there doing democratic work, deemphasizing standardized testing, replacing that outmoded model with performance and exhibition accountability. For example, check out the Coalition of Essential Schools:
www.essentialschools.org

and read www.rethinkingschools.org for ongoing coverage of great public schooling of the kind Ms Ayers advocates

a great ed leader supportive of Ms. Ayers is Deborah Meier
www.deborahmeier.com

and support the Feingold-Leahy amendment to NCLB which would require the government to support schools that use better accountability than standardized testing, such as performance, exhibitions and portfolios.

The increased standardized testing is a symptom of poor public education, not the cause. If the system was working, no one would be trying to fix it. Good teachers are also a victim of the bad teachers. Good teachers will not have any problem showing increased test scores for their students. This may not be the best measure of the worth of teachers, but what is the alternative? I have two children in public school. The increadibly poor quality of education in our local rural public school was so bad that we put them into a private one-room school house. I would not have even thought to do this but my 5 year-old daughter taught my four-year old son to read, and when I contacted the principal of the local elementary school, he would not even consider allowing my son to enter kindergarten at 4-years old. They also suggested leaving my daughter back because she wrote poorly. After inquiring in disbelief about this (since we had seen our daughters writing), we found out that they were suggesting leaving her back due to her poor hand-writing (penmanship). We put my son and daughter in a local private one-room schoolhouse where my daughter completed 1st and 2nd grade that school year. The school only went through 7th grade, so we faced another dilemma when she graduated. The local public school had no provisions for an accelerated kid. We were fortunate to be within a short distance of the best public school system in the state, and bought the cheapest house in that school district. Again we came up against public school administrators who wanted to put my daughter back in the grade that fit her age. I finally insisted that they test her. The call that I got from the administator started with an apology. She then asked if it was OK to put my daughter in the 8th grade and in all the accelerated classes. They also asked if we wanted to have our son tested to see if he should be moved ahead of his already accelerated grade. My son is an under-achiever, so we passed on this. My daughter has continued to excel in school and my son does well, although not nearly as well as he could. Both of our children test extremely-extremely well on standardized tests although their curriculum in the one-room school house did not focus on this. My point is that good education usually results in good standardized test scores. Bad education may need to focus on these tests simply because it is bad. We do not push our children. They were given a choice about what grade and what advanced classes they wanted to take. My daughter wants to go as fast as possible, and my son wants to get by. We encourage my daughter to think more about non-school activities and we encourage my son to get A's and B's. I can not think of a better way to improve teacher's educational behavior than good old-fashioned competition. It is too bad that this has to be a blanket fix, but thats the way it is.

As a former middle school teacher, I can also attest to the fact that after early to mid March (by which time all testing is over) students simply quit any pretense of being serious about school. They have figured out the con game of standardized testing and play their own game right along with the educational officials who are coning them.

"The kinds of things that lead to wisdom and ideals are steadily being eradicated, and if the people who should know better don't start standing up, valued public education will, simply, be irrevocably lost. Private school enrollments steadily increase."

The global elitists and their puppet politicians don't want our children or their children to gain wisdom or have any ideals that would conflict with their global plan to control the world. After all, dimwits are much easier to control and maintain as slaves.

In light of this, it would seem reasonable to believe that the public school system has intentionally been vitiated over the years in an effort to replace them with "for profit" education. Needless to say, the curriculum design in private education will focus on creating drones to meet the needs of their primary shareholders' global agenda.

And again, when politicians allow our public educational system to collapse, as they have done with our unstable, housing bubble economy, you will see them rush through a "bill" that will send $$billions of dollars to privately owned education institutions in the form of "vouchers", so our children will have somewhere to go to school.

GAIL: Good points. My favorite WORD in the essay was authenticity, which of course is the antithesis of standardized curricula. IF all are to be alike, where is room to be one's true, unique, authentic self.

A very compelling article was published in HARPER'S last year that explained the "management" concept as applied to education, and what goal it utlimately serves. Children are now seen as a business resource, and their lives expected to be managed. I watched the George Carlin HBO comedy special where he cynically commented on "managed play time" for kids, and he remembered all the fun he'd had as a kid out back with a stick. He went on to lament, "What did they run out of sticks?"

To the extent a society is managed by those who put economics first, all greater things will suffer. For money loses value when worth is lost.

Education is forever and a day the pawn of political hacks. It's a safe target for both sides of the aisle to score political points with. If politicians were ever capable of 'reforming' education, it would have been done decades ago. Instead, we are in a constant state of 'reformation.' It's a Ferris wheel that just keeps going round and round.

There's lots that can be done to improve and support our schools. School districts are treated as isolated societal units, independently responsible for all aspects of child development.

Raise your hand if that sounds stupid.

Local governments have to play a stronger role in creating and supporting an environment that values learning. Parents should be made fully aware of their responsibilities in preparing their children for school. Show me a kid who works hard from 9 to 3, and I'll show you parents who give them little choice because they care. Show me a kid reading on grade level and I'll show you a parent who's been reading to their kids from birth, and who has books, magazines and newspapers messing up the house.

And certainly not least, this country has to invest in a tech training avenue for kids for whom college is either not an option or not an interest.

But first off, get Bush and his No Child Left Behind off our backs. NCLB has one long term purpose: to dismantle the public school system so that all your children will wind up in schools where 'Left Behind' will be mandatory reading.

Think that law's name isn't connected to Lahaye's Book of Revelations fairy tale?

Think again. This is George Bush and his Straussian lunatics we're talking about.

I feel for today's students. I have a Master's degree, but it, like my entire education experience is built on mastery of the subjects at hand, not taking some general test. I went to Catholic school for the first 8 grades, then on the a public high school. We had to pass our courses to graduate based on successfully passing the course tests and completing the course work. If we, as a nation could just agree on some academic standards and course subject matter, then maybe, our students might just learn something useful and valueable. Just a thought, maybe, students who make an 85% or better on overall course work and specific subject matter testing could opt out of the HSEE as qualified to graduate. I know from speaking to several academics here in the Atlanta area, that even the HSEE doesn't guarantee that students can read, write and think at college level.

An educated population is dangerous to the master class

Miso,

Therefore NCLB.

I think many of the posters here have hit on salient points regarding public (and private education). As someone who teaches at the post-secondary education level and actively participates in student learning outcomes assessment, I see the product of the education system. I can definitely see the difference between students whose parents are actively involved in their education as opposed to those who are not. I also see the products of good and bad teaching. I think any of us would be hard pressed to find anyone who supports the current education system as sound. The truth is we have many administrators with Ph.D.s who don't have the first clue about how to efficiently and effectively run a school, yet they make six figure salaries. In all truth, I would have to agree with Ken Mitchell that the way to go is homeschooling. And to make things even more ridiculous, in California, parents who homeschool their children have to get teaching credentials to avoid going to jail! WTH???

Possible solutions:

1.) Teachers can only teach subjects in which they have received extensive education, including a degree. This will put a strain on school budgets, but it is a disservice to students to have a coach who had one history class in his/her education teaching that subject.

2.) Cut Administrator salaries and give the money to teachers who are competent and ensure that students perform to their full potential.

3.) Eliminate the politics handcuffing teachers so that they can actually teach their subjects. Teachers ought to exercise good judgment to not offend students, but also should not be bound to litigation threats.

4.) Restructure the entire education system to best serve students' interests. I would mandate ALL students must take three years of Greek or Latin. They also must have two years of courses that involve critical thinking. They also must have one year of courses teaching them how to do scholarly research (yes, including how to properly use a library).

5.) Do away with the grading system. Teach for the sake of teaching. Teachers will have to come up with creative methods with which to evaluate student learning.

6.) Do away with all standardized tests. They measure nothing! In fact, they make student performance worse.

I could add a dozen other suggestions, but I would definitely include these in the top ten. Our education system needs overhaul. It begins at home and works its way up to the top - all the way to Washington D.C.

As a public school educator, I appreciate Ms. Ayers writing this eloquent article. But I think the real problem goes much deeper than NCLB and the machinations of the Bush administration.

I agree with Mr. Obvious when he says that "Good teachers will not have any problem showing increased test scores for their students." In my view, teacher training in the U.S. is too skills- and methods-based, rather than focusing on the wonders of knowledge itself. I love learning and knowing, and I don't find it very hard to "infect" my students with that same love, simply because I share it openly and enthusiastically with them.

I've met and worked with other teachers who share this passion, but too many of the teachers I've known are intellectual mediocrities, devoid of passion. Part of this is because American society as a whole is (let's be honest) not merely non-intellectual but actively anti-intellectual, and we shouldn't be surprised to see this reflected in our population of teachers.

But the other part of the problem, as I see it, is the notion that the right tricks--er, I mean, "teaching methods"--will magically solve all our schooling ills. The fact that every decade (or less) we are having to change models, methods, and so on in the classroom, without getting any closer to better education, should be all the proof we need that the methodology merry-go-round is a complete failure. Yet we continue to spin, spin, spin in circles.

Until Americans as a whole come to value authentic knowing and being, rather than mere producing and consuming, we will continue to fail at "reforming" schools. What we desperately need is a wholesale reinvention of ourselves, and teachers should be leading the way far more so than we think we are today.

We need teachers whose knowledge of their subject areas extends well beyond the textbooks they use in their classrooms, or the modest amount of true knowledge they pick up in between all their "trainings." We need teachers who go into education to enlighten and elevate, not primarily to coach sports or relive their youth. We need teachers who are bursting with excitement and energy every single day they are in the classroom.

We need, most of all, teachers who will stop seeing themselves as victims of political intrigue and instead start positioning themselves as leaders in a noble movement to make America TRULY educated.

Mr. Obvious:
Standardized tests don't measure skills worth having. It is out dated, "horse and buggy" accountability.

I gave you alternative: performances and portfolios. They provide the full motion, in-color "big picture" of what a student knows and can do, not standardized tests which only gave a black and white fuzzy image.

Here's another website showing how better accountability is in New York (and has been done for decades all over the country, albeit not in nearly enough schoools):
www.performanceassessment.org

Schools which fail to jump the Bush hoops are now subjected to C.O.W. which is sold by Neal Bush and which the schools have to pay for to requalify.

"Curriculum On Wheels" . . . !!!!

Privatization on wheels is more likely ---

As a lifelong educator who has seen the pendulum swing in many directions, I'm amazed by the number of self professed experts on public education, who are not in the trenches fighting the good fight each day.

This current generation of kids sees the writing on the wall. Where is the promise for their generation? Out sourced jobs, lower wages, greed, corruption, environmental collapse, warrior nation, abstinence only education, racism in all it's former glory, the price of a good college education, and the myriad of other problems faced by this nation and our fellow earthlings. Where is the hope, what is offered to this current generation of American public education students.

If they were all able to pass the tests, get good grades in college prep classes, ready themselves to achieve in the future, what do we offer them? A life time of student loan debt, a future at the local Piggly Wiggly, a stint in Iraq or Iran? so that they might eventually have a chance at higher education. Really what is in it for them?

When you decide that public schools are the source of all this countries ills, you might want to walk a mile in a kids shoes and sense what they envision for their futures, it is not a very pretty sight. Talk to a teacher, go to a school board meeting, join the PTA, become a part of the solution.

Certainly public schools can benefit from change, so would our country. Teachers work hard and we face an incredible number of obstacles, the work is hard, the pay sucks, the whole process is a giant mine field. Yet, we get up each day, put on our game faces and plunge into our work with all we can give. Sure there are some bad teachers, don't you have to deal with people like that where you work? You don't throw out the whole system, because of some bad components.

When things go as planned, there is no job on earth as satisfying as teaching.

It's no wonder that education is fear-based. Everything else in our society is fear-based.

K-12 public education in this country has ...

... a calendar created when people lived on farms.

... a curriculum created when people worked in factories.

... a funding scheme created when people owned slaves.

Mr. Obvious -- your kids sound like mine ! Daughter now a first-year med school student, son still on the academic fence. But that's the right place for him, and if testing was for EQ (Emotional IQ), he would be off the charts. Good that you're letting your son follow his own star.

Perhaps today's kids aren't so interested in 'understanding their world' because it is NOT, in fact, 'their world' -- we have no idea what 'their world' would even BE. Arthur Clarke's novel Childhood's End speaks to this. If they are tuning into a different frequency which codes for a different reality, so be it.

The duplicity of this reality, where adults act in ways any sane child would recognize as insane, has reached its limits.

We shouldn't annoy young children with education. Give them handdrums and finger paints, teach them to dance and speak in sign language, help them plant seeds and harvest good food. Let them listen to the sounds of MANY languages, and encourage them to sing. Give them a stage and the props they need for dramatic play. Work in the community -- cleaning up, hosting book sales, helping the elderly, etc.

Let's not stuff them with more fake adult agendas. Unless we really want to continue creating fake adults. But that's what happens when children are chattel under the adult system.

Honor their youth. I am afraid they are the recipients of misdirected jealousy, as Arthur Clarke famously said at the end of one of his short stories, "The old are insanely jealous of the young."

What does it mean to "put on our game faces" ? Remember, this realm is really a hall of mirrors.

Edmund Burke 1729-1797
Education is the cheap defence of nations

Everything that needs to be taught can or will be found online as will difficult subjects where guidance is required.

Kids will socialize through clubs, sports, hobbies and so on.

Schools as places of indoctrination and abuse, hated by students, are obsolete.

Good teachers can market online courses where they are not dictated to or required to be baby sitters for workaholic wage slave parents turned into obedient consumers for the oligarchy.

On the other hand, and as an educator in public school, private school, and university, I think I can add this: Changes need to be organised for greatest effect. If teachers are to be effective in plying their trade using their own education, talent, techniques, and skills, the politics of respect must be fundamental to the classroom.

Students and their parents have far too much influence on a teacher's job-security. The political, social, and financial lobbying of school administrators, boards, and politicians determine a teacher's authority and methodology of teaching and classroom management. Far too many children are schooled in the practice of crying foul, or abuse, or assault, as a means of diverting attention away from their own transgressions, and their disruption of school culture. And far too many administrators are mindlessly eager to please the parents of those children, for fear of losing funding, enrolment, or support (votes) for their personal advancement.

Changes in the public attitude towards authority in the classroom are fundamental, since nothing else will change without them, despite (or even because of) the haphazard application of teaching 'tricks' and the exhaustive outpourings of unfocused energy.

Imagine teaching a U.S. history or government class today.
Imagine trying to do it honestly.
Imagine how how long it would take to get your ass kicked out of your job.
I taught high school history and government for 33 years. The 60s and 70s kids were the best. The 80s and 90s kids almost never asked,"Why?"
The way our democracy is going to hell in a hand basket with practically no citizen resistance, it sometimes feels like it was all a waste of time.

Education was messed up before No Child, which was how Bush was able to get it passed. There are underlying reasons to poor student output and none has to do with irrelevant tests, teachers and the schools themselves. I teach in the inner city in Los Angeles and these students are apathetic and indifferent to education. Why are they indifferent?, thats a Master's Dissertation. Most energy in these schools are spent on controlling and managing student behavior. On top of that you have adminstrators that are over their heads and a bureaucracy downtown that doesnt help the school in any significant way unless something catastrophic happens.

formernadervoter - I am not advocating standardized testing as a answer to the problem. I am saying that it is a reasonable reaction to a broken system.

alaskamaid - I am glad to see that others share my experience. I do think that education/traing is key to success in a global economy. Unskilled workers will not find security in tenure or organized labor. If the work can be done in India then it will be. We are seeing countries like India and China producing highly educated students, and they are going to get the jobs, even if we won't let them into the "developed" countries.

As far as higher pay for teacher, this is a long term solution. It will work by attracting highly skilled teachers for our grand children or great grand children because it will attract more teachers who will have to compete for high-paying jobs. Paying bad teachers more will not help, and good teachers are motivated by more than money.

Another tidbit: None of the teachers in the one-room school house where my children went were certified as anything. They were dedicated and followed a demanding curriculum. As stated by others here, they also had parents who cared and did not have to tolerate disrespectful behavior. I remember sitting in a barber chair listening to the local barber complain about a teacher who could not control his son and who called him to pick up his son at school. I thought he was going to cut my ear off when I suggested that teachers should not be baby sitters, and maybe he should teach his kid some respect. My kids can go wild at home on the farm (within reason), but they know what is expected of them in public. We taught them this without spanking (although I never thought that I would become a "time-out" dad). Neither of my children have ever caused a teacher (or anyone else) to provide anything except steller reports on their behaviour. As a matter of fact, when my son was 9, he got into a scuffle with the class bully that was twice his weight and two years older. The other kid tried to take a ball from him by repeatedly hitting him. He finally kicked the kid in the stomach (he is trained in martial arts), and the kid ran to the pricipal. After hearing the story, the principal sent my son back to class, and kept the bully in his office. This was a great lesson. When you have a good reputation, you word carries more credibility. The bully never bothered him again.

Parent involvement with childrens education is probably the most important factor in education. But even this is of limited help when a bad teacher is involved. They may not be common, but they do increadible damage. Especially in elementary education.

I think schools have been following the corporate agenda well before the no child left behind program.

Parents likewise tend to favor salaried prestigious careers for their kids so they too can lead the 'good life of the American dream'. How often do parents encourage their children to be artists or playwrights?

With so many professions and trades, the diploma or certificate seems to be an end in itself sometimes resulting in shoddy workmanship or boring tedious work like correcting student busywork handouts.

Home schooling deprives kids of the socialization perhaps the main working function of school these days.

Adolescents tend to be challenging and perhaps allot of them could better spend their time as community volunteers or on student exchanges, or interest mentored projects.

Economics, semantics and logic along with how the media can be used to influence public policy and whitewash empire building could be included in the curricula!

Color code the empire red
Full spectrum stupidity is just ahead
Don't threat about pi
or what's left of the pie
Read them ''My Pet Goat' instead

Siouxrose March 16th, 2008 11:09 am

"My favorite WORD in the essay was authenticity, which of course is the antithesis of standardized curricula. IF all are to be alike, where is room to be one's true, unique, authentic self."

SIOUXROSE,

"Authenticity", wisdom or ideals are NOT WANTED in a society that has been taken-over by corporate pigs whose only goal is to continuously feed off of the unsuspecting "working class" that doesn't have a clue what's going on in this country and world. All they know is what the Mass Media regurgitates to them; and we all know, most of it spells SHIT!

OK - What planet are "conspiracy-thoery" folks from. Do you really think that smart or powerful people are afraid of a crop of well educated high-school graduates? Corporations are struggling with finding qualified workers. They are increasingly importing scientists from India and China, where mathematics, science and language are taught. It is amazing that asian students can come to the west with a better command of english than those whose first language is english. Where do you get this stuff? If you cannot compete, blaim it on your training; poor parents and bad teachers. Its so easy to be the poor victim.

SPINOZA: I loved what you said about the PASSION of teaching, but let's face it, how many people are passionate about anything these days? Many get the wind knocked out of them on many levels by the insults and assaults of modern life--from fake food, to high stress roadways, to a nation gone amok, to high costs, to working overtime, to being out of shape, etc.

I was a teacher, too, and although the private school I worked at was big on pushing vocabulary, spelling tests, and worst of all--grammar... I believed if I could instill a LOVE of reading, these other skills would occur almost subliminally. I definitely inspired my students to think outside the box; but once I had my own children, and childcare costs plus taxes figured into the fiscal mix, I devised a way to stay home, tutor, and sell freelance writing. I never went back. When my daughters were old enough that I had the TIME to return to education, by this time FBI fingerprinting (in Florida) and urine tests were the norm. I figured I'd rather just write and deal with less income then adapt to a system that would leave me NO free time. I believe it's the Bahai faith that sees teaching (educators) as one of life's highest callings. I agree, and yet without a society that nurtures its citizens, only the VERY strong and born-to-remain inspired can keep pumping out the high "octane" fuel of passion when their own spirits are constantly being tested.

Mr. Obvious March 16th, 2008 6:16 pm

"OK - What planet are "conspiracy-thoery" folks from. Do you really think that smart or powerful people are afraid of a crop of well educated high-school graduates?"

If there are enough of them, they would be very afraid!

"Where do you get this stuff? If you cannot compete, blaim it on your training; poor parents and bad teachers. Its so easy to be the poor victim."

What generation are you from, Mr. Obvious? Apparently, like myself, you weren't a victim of the devestating changes in curriculum that took place in the public educational system, grades 1-12. In case you haven't noticed, over the past 20 years, many high school students have been graduating without reading and writing skills which would enable them to fill out a simple job application form.

Both of my nephews, after graduating from high school, have had to take post high school reading and writing courses to be able to fill out job applications. Does that not sound-off an alarm in your thoughtful "conspiracy theory" brain?

What planet are you from? Certainly not the one where school children are being left behind as a result of the stupid changes in curriculum policy!

Mr Obvious sez:

They are increasingly importing scientists from India and China, where mathematics, science and language are taught.

#################

I'm sorry to burst the bubble of your neocon worldview, but most imported workers on all levels from fruit pickers to engineers are required by American business for one reason--they work cheaper It's the same with women.

If women and foriegn workers organized and demanded the same wages and benefits that American workers expect, they would not be tolerated and all manner of "reasons" would be provided for their expulsion from the work place.

If allowed to continue to its logical conclusion, the US will become a peasent/land-owner society with no public education, since we wouldn't want the "little people" wasting productive years learning things that won't help them one whit to do their menial tasks producing wealth for the enjoyment and use by their masters.

When Americans can reject the mantra " even a slum kid can grow up to be president "( small case intended ) and embrace the Europe-wide socialist , egalitarian mantra of " we're all in this together , the best for the most and leaders live to serve not be served " will citizens begin to be truly educated .

then again most americans can't say the the word socialist without gagging never mind emmulating its attributes.

gdebs -- you are so on.

I just read for the first time John Steinbeck's The Moon is Down. In a college circumpolar 20th century history class of all places. It's a novella about the Nazi occupation of Norway. And if you substituted 'sand' for 'snow' and 'oil' for 'coal', and swapped a few other politically incorrect concepts, it would be such a timely read today. Plus its short and easy to read, also very adaptable for dramatic presentation.

Wonder how many US high schoolers have ever been introduced to it ? Teachers would probably be fired for leading reasonable discussion of the concepts presented.

As a high school junior in 1970, I wrote an essay called "The Genocide of the American Indian". This was so far removed from my mother's perceptual field that she was thrilled it 'earned' an A++, I tried to tell her the grade made no difference, it was the content that was important. With no luck.

In the (almost extinct, due to above) Hopi language, there are NO past, present or future verb tenses.
Imagine thinking in a language which does NOT code for the concept of linear time. I'm not sure that it is possible for those of us aculturated to the verb tense system of Indo-European languages.
What the Hopi tongue DOES code for is the concept of the Manifest, the Unmanifest, and a boundary zone where the frequency fields which inform our realm switch between the Manifest and Unmanifest states. The energy of INTENT determines what is in which realm. Each day is seen as a different manifestation of the SAME day. ( For more info, Google Benjamin Whorf. )

Well ! that takes care of evolution, creation, fear of life, fear of death, the 'past', the 'future' and a few other issues too. Guess we don't want a language like THAT informing our reality ! Wouldn't want anyone thinking that their INTENT generated the next cycle of Manifestation. That knowledge, in our own culture, seems to be reserved unto the truly malevolent.

No matter how we sugar-coat it, kids are educational chattel. And we are not doing them any favors by locking them into our worldview through 'education', no matter how well-intended. How many of us are willing to truly live in the non-linear realm of the Manifest and the Unmanifest ? The level of responsibility there is very high, the rule is to 'first, do no harm', and the rewards are unbelievable.

clearly children in impoverished communities are at a greater disadvantage (reflected by test scores and graduation rates). we need to respect the rights of all children whether they're rich or poor.

rural and urban areas that can't raise property taxes for education naturally will score lower on achievement tests. we need equitable federal/state funding of education.

schools create good consumers, social deviants are categorized and punished in schools. schools flush out the uncooperative. there's a great article i read at the guardian yesterday. a proposition to gather DNA samples from primary school students who exhibit deviant behavior in school; as a tool for the police to match evidence w/ dna samples in data banks. scotland yard is convinced criminals display behavior in elementary school that would lead to criminal behavior later in life.

only time before quoting marx in school could be considered socially deviant)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/mar/16/youthjustice.children

.....peace......

Siouxrose got it - the corporations have taken over the schools and are training your kids to be unquestioning, compliant little wage slaves. Other things, as well - schools set up and sponsored by corporate interests are using the kids to sell and test consumer products. Yes, they get pulled out of class to do the product testing. Also, the students are assigned a number by which coporations can track them in their consumer and life choices. I don't know why or how the whole continent (Canada, too)got sucked into this - well, the "how" has an answer - somebody "created a crisis" (a la shock doctrine) by grafting false problems onto the education system, and of course, the ever-helpful, socially-conscious and altruistic business interests leapt into the breach to "solve" the problem they had planted in the public mind. Mostly what happened is that things that were funded before, were no longer funded, and as a result, every available surface in the school was covered with advertising to bring in money. Worse - how crucial is a pixel board? - the entire student body got herded into the auditorium to watch a film presentation on self-esteem and mental health, which turned out to be nothing more than a 90-minute commercial for Pepsi in this case; all soda and snack machines and the school cafeteria were from Pepsi companies. (The marketing idea is, get'em early and you've got'em for life.) Now, that's education! Why our politicians, most of whom are parents, and our schoolboards, most of whom are parents, allowed this betrayal to take place I'll never understand.

When the business model chatter started to ooze into the classroom, I had to retire early - tool box, stakeholder, paradigm shift, and the killer word - rubric (every interaction reduced to a statistical chart; interactions that can't be reduced are not entertained). Those poor kids were begging for an interaction, a relationship, an activity that did not have as its goal the placement in a future career. Every subject seemed to have been reduced to how it would make the kids fit into some business culture. Those unhappy young people still remembered a time when they were treated like valued human beings. The later ranks see everything in terms of expediency and have a much more cynical view of the education experience. Authenticity is gone. The new shallowness even harms how they relate to each other and to others in their community.

Scary to me is how closely schools and prisons resemble each other today. Armed guards, sniffer dogs, metal detectors, and some really insane one-flew-over-the- cuckoo's-nest type of administration and supervision make graduation from high school to prison a smooth transition. Perfect - look at New Orleans - the work gang that works for cigarette money and no benefits, at the beck and call of corrupt corrections and city officials. Why you lost your job - your duties are being performed by prison inmates - think about that when you next reserve a flight anywhere.

And no, poor fool, the foreign workers hired by the company that fired you are not better educated - 10 of them are cheaper than one of you.

I used to love watching kids get excited about Julius Caesar, feel outrage at the injustice in the Merchant of Venice, or see their adolescent struggles for personal sovereignty in Romeo and Juliet. I had kids thank me for grammar lessons that they didn't get anywhere else - yes, thank me for teaching grammar - verb tenses, for crying out loud. They wanted to know these things so they could harness their power to their own dreams.

Those days are gone - those people are gone. Nowadays, too many young journalists can no longer master simple spelling and grammar, nevermind verb forms and tenses- careless and shallow reliance on spelling and grammar checkers always exposes the ignorant.

All the testing is just a soul-killer that fits into the larger corporate scheme of creating an ignorant, unquestioning slave/consumer class.

"The ones who do not pass are likely to have a different first language, have testing anxiety, or have a learning disability. "

Well, duh. Also in the news: students with no legs are graded as having "failed" the high jump exam, shock horror.

I'm sorry. Sincere as this posting is, I can't help but think of that TV stunt where they went out on the street and asked ordinary americans to think of a country starting with the letter 'U'. Bunches of facts? Maybe - but before you can "learn to think", you have to have something to think *about*. Sure, NCLB is clumsy and heavy handed. But putting a little *content* into the curriculum is not unnecessarily a bad thing.

Won't it be great, when the Jocks have to drop out, and the colleges simply can't get players? They might have to go back to being educational rather than sporting institutions.

formernadervoter: Notice how a great education is not part of the presidential campaign currently being stage managed by corporate media and their associates in the three remaining campaigns?

Yes and I also notice how some 90% of American voters seem enthusiastic to vote one of the three capitalist puppets who took great education "off the table" in their campaigns. There isn't any issue really "on the table" in their campaigns except which puppet is going to serve its capitalist masters most dutifully. As for the kids educations, those are being "shaped" to deliver future votes for the capitalist puppets.

Of course each of us can simply revolt against the capitalist establishment in the voting booth and write in our favorite third party progressive.

Hondo: This current generation of kids sees the writing on the wall. Where is the promise for their generation?

The promise for the new generation is in localism. Localism covers all bases by focusing the people's energy on building their individual and local economic, political and social power. It's a double benefit because not only are people feeding themselves they are starving the capitalist parasites at the same time. So the new generation learns how to learn naturally, which you can see in books like People of the Deer, the best way is to learn by doing. And the new generation chooses occupations that serve their local economy, and they reach outside their local communities for the right reasons - to explore rather than for the wrong reasons - to exploit. Localism enhances local culture so exploring becomes that much more interesting. Localism preserves the biosphere so there is more to explore there too. So just as long as the power is kept spread out among all of the local communities, you can't go wrong because people will figure everything out for themselves and create their own promise when they are emancipated from the capitalist parasites.

Localism is great up to a certain scale. Globalization creates a system where countries rely on one another which helps prevent world wars. Both localism and globalization can work together, but pure localism creates distrust of outsiders and eventual conflict. This is the history of mankind, whether you like it or not.

Mr. Obvious March 17th, 2008 6:05 am

"Both localism and globalization can work together, but pure localism creates distrust of outsiders and eventual conflict."

Localism and globalization have the "potential" to work together only if the playing field is fair - which it is not!

http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/1209
http://www.economyincrisis.org/articles/show/1207

As a result, the world is seeing the development of a second generation of the Cold War as growing countries like China and Russia, among others, are increasing their military capabilities on every level. This doesn't sound like a scenario where countries are working together.

One would have to ask why this is taking place if globalization is creating trust.

Gail - The question is whether mutual reliance based on trade is helping or hurting. I never said it was a complete solution, just that it seems like a part of the solution. We can see how isolationism in trade has worked in the past.

Mr Obvious - needs to open his eyes and look around for himself. When he says, "Globalization creates a system where countries rely on one another which helps prevent world wars." he is ignoring the most blatant evidence of the falsehood of his claim. Since the globalization mantra began to be heard, the world has been involved in more warfare, and more violent and intense warfare than ever before. Simply put,"globalization" is the new term for "empire". It's merely a re-jargoning of an age-old concept.

Mr. O., you are allowing yourself to be blinded by political fairy tales. Please open your eyes. There is hope for you, however; reading lefty news sites should help.

MEDUSA & ALASKA MAID: Fascinating posts.

The things is that education--the desire for the one with knowledge to pass it on (often to the young) is such an inborn trait that it's even a biological equivalent imprint in animals. We will never lose the creative ways and means to maintain this process. America has accepted the corporate ethos in EVERY aspect of its templates for living... but this, too, shall pass. The sinking banks are part 1 of the implosion of a paradigm that places the sacred last, and mammon and militarism first. This hubris is anathema to Divine Law and Principle. As DOOM & GLOOM and others have related, it's time to start living simply and learn to grow some food. I am doing likewise...

How to solve the problem of America's public education system?

Theory #1: The problem is the parents.

This is a common complaint from teachers, decrying a lack of parental participation in the education of their children. But consider: the government (not parents) decides when your children will begin going to school, how long they must go to school, how many hours per day they must spend there, where they will go to school, what they will be taught and by whom they will be taught. Although parents have no input into any of these decisions, the government sets up legal consequences for parents who fail to comply with the rules and then forces both parents and non-parents to fund the system through taxation. Because, apparently, a full day of being "educated" isn't enough, students are inundated with volumes of "homework." Taking no account of changing demographics (i.e., the government/educators are apparently unaware of the significant increase in households where both parents work, single-parent households where the adult often holds more than one job, families with multiple children, or households where grandparents are raising the kids), parents are expected to assist their children with what is often the equivalent of another full day's worth of educational activities. (I recall carrying a couple of books back and forth to school. Now, kids practically need luggage with wheels to lug all their stuff.) Parents who are unable to do this are accused of being lazy or of not caring about their child's education. In a system that, by design, completely excludes parents from the decision-making process, it seems rather unfair to then blame parents for the failures of the system itself.

Theory #2: The problem is funding.

The common war cry of the failing monopoly..."Just give us more money and everything will be fine!" Nationwide, the United States spends nearly $10,000 per pupil each year, far out-spending all other industrialized nations. And yet, American children are consistently out-performed by students from around the world, even those from countries far less developed than ours. On the Third International Math and Science Test, of the 21 countries participating only Cyprus and South Africa scored lower than the United States. When test scores are measured against per-capita education spending, the U.S. has seen a 71% decrease in education productivity between 1960 and 1994. There is absolutely no evidence to support the argument that increasing education funding will improve the performance of our public education system.

Theory #3: The problem is the kids (aka, "When all else fails, blame the victim").

Another common complaint is that today's children are just not motivated, or have become lazy through the excessive use of technology, or are so poorly raised by their parents that they are unwilling to submit to authority at school or conform to school decorum. The response of the educational community to this problem is to exert an even greater level of control over children, turning schools into minature penitentiaries replete with armed security, metal detectors, classrooms that lock down when the bell rings and disciplinary rules more reflective of a military boot camp than a institution of learning. Children who are incapable of enduring the hours of boredom are medicated into submission and/or relegated to the "special" education class (a stigma that they will carry always). It is beyond the paradigm of the educational community to consider that the educational system in its present form has remained essentially unchanged since its conception. Unlike the children it serves, it has failed to evolve. Children growing up in a fast-moving age of computers, instant information, and the visually and mentally stimulating images that saturate their every waking moment, and who are then forced to sit in silence for hours at a time in a sterile environment while listening to an adult droning on about a subject that has no relevance in their day-to-day lives...the behavioral result is pretty predictable. I would submit that the children have outgrown the system, and blaming them for the institution's failure to evolve is disingenuous at best.

So, how to solve the problem of America's education system?

1. Eliminate compulsion after grade seven.

2. Eliminate the tax-based funding system.

3. Make public schooling freely available to anyone of any age.

3. Provide each child below a certain income level with a tuition voucher so that parents can select the public school of their choice. Since the cost of home schooling is significantly less, parents who choose this option should receive a reduced amount to cover those costs. Low income adults who wish to complete their education should also be eligible for a voucher. The Federal government should provide an annual education budget to be divided among all the nation's public schools using a formula based upon population of students served, with the funds to be used for building and maintainence. Forcing schools to compete for parents and students creates an incentive for them to improve and offer the kind of services their customers want. Under our current system, there is no such incentive and the results speak for themselves.

Testing=teaching to the test and the purposeful organized dumbing down of American children by arrogant elites which want to keep them ignorant so they don't turn into adults who question authority and bring positive change and hold the elites accountable. GRRR

grumpyoldlady --

Yes, kids HAVE outgrown the system, but the system is both so afraid for itself and for what the kids might become, plus it is so entrenched that it is difficult to realize that the deep fear we feel is a projection of the system itself. Not just in education or economics, but across the board. And not just a new or local phenomena, but a very ancient and general system which has persisted in one form or another for longer than we can imagine. Shades of the Matrix . . .

Local economies combined with global communications technology may be the way out. One time, a friend showed me some mushrooms (don't know what kind) which were literally growing up through a slab of asphalt ! Apparently they secreted some kind of enzyme which dissolved the asphalt. There they were, a whole patch of them (and no, the asphalt wasn't already cracked, you could see where it had crumbled away from the mushrooms as they emerged), growing in all their glory. I thought that was a good metaphor for many things. In our case, maybe hope is the enzyme ?

Yesterday while volunteering at our Ice Park (here in Fairbanks AK we have a big spring festival with all kinds of ice carvings -- one year someone did Michaelangelo's 'David', all out of ice -- really fun ice slides, etc -- check out for some great photos, especially of the sculptures lit up at night) Anyway, while volunteering a couple came in with a baby about a year old who looked at me with eyes that knew EVERYTHING. These are the kids from Arthur Clarke's "Childhood's End".
Our job is to meet their REAL needs (NOT our own needs, for education, or whatever, projected onto them), and then get OUT of their way. If we give them the chance, they will be there for us in ways we can't even imagine. But we must give them that chance.

grumpyoldlady - Enzymes would not desolve asphalt. What you witnessed is the increadible power of one of the fastest growing tissues in nature. This amazing growth can push though asphalt in the same way a tree root can - just a lot faster.

If teachers want to teach and the local administration allows them to, then the "system" will not stop them. Good teachers teach. Some of us ended up learning quite a lot in spite of all the gloom and doom. Maybe parents play a little role in this? Perhaps bad teachers are an unfortunate foretelling of what they can expect from some people during the rest of their lives.

blueapples - My children (12 and 13) think for themselves, and they certainly don't get their philosophy from teachers. Maybe you should spend time with your kids. Most people are sheep, but there are plenty of free thinkers also.

The one and only purpose of high stakes testing is the gradual for profit outsourcing of the public education system at taxpayer expense to private corporation through the states. Didn't you know?