American kids, dumber than dirt

The major problem in our current educational system is our overreliance on standardized testing. Many states now have tests that everyone has to pass in high school to graduate that really are not accurate measures of intelligence. These tests take the focus off individual teaching, and the course material becomes geared to pass these tests, thus compromising what should be tought.

And unfortunately the emphasis on testing often comes as a substitute for funding that is needed.

 

But that's the beauty of it: standardize testing to placate the interested parties, while putting no money into programs. "No Child Left." Brilliant!

 

I can't disagreewith any of those points and knew I had oversimplified that point as soon as I clicked 'post.' But I was out the door and couldn't run back and edit my hastily-posted thought.

 

For all the columnist's shots at public schools, this year we switched our kids from Catholic to public and couldn't be happier. And this would be, by test scores, a district considered middle-of-the-road.

 

jmacg, I'll see your YouTube and raise you this:

 

It was unnecessary, sure, but would you have also stopped reading if he had blamed the decline of our civilization on the absence of prayer in public schools? Because I've seen that point being made plenty of times, too, and, frankly, I think I see it a lot more than people dissing Christians.

 

Another problem is that most states have tests, and school systems pressure schools to do well. The result is that teachers are teaching to the test to a fault.

 

I wonder if columnist took a shot at the Oakland school board when they passed their resolution back in 1996 declaring Ebonics a language of its own.

 

Hmmmmm, some of the same people trying to make an argument on another thread that government-owned and operated schools aren't really that bad are now on here trying to explain what the problem is.

Again, the problem is that public schools are run by the government and until that changes, this argument is silly.....

 

And yet, there's no other good way to gauge knowledge on a broad scale than to test it in a standardized way.

Crappy catch 22 in soooo many ways.

My only solution? Read to your kids and turn the television off.

 

No. I'm not a big prayer-inc-schools guy. I just think it was an unnecessary insertion of the writer's personal feelings where it wasn't warranted. And I do realize it was a column, where that is more acceptable.

 

Yes, public schools are run by the government - hence the name. Local government, mostly.

Thus I can only assume - as often as you complain here about schools - that you've taken matters into your own hands and become a member of your local school board.