I don’t know why my head didn’t blow up with this one. Maybe I’m building up resistance. (Is that good or bad?)
PS 120 in Flushing, Queens, held a carnival for its students last week during school hours, with nearly 900 kids, pre-K to fifth-grade, taking turns in 45 minutes shifts. There were inflatable slides, a space-bounce, rides,popcorn, ices, music and more. It also cost parents $10, and if they didn’t pay, their kids were forced to sit in the auditorium and listen to their richer classmates having fun.
Now the carnival operator is offering to hold a repeat for the excluded children. “If I had known that there were kids not allowed to attend the carnival, I would have paid for them,” he now says. That’s nice (and smart PR), but the damage is done.
All the teachers, administrators, the PTA and the principal involved in planning this event, and not one had the functioning ethics alarm to say, “WHAT? We can’t exclude kids who can’t pay. That’s unfair and cruel.” Wow.
Find another way to fund the event. Find a sponsor. Tell the parents who can pay that they will also be paying for poorer families that cannot. Cancel the event, but whatever you do, you can’t punish kids because their parents can’t or won’t pay ten dollars.
Oh—the school made a nice profit on the carnival!
People this incompetent and lacking in compassion and common sense shouldn’t be allowed alone with children, much trusted to teach them.
___________________________
Pointer: Fred
Ethics Alarms 
Scum.
Things are looking up in De Blasio’s People’s Republic of New York. They’ve re-discovered profit incentive! What a great lesson in corporate/municipal/academic politics for young children who might seek to become community organizers… and president! As for those poorer kids, that poetry session from the works of Alan Ginsberg likely served to expand their little horizons.
I don’t often say this to posts on this blog, but…YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME?! How could ANY adult, let alone one who is supposedly an education professional be this mean-spirited, callous and outright cruel. Wait a minute, a light is dawning…public schools, at least in New York, are mostly run by Liberals, yes? Same people who support Hillary for President? Never mind, I withdraw the question.
My child’s school does this sort of thing all the time. I always send double the money with a note stating the rest is for a classmate who didn’t bring any money that day.
Oddly enough, when I was in high school, lo these many years ago, we had three carnivals, Halloween, Christmas and Easter. There was no charge to get into them whatsoever, but each booth could and did charge for their services/product. You know, like any other carnival on the planet.
From the Curmudgeon Files:
How about instead of the Carnival, every child is in his or her desk memorizing the multiplication tables up to 12 x 12?
That’s a better idea for occupying time paid for by my taxes.
Off topic:
It serious chaps my ass how pussified education has become. WAH WAH rote memorization is sooooo boring, we’ll never be able to get to kids that way!!!
Boo F-ing Hoo.
I checked what level my daughter was at in multiplication as they are doing that this year, and I was informed that she was up to 8’s. So I quizzed her: what is 5 x 6?
Expecting a quick, confident, instinctive and IMMEDIATE: “30”, I was flabbergasted, when 10 seconds later she was still plodding through some esoteric or black magic calculations in her head. I asked her what was taking so long and she tried to explain some ridiculously stupid common-core technique for calculating 5 x 6.
Here’s an idea: You shouldn’t have to calculate 5 x 6. It should be instinctive and memorized.
Agreed.
A favorite family story about my endlessly challenging and contrary son: He went to a private elementary school, and students were given badges for each of the multiplication tables they successfully memorized. My son simply refused to be tested for the badges. For years. Finally, one day, he just walked into the principal’s office and ran down them all, rapid fire, which he had known all along. She was bemused, and asked him why he had been so stubborn. Why didn’t he want to get awarded his badges at the various assemblies?
She called us, laughing, to record his response. He said, in the third grade, “I don’t need no stinking badges!”
It’s all my fault.
We did memorize them in class by listening to records, I even remember the 8s table had a piratical theme to it, but the ones that have stuck with me were Schoolhouse Rock. Who can help but remember the psychedelic “Three Is a Magic Number” or the Motown-influenced “I Got Six?”
From the professor who I call an education philosopher:
Steve Dutch’s university website
I remember those! “8 x 5 is forrrrrrrttttyyy.” Yo ho.
Stubbornness runs in the family!
My wife says that wise-ass runs in the family.
She’s right, too!
Well done!
I was very perplexed to learn that one teacher had flippantly told her students just google a question to get the answer.
I found this out, when my daughter asked “Was Robinson Crusoe real or not?”
I said “Look it up”
“Can’t you just tell me?”
“No, because someday I won’t be around to tell you answers, now look it up”
*grumble*
So I see her typing in to Google: “Was Robinson Crusoe real or not?”
That’s when I found out what her teacher said, and that’s when she learned from ME how to look something up.
So I got her to an article on Robinson Crusoe and we read through it until she FOUND her answer AS WELL AS A DOZEN OTHER INTERESTING THINGS TO KNOW.
You know that’s going to get her to read way too much… Next thing she will be sneaking a flashlight under the covers and reading until 3 AM on nights before school. Madness lies that way…
Not that I ever did that or got in trouble for falling asleep in class, no sir!
Yep, she probably wouldn’t get in any real trouble if I caught her staying up after lights out reading with a flashlight.
Internet research however:
http://www.cracked.com/funny-6646-wikipedia-freefall/
Start out reading about the Thompson Submachine Gun, and 6 hours later, bladder set to explode, you realize you are learning about the Australian Snubfin Dolphin…along the way you trekked through Pre-Independence Politics of Spanish-Mexico and the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict in central Europe with a smattering of how Julia Stiles spent her youth…you don’t know how you managed to get through all that…
But, you realize that, your alarm set to go off in 2 hours, sleep is a wasted effort and decide to continue…
Ha! I’ve totally been there. (As recently as last night…man, am I tired right now.)
I can relate. Since I started taking Coursera classes I have to deal with that “one more video” urge. Not last night, but the one before.
Fantastic. What goes around comes around. In spades.
You let him watch “Blazing Saddles” didn’t you?
I did.
He must have been the one who shot the Waco Kid in the butt.
Keyboard: $22.95 at Staples. On sale.
I’ve got a Staples card, Jack. Can I be of assistance?
Three stereotypical Mexican bandits signing up for Whiplashes crew. Right behind the Wehrmacht soldiers, if I recall.
I was one of the Klansmen. I’m sure everyone knew that already.
It sure was with me. I was drilled in it over and over… and guess what? It’s still with me more than half a century later! I can figure things in my old, musty brain- or longer equations on paper- while the kids are still fumbling for their electronic gimmicks. For harder stuff… well, I’ll bet none of them ever heard of an ingenious invention called a slide rule. Batteries NOT included!
I can think of reasons to exclude kids from an event like this, like misbehavior, but it just seems like not a lot of thought went into this.
“Tell the parents who can pay that they will also be paying for poorer families that cannot.”
Then you run into problems of deciding who can pay and who can’t…
Here’s the solution:
Do you want your kid to go to the carnival?
Yes: Then pay
No: Then they don’t have to come to school today.
Here’s the actual solution:
Sitting the kids’ little derrieres in desks and forcing them to memorize the scientific method, or maybe the Noble Gasses (or whatever age appropriate topic is available).
Jack,
Not that I disagree, but am curious, then, what your take is on field trips and other supplementary outings which (at least in my experience growing up) usually require extra compensation from students as well. Or, even more extreme, senior class trips. Would you consider those unethical as well?
I only ask because I’m curious where (and if) you’d draw the line. One could make the claim that, since such trips take place off school grounds, extra costs MUST be added owing to increased liability and logistics but, at the same time, they do create something of a “privileged class” (no pun intended).
Best,
Neil
If they fulfill actual educational goals, then they should be budgeted into the tax payer’s contribution to education.
If they don’t fulfill actual educational goals, then they shouldn’t happen.
That’s a really easy razor.
texagg04,
My question wasn’t directed at you and would ask that you henceforth refrain from offering input when you’re not the one being engaged. You have every right to comment to your hearts content (and I don’t begrudge it), but please (I’m sincerely asking) don’t direct any of them at me. I have no interest in carrying on discussion with you.
Best,
Neil
PS: College was how many years ago for you? Your pseudonym reminds me of former high school athletes who continue to wear their letterman jackets in college as if they still matter.
1) You’re an idiot.
2) This is a forum that Jack runs rather publicly, he does, as is his right, have certain rules, I may have missed the one that says we can’t respond to comments when we think we have a useful contribution regardless to whom the original comment is addressed.
3) I will do my very best to comment on EVERY SINGLE one of your posts to which I have a useful contribution. I may miss a few. If you don’t want to discuss: It’s easy. Don’t discuss. However, I love discussing, so I won’t stop. You Lefties pretend like you want open discussion with multiple viewpoints, when in reality, you don’t.
4) Nice sign off, an indication that you have no capacity for mature, rational discussion. My choice of screen name indicates nothing to you. Idiot.
texagg04,
I never resorted to name calling (save one potshot with regard to your choice of moniker) and all I asked was you direct nothing at me. Not that you refrain from commenting, censor the content, or otherwise even suggest your point of view was flawed (as I actually agree with you more often than not. Where do you get “lefty” from?) — merely that I find your style discourteous and that I would prefer we keep our contact as indirect as possible.
This would be akin to my asking a professor’s opinion with regard to something, only to be subjected to your thoughts on the matter first. It’s an open forum and a free society and, as such, I have no malice towards you, I just don’t like you. That’s all I said. What about that calls for direct insult and larger assumptions about my worldview?
Sincerely,
Neil
Trivia:
You can tell when Tex is pissed off: he uses the dreaded four-letter word “whom.” … In order to experience truly incendiary interference with one’s communications, one would have to recall Master Meatshield, unfortunately long since a stoned throw away.
The “new” math sucks. It was an inane effort to keep up with the international Joneses. By the time the whole system was overhauled – teacher training, textbooks, the cost of a minor military engagement, the lot – it was way too late to change back, even had anyone the guts to do it. The only help for it is to make a game out of memorizing arithmetic outside school.
Update: The carny owner gets no credit at all. He made his statement of retroactive generosity AFTER the newspaper articles had already produced the reader-donations that inevitably follow them. By now, the left-outs not only have their special carnival day but have been guaranteed coverage for any other treats that come around. Which will now, no doubt, rightfully upset the parents who DID come up with the $10, especially the ones who had to scrape to do it.
And then there’s the shame at least some of the parents will feel that their kids’ classmates didn’t share the outing. And then there’s the divisive character created now or at least exacerbated between classmates and – perhaps – friends in this city in the borough of Queens. . . . the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world.
I think that you charge to cover costs, and let everyone go. Many schools don’t have this kind of stratification. If an educational event is so expensive that many families can’t afford it, then it should not be in the curriculum.
Ah — you posted before me.
Careful Beth, Neil didn’t specifically request a response from you. He’s liable to come unhinged and emotionally unstable and cry to you that someone on a public forum answered him as though he’s immune from such responses.
Just a fair warning.
Is that a trigger warning. Whoa, Trigger, Whoa. Easy boy.There.
Thank you, Tex. I was considering a response to Mr. Dorr’s req…uh, DEMAND but held off, since it was addressed to you. I was a bit curious as to when Jack had passed away and left Dorr in charge of who can respond to whom in such a forum, and when. Seemed a bit presumptuous to me.
Well, apparantly Mr. Dorr’s policy isn’t consistent, because Beth has yet to receive a similar admonition, that or he hasn’t logged on since she posted. So you may be safe as well. That, or like most Leftists, he doesn’t like the input of non-Left Wingers.
I didn’t reply in substance — if I had, perhaps I would have been admonished as well.
I know.
Hate to say it, but I really don’t care if I’m safe from Mr. Dorr. I’m not going to engage him at any level.
Of course, the first reaction is “Yech.” Then I thought about this some more — this is illustrative of bigger inequities within the public schools.
Thinking back, I remember countless fees for senior trips, band trips, drama trips, quiz bowl trips (yes, I was a geek people — move along), the senior trip to an amusement park, etc. Anyway, for those kids who either didn’t come up with the money or weren’t given permission, they had to go to school anyway. And because most of the kids were on the trip, they usually just sent the left-over kids go to the library or gym for the day.
Ignore the field trips for a moment — what if the kid wants to be in a sport? In just about every school, that is going to involve an equipment fee, track fee, rink fee, etc. I remember my family getting together the money to buy me a new instrument — that was a big deal because we were poor. Every child still has to supply his own school supplies as well.
If you want to complain about school fairs being a ridiculous waste of time — I’d probably agree unless it was a one-time end of year event. I think it’s okay for the kids to celebrate the end of school together. This one does seem especially stupid given that the kids only got to enjoy the fair for 45 minutes. The PTA should have raised the money and put on the fair that they could afford, and not have excluded kids.
Also, if you want to complain that schools aren’t adequately funded, I’d probably agree with you there as well. I’m not saying that we should just throw money at every school problem but there are certain areas (art, music, sports) where activities are being cut because there aren’t enough resources. Many schools can’t even afford to buy new textbooks.
My kids’ school (a private school) just held a fundraiser that involved a fair. We charged a $10 admittance fee. Granted, it was on a weekend, so attendance was not compulsory. The money raised was used for capital improvements.
“inequities within the public schools.
Since education isn’t actually a “right” (regardless of how “ick factor” that sounds), then this actually isn’t a problem…
Additionally, there is no problem with school funding…the problem is where the funding goes.
Mostly towards bloated Bureaucracies and overpaid (YES OVERPAID) teachers who have NO accountability (a major component of why they are overpaid) nor are they really involved in education, rather teaching to pass a singular state administered test (another reason why they are overpaid).
Once the States and Congress decided to fund it, they have a duty to do so responsibly and as equitably as much as possible. Whether or not it is a right is irrelevant to this discussion.
Re your second point, many schools DO have a problem with funding. There just isn’t enough tax dollars to finance the demand. Your statement is hardly true across the board. And, of course, there are schools that spend irresponsibly and other schools (like some in DC) where the spending is high but the schools still are failing. There are complicated reasons for this, but usually private schools contribute to it. The wealthy send their kids to private school. (I’m not throwing stones — I’m contributing to this problem.)
How much do you think a qualified teacher should make? I’m really curious. In Fairfax County, VA — known as one of the best school districts in the US — a starting salary is $46,700. After a mere 15 years of experience, a teacher can earn $66,000. In this area, that means that you better come from money, are married to money, or you REALLY like group housing until you retire. http://www.fcps.edu/hr/salary/pdf/fy15/FY15Nov194dayTeacher.pdf
http://www.zillow.com/fairfax-county-va/home-values/
“Once the States and Congress decided to fund it, they have a duty to do so responsibly and as equitably as
much as possible.”
Whatever that means to a Leftist.
“Whether or not it is a right is irrelevant to this discuss”
Actually very relevant, because it changes expectations as well as methods of disbursement as well as whether or
not it’s a particular level of governments ethical business to handle. Often, unethical decisions cause follow
on scenario in which further decisions have no ethical option. Much like the carnival above. It isn’t the
school’s business to be running a carnival on a school day. BAM, follow on decisions have no ethical options
available.
“And, of course, there are schools that spend irresponsibly and other schools (like some in DC) where the
spending is high but the schools still are failing.”
If the government is spending, there is an 80% likelihood it is irresponsible. And, if you haven’t checked, as
a results per $ spent ratio, EVERY school in America is failing. Have you seen the crap being produced?
“There are complicated reasons for this, but usually private schools contribute to it. The wealthy send their
kids to private school.”
So the wealthy are able to opt out of the taxes that contribute to public schools?
“How much do you think a qualified teacher should make? I’m really curious.”
Let’s actually analyze that question within the comment I made, which is, given the current conditions and
standards of the Education “industry”, teacher ARE overpaid. There is no Free Market competition with teaching.
They are protected by unions from any form of real accountability when they pass off woefully ignorant buffoons
to the next grade level. They are compelled to teach increasingly centralized curricula as well as follow
increasingly centralized and monitored step-by-step teaching regimens and methods. Before long, and nearly there, teachers will merely be automatons executing the decisions of central planners. Last I check, in EVERY industry in which a worker merely executes the tasks of other people’s decisions, they make McDonald’s wages…not Union-cajoled Democrat-Party-syphoned salaries.
Free of counter-competitive forces, I could care less how much teachers make if they are free to teach and teach well. But they aren’t, are they?
You see, the solution isn’t more money. I know you Lefties think that solves all problems. When an Amtrak train crashes, it needs more money. When stimulus doesn’t work, it needs more money. When welfare increases poverty, it needs more money.
Guess what, in the real world, when plans and projects fail…they get defunded and people get replaced and the new people are told: fix this problem if you want to see more money.
Incentive.
“In Fairfax County, VA — known as one of the best school districts in the US — a starting
salary is $46,700. After a mere 15 years of experience, a teacher can earn $66,000. In this area, that means
that you better come from money, are married to money, or you REALLY like group housing until you retire.”
This is a Boo F-ing Hoo line, typical socialist-lite rant. We all make the decisions to pursue the careers that “fulfill” us in life and we accept that those decisions may not lead to “fabulous” wealth. I’m not making the kind of money I could make if I’d stayed in the Army or if I’d stuck with engineering. But I’m not bitching or moaning. I made my decisions and I’m content.
Cost of Living increases, by the way, wouldn’t be nearly as bad if we didn’t have idiotic Keynesian policies combined with the Democrat-BigBusiness complex, sending prices through the roof.
Spare me the “teachers don’t make enough to live comfortably” lines.
This, by far, is one of your weakest responses. So much so, I wonder if even you are convinced.
1. “Whatever that means to a leftist.” Deflection at best. No substance.
2. Regarding your “right” discussion, I can only conclude from your drivel that you somehow see public education as unethical. I can’t even imagine how much further we would sink in world status if a country as populous as ours didn’t educate our youth.
3. “If the government is spending, there is an 80% likelihood it is irresponsible.” More rhetoric — no substance. Not even a cite.
4. “So the wealthy are able to opt out of the taxes that contribute to public schools?” Again — deflection. I was explaining why some public schools are failing, but you turned it into a tax discussion. But to answer your question — “No.”
5. Then you get into your unions are evil BS — deflection again. My example of Fairfax County highlights one of the best school districts in the United States. Parents happily pay $1 M (for a fixer-upper) so their kids can go to these world-class public schools. So, even in Tex World, these teachers should be paid a premium compared to other school districts where the schools are failing.
6. Re my “boo-hooing rant,” please get over yourself. This is a prime example why I wonder why Jack lauds you so much here. I don’t know, perhaps it’s just your words per minute that he admires. There are certain public servants — even ones in Tex World — where we need to recognize that they need to be paid more. What are those jobs? Police, teachers, firemen/women — to name some obvious ones. What would happen if we paid these people more? Better and more-qualified people would take those jobs. And, if that happened, we could get rid of the unions and fire those who are incompetent.
“This, by far, is one of your weakest responses. So much so, I wonder if even you are convinced.”
And in typical Leftist fashion, we start out with an immediate disregard of the argument. It’s easy ignoring the words written (which you ultimately do, as your follow on commentary indicates) when you sit on the high-horse of “progressivism”.
“1. “Whatever that means to a leftist.”
Deflection at best. No substance.
As a matter of fact, it is distinctly relevant. As your typical Leftist finds fairness in equal outcomes and mathematically equal distributions of resources, whereas your typical Right-winger finds fairness in outcomes based on effort/merit/skill in proportion to starting points.
“2. Regarding your “right” discussion, I can only conclude from your drivel that you somehow see public education as unethical.”
At this juncture, ordinarily, I would recommend enrolling in remedial reading comprehension classes, I would recommend 4th or 5th grade level based on your demonstrated skill-set. But I will assume you are being willfully obtuse out of laziness.
Let’s make this elementary:
My clear statements indicate that:
our government is composed of different levels of administration- you can read that in my phrase: “a particular level of government”
that at each of those levels you find the best repository for certain governmental tasks- you can read that in my phrase: “ethical business to handle”
And, grinding all of your logical gears in unison, you can then derive that I mean:
At some levels, public education IS NOT the business of government and that, at some levels, public education *might be* the business of government, should the various localities decide so.
”I can’t even imagine how much further we would sink in world status if a country as populous as ours didn’t educate our youth.”
This is a strawman follow up since you pretended not to comprehend what I said, but it is a useful foil for me to say:
I can very much imagine how much farther we WILL sink in the world if we keep going the insanely stupid route the Lefties want us to go.
”3. “If the government is spending, there is an 80% likelihood it is irresponsible.” More rhetoric — no substance. Not even a cite.”
Here’s a short list.
That’s just a short list of modern examples, and only from the national level of government.
I personally witnessed, being in several parts of the bureaucracy, the advice given by senior managers, when budget time came around:
Start buying anything and everything you can, whether or not you need it, otherwise our budget may be cut next year.
Sickening.
4. “So the wealthy are able to opt out of the taxes that contribute to public schools?”
Again — deflection. I was explaining why some public schools are failing, but you turned it into a tax discussion. But to answer your question — “No.”
Not a deflection, let’s do some reading comprehension lessons again + some extra credit in logic:
This is a topic of funding, you even said so. You stated that the wealthy pulling out of public schools harms the public school. In the context of funding, this must mean that somehow the wealthy no longer fund public schools. Hence my logically derived question:
So the wealthy are able to opt out of the taxes that contribute to public schools?
Could you answer it now please, and not be the actual source of deflection, this time?
”5. Then you get into your unions are evil BS”
Did I say they were evil? Or did I mention they are a source of both increased education costs + a protection against teacher accountability, all of which reduces the value of teachers while simultaneously increasing the cost of teachers. Now, I know you know basic economics.
Maybe you don’t, so here: When something’s value decreases, while you pay more for it, YOU ARE WASTING MONEY ON OVERPAID RESOURCES. Ding ding!
Watch this: If I am the primary producer of finished product for my company and I am nearly 100% protected from firing, then I turn around and don’t produce the best product combined with having the backing to force wage increases, is my company really really stupid for having such an arrangement? Or are they the government?
” So, even in Tex World, these teachers should be paid a premium compared to other school districts where the schools are failing.”
So actually that bolsters Tex World’s claim that money isn’t the solution to the educational woes facing our nation…
Try again!
”6. Re my “boo-hooing rant,” please get over yourself. This is a prime example why I wonder why Jack lauds you so much here. I don’t know, perhaps it’s just your words per minute that he admires.”
I didn’t gather that you had anything constructive or intelligent to say.
”There are certain public servants — even ones in Tex World — where we need to recognize that they need to be paid more. What are those jobs? Police, teachers, firemen/women — to name some obvious ones. What would happen if we paid these people more? Better and more-qualified people would take those jobs.”
I know you Leftists can’t see past materialism one iota. But I’ll say it again…amount of money thrown at problems isn’t the issue. The issue is accountability and competition. Everything woefully lacking in ANY GOVERNMENT employment arrangement as long as Lefties are in control.
” And, if that happened, we could get rid of the unions and fire those who are incompetent.”
Sigh…
Regarding your list, none of those expenditures reflect inappropriate school spending (you know, the subject of this post) nor does it support your statement that overall, 80% of all government spending is irresponsible.
Again, with your idiot tax question. Schools are harmed when the wealthy (typically smart people) don’t send their wealthy kids (also smart) to public schools. Schools still get the tax dollars, but if only the under-performing kids go, then the school doesn’t do as well. Also, if there are not enough kids to support the public school (because everyone is in private), then the school shuts down entirely and the poor kids have to find another school — probably further away, probably also under-performing. I also acknowledged that I contribute to this problem, so I’m not sure why you keep harping on it. You also know all of this, so …. what’s your point?
After sorting through your comment — again, that included no substance — answer my question. How much should a public school teacher make in the top public school district in the US where the median home price is $500,000? I know you think they should be motivated by things other than money (I can assure you — most public school teachers are), but a girl’s gotta’ eat. So, how much should they make in a county flush with property taxes from 1 percenters?
Sigh. (Please assume that my sigh was more dramatic than yours.)
More importantly, what would you do? Scrap the public school system altogether? If not, how would you fix it? Or is it home schooling and private schools period in Tex World? What do you think the effect would be on the job-readiness of our youth? How could they compete in a global economy where employers can go wherever the smart people are located?
I think my solution is pretty simple — pay teachers more and move it to a merit-based system. I don’t even care if you scrap the unions. The schools WILL improve.
Hope you’re sitting down. First, at least in Texas, the “rich” NEVER get to “opt out” of school financing. School districts are funded by real property taxes, levied on ALL real property. More interestingly, under the “Robin Hood” principal, some of the more affluent districts give money to the poorer districts. Why does this happen, you might ask. So that the figure-head Superintendent of the District can keep his $250,000 a year paycheck, while the chemistry lab makes do with old, broken test tubes and Bunsen burners.
That weekend feature is critical.
This is atrocious. Education is meant to be meaningful and fun. As it is, me, working in the software industry feel that the prime years of any child must be spent in uninhibited and free access to learning and full of fun. Otherwise when will they learn to have good and clean fun ? When they have a full time job, having kids ? or at the age of 60: (assuming) post-retirement ???
This is how education has become today. Just PROFIT DRIVEN. They’ve lost the humanity oriented drive to impart knowledgeable learning or teach the younger generation the mistakes that the older generation and us have made in the past in terms of unnecessary wars or plundering natural resources of earth till nothing is left for them.
In India, the Government started some thing as RTE or Right To Education where, Schools must enroll underprivileged children so that these children can access the same facilities and have some top notch education at subsidized rates. But almost every time, this quota of seats is never filled, because the schools don’t want to loose money in admitting such students and never advertise for such schemes citing operational reasons or not availability of resources in terms of class rooms, or other facilities.
Money changes ‘some’. But not ‘all’. And these ‘all’ are hard to find. Or these ‘all’ gradually change their focus overtime to money-driven schemes.
In India, playschool now costs 75,000 rupees. Approx 1177.108 USD. I don’t remember my folks mentioning paying 1177.108 USD when I started playschool ?? And admission to preschool now involves an Interview. An Interview ??? And all along I thought that I should attend an interview only when I apply for a job… 😦 .. Everywhere, is just result-driven, profit-driven expectations from you. Nothing wrong in this, but it has completely replaced good human values of building up people to take up the mantle to lead tomorrow.
@Jack Marshall: The world has changed. We have escaped its clutches yesterday, but right now, we are the same people to hold the throats of youngsters today to expect them to perform to make a better tomorrow.
Teachers “… are compelled to teach increasingly centralized curricula” CHECK “…follow increasingly … monitored step-by-step teaching regimens and methods” CHECK “… teaching to pass a singular state administered test” CHECK “…will merely be automatons executing the decisions of central planners” CHECK
Sounds to me like teachers deserve more than they’re getting. There’s certainly no other reward in that environment.The less the pay, the lower the standards, the fewer recruited to the profession. That’s 37 million+ preK-8 public school students left behind to hit the voting booths the streets, and the jails, considering the small percentage of the job market they will be qualified for. Either the money goes up or the system is intelligently humanized and geared entirely to education. Those are the only choices I see, so I have to go for the former because there is no chance the system will be remodeled to any semblance of what is needed to fit adults to function in these dis-united states.
You want to pay centrally controlled robots with no accountability more money?
Usually those come free other than an initial capital start up cost…
Perhaps robots are the answer. McDonald’s thinks so! The Japs are making some pretty sexy androids as well. That might be the answer to the Naked Teacher Principle!
“You want to pay centrally controlled robots with no accountability more money?”
Nope. But if that’s what it takes to start attracting back the good teachers who exchanged the profession that defined their passion for private schools, offices and offshore oil rigs … and cultivating new crops of college matriculators toward the Ed Department … and nodding approvingly to the little’uns answering “teacher!” when asked what they want to be when they grow up ….
Then it’s worth all of us (not just mommy and daddy, everyone who’s going to be alive when the commencement exercisers of the generation after next commence running their communities, states and the country) to start fighting to reform teacher training from the ground up, rescind standardized mandatory testing and automatic age-based promotion and replace it with merit-based standards and full-time vocational programs (yes, tracking is a fair and desirable option when the tracks are the same gauge — working with virtual reality and computer programming are vocational, after all); and bring back memorizing, spelling bees, music, art, drama, school nurses, sex ed, dance, the theory of evolution, voluntary prayer and flag-waving practice, et cet er uh.
Of course, that means dumping almost all school administrators and half the staff; putting the current robot teachers in their places at no more than their current salaries, and reforming the old “union” into a new, true PTA (parents, teachers, alumni) that includes graduates of that school, . . . .
okay, I’m done now. I’ll go take my medication now.
Send me a couple of those pills, Penn. I’m in complete agreement with you.
I’d suggest that the robot teachers be androids that look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. The principal might be another that resembles Charlton Heston in his character from “True Lies”. Of course, the school medic will be Nurse Ratchett. That ought to set the little monsters straight! Excuse me, now. It’s time for my shock therapy…
From the Daily Signal
Federally subsidized Amtrak lost $84.5 million on its food and beverage services in 2011 and $833.8 million over the past 10 years. It has never broken even on these services.
The U.S. Navy bought 450,000 gallons of biofuels for $12 million—or almost $27 per gallon—to conduct exercises to showcase the fuel and bring it closer toward commercialization. It is the largest biofuel purchase ever made by the government.
In 2008 and 2009 alone, the Department of Justice spent $121 million to host or participate in 1,832 conferences.
$325,000 was spent on a robotic squirrel named “RoboSquirrel.” This National Science Foundation grant was used to create a realistic-looking robotic squirrel for the purpose of studying how a rattlesnake would react to it.
The Department of Agriculture’s Market Access Program spends $200 million a year to help U.S. agricultural trade associations and cooperatives advertise their products in foreign markets. In 2011, it funded a reality TV show in India that advertised U.S. cotton.
From, “The Commercial Observer”:
The government spends about $100 million every four years to subsidize parties at the political conventions.
The Department of Agriculture spent $2 million to fund an internship program. The program hired one full-time intern.
Last year, $120 million was paid to dead federal employees.
A total of $146 million was paid for federal employees to upgrade their flights to business class.
The government spent $2.6 million to encourage Chinese prostitutes to drink more responsibly.
The Department of Health and Human Services provided an $800,000 subsidy to build and IHop in Washington, D.C.
The National Institutes of Health has given $1.5 million to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston to study why “three-quarters” of lesbians in the United States are overweight and why most gay males are not.
During 2012, $25,000 of federal money was spent on a promotional tour for the Alabama Watermelon Queen.
The U.S. government spent $505,000 “to promote specialty hair and beauty products for cats and dogs” last year.
NASA spends close to $1 million per year developing a menu of food for a manned mission to Mars even though it is being projected that a manned mission to Mars is still decades away.
Over the past 15 years, a total of approximately $5.25 million has been spent on hair care services for the U.S. Senate.
The U.S. government spent $27 million to teach Moroccans how to design and make pottery in 2012.
During fiscal 2012, the National Science Foundation gave researchers at Purdue University $350,000. They used part of that money to help fund a study that discovered that if golfers imagine that a hole is bigger it will help them with their putting.
A total of $10,000 of U.S. taxpayer money was actually used to purchase talking urinal cakes in Michigan.
Vice President Joe Biden and his staff stopped in Paris for one night back in February. The hotel bill for that one night came to $585,000.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has spent $300,000 to encourage Americans to eat caviar produced in Idaho.
The National Institute of Health recently gave $666,905 to a group of researchers that is conducting a study on the benefits of watching reruns on television.
The National Institute of Health also spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.
The federal government spent $750,000 on a new soccer field for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay.
The IRS spent $60,000 on a film parody of Star Trek and a film parody of Gilligan’s Island.
Last year, the federal government spent $96,000 to buy iPads for kindergarten students in Maine.
The U.S. government spent $200,000 on “a tattoo removal program” in Mission Hills, Calif.
Last year, the government spent just under $1 million posting snippets of poetry in zoos around the country.
The U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research spent $300,000 on a study that concluded the first bird on Earth probably had black feathers.
The federal government spent $75,000 to promote awareness about the role Michigan plays in producing Christmas trees and poinsettias.
From Deseret News:
The Department of the Interior spends $76 million annually on rounding up wild horses on public land. The Bureau of Land Management spends more money on maintaining temporary corrals than actually catching the horses. There are more wild horses living in captivity than actually in the wild.
In 2013, $10,000 was spent by theDepartment of Justice on a Hartford Police Department pizza party. The Judiciary Committee has formally asked the DOJ to explain, but have not received any reply.
The DOJ treats its political appointees very nicely. From 2007 to 2011 the DOJ spent more than $11 million on luxury private jets. The attorney general took 28 percent of these luxurious trips.
American taxpayers forked over $1.5 million to the FBI’s Investigative Publicity and Public Affairs Unit to help Hollywood make movies and TV shows. Among others the FBI aided in accuracy are “The Kingdom,” “CSI” and “Fast and Furious 4.”
Those who advocate for stronger oversight at the IRS may be on to something. In 2012, it paid out $11 billion wrongful refunds. Now, that’s a stimulus package.
Medicaid has an audit program that the IRS apparently doesn’t have, but something isn’t computing properly. The Medicaid audit program, which is designed to identify overpayments, costs $30 million more than it generates.
Even if people don’t agree with Obamacare they’re still paying for its PR campaign. The Obama administration spent $8 million of taxpayer money on a contract to promote the controversial law.
In 2013, the U.S. government spent roughly $1.1 million on “puppetry-related” expenses.
A stagnant unemployment rate and a motionless economy has left a lot of bank accounts empty. Apparently the government has that problem as well because it plans on spending $890,000 on service fees for 13,712 empty bank accounts.
Dali? Van Gogh? Are you an oil painting connoisseur? Well, some “obscure” officials appointed by the Obama administration are because the administration spent $400,000 on paintings for them.
If a person is unemployed he or she can apply for unemployment benefits, but apparently the government can’t differentiate between those really out of work and scammers. They lost $3.3 billion in 2013 on unemployment fraud.
The healthcare law not only wants a person to stay healthy, but also to learn “pickleball.” It authorized a grant in North Carolina to spend $400,000 on such things as “pickleball.”
Apparently “sports diplomacy” is something the government deems it needs to spend taxpayer dollars on. Itspent $5.5 million to shuttle professional athletes around the world on vacations.
Now, the U.S. Department of Agriculture wants to promote booze. It awarded a $99,000 grant to a New York distillery with the hopes that more vodka and bourbon will be produced.
PepsiCo’s tasty beverages are adored by billions worldwide, resulting in record profits for the world’s largest snack maker. However, it evidently needed some economic stimulus because the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $1.3 million to help PepsiCo build a yogurt factory.
There are a lot of people in America that think we should ditch the penny. Seemingly, the government disagrees because they spent $70 million on penny production in 2012, costing almost two times its value.
The waste of the Obamacare website roll out?
I’ve seen that list, Tex. What you DON’T see is any explanation of how any of those expenditures is even remotely constitutional. Even if it were, the waste and abuse is fantastic beyond words.