Eric, wtf is up with your personal tirade above, and how does that even remotely relate to the subject matter of my topic?

you hit the nail on the head, completely. and add to that that the schools who DONT meet the standardized scores [read: those who need help] get their funding CUT. so they cut arts and phys ed, fire some teachers, increase class size to compensate, and somehow theyre supposed to raise their test scores? the whole system of high-stakes testing is an anathema to education and needs to be done away with.

vouchers are a federal program, if i understand correctly. the theory behind them is that "capitalism works" so its an attempt to capitalize education. and it has many school districts thinking about getting funding elsewhere -- from companies. i dont know about you, but i dont want Kraft or Ford determining my childs education. do corporations want free-thinking, out-side-of-the-box employees who question the way things are? because i want that to be my child. sure, they do for a couple of positions. but they employ thousands of people who are no better than trained monkeys. i dont want companies determining my education, and thats what vouchers are beginning to produce. throw into that that the entire theory behind vouchers is that "competition breeds betterness", and you have our students competing for their own education -- the free, public education that horace mann had in mind. in addition, you have each class of students competing for their education (if one year doesnt do as well as the one before it, parents take their kids out, and their money, AND federal funding gets cut), and each teacher competing to educate. competition has been undeniably proven to get results in most arenas, but not in education. in education it has been proven to reduce any sort of internal motivation a student might have to learn and instead focus on external motivation like grades, class rank, or teacher praise. id rather have my student internally motivated. id rather have my student want to learn because this **** is interesting. because it is. but when im teaching him how to take a test, i cant do that. how fun is bubbling things, really? anyone here enjoy it overmuch? and standardized testing is awesome, right? because art and phys ed [among other things] arent tested. so if youre a school district, told "were testing your students on math and english, and the outcome of those scores will determine your funding for the next couple of years", what are you going to do? cut art, cut phys ed, increase test prep. wonderful. what about the kid that the only reason hes coming to school is because of art, or because of football? hes not really important, right? but thats our system.

thats No Child Left Behind coupled with High Stakes Testing. NOT the fault of our teachers. our teachers are doing the best they can, and in most instances, paying upwards of $500 a semester just for basic necessities for their classroom. our teachers are trying to keep our kids interested in learning in spite of all of this **** that the federal government has decided since 1990 we need to do.

one step forward [accountability], three hundred steps back.

keep looking. if were lucky, were looking at major educational policy reform in the next 15 years. just hope we dont completely screw this generation up before they get it fixed.

[/rant]

"Gang involvement" is what they told me when I came in wearing a pair of white/black Converses I'd picked up for cheap cuz I needed shoes one time for Gym. I'm the whitest kid you'll ever meet- i don't touch drugs, alcohol, i don't smoke cigarettes. I see no point to any of it. Gang involvement is kinda stupid as well.. I understand where most people come from and why they join them for a feeling of belonging, but.. yeah.

about how messed up schools are these days.

They can't slap a kid on the hand with a ruler for missbehaving, otherwise that'* a lawsuit..many parents just don't give a ****.. some staff are crooked in most cases.. it goes on and on.

As a future educator myself, the state of education is really quite pathetic. It almost made me change my mind about going into education but I've decided to stick with it because I want to be able to make a difference and make learning fun again.

When you ignore your own country'* issues, such as education, things tend to go bad. No Child Left Behind is horrible and I can't wait for it to end. One thing that has irked me during the Democratic primaries is that neither candidate have discussed education a whole lot.

There was an article in the local paper the other day that talked about how we've forgotten about education and worry about things like war and money. Our future is looking quite bleak because of our actions and we're all going to pay in the future if something isn't done soon.

...and then the world exploded.