Schools--what is to be done?

What's up with the schools and no child left behind?


International education expert says US "Schools are inheriting an over entertained, distracted student."

A Senate panel learned that more students in more countries graduate from high school and college and score higher on achievement tests than students in the United States.

So that's it. US student's minds are not in the classroom (their minds are on hand-held devices) and are too damn twitchy. Just as I thought.


So what's the answer? One answer is to keep the politicians away from the schools. The other answer is to ask: "Do we need smart"? Probably not. Rich can always buy smart from anywhere in the world. Also, since we've left manufacturing behind, how smart do you have to be to sell sub-prime mortgages or credit default swaps? It's not a lack of smarties that are leading us to 2nd tierdom; it is the rich-ies who can't stop gorging themselves on the financial sector that is leading us there.

But what about charter schools, another gleam in the eye of the "we'd rather fiddle than watch Rome burn" crowd? Charters are no better on average than the public schools, report scholars at Stanford U. and Diane Ravitch.

So we're left with the public schools: love them or leave them. I say leave them alone--they're doing the best they can with what they've got to work with.