Re: Education and the Presidential Candidates

["bob" <bob.adsett@lineone.net>]

>From: James Robert Crow wrote
> 
> In the state of Georgia we are moving to a pay for performance system in
> which the teachers will receive increases based on the ability of their
> students to take tests.  School districts will be evaluated based on the
> tests scores and are at risk of losing funds if scores drop.  In effect the
> various school systems are in competition with each other for state funding
> because there is only so much money available.


It is a sad indictment that the same thing is happening in education here in
the UK. In some of our local school all of the diversity of the local
education  is being eroded so that pupils can concentrate (Practice) on
developing their skills at taking the SATs (Standard Attainment Target)
tests in a very narrow band of subjects.
A particular example from just up the road from where I live -- All the
after school activities have been stopped so that cramming classes can take
their place.
Is this because the pupils at this school are especially gifted and bright?
No, it is because the school came 'top' in last year's schools SATs league
table and doesn't want to loose it's position.

The stresses that are being placed on the pupils at this school is extreme
and they are being pressured to do well otherwise "they will be letting the
school down"

Somewhere along the way reasonably intelligent adults (teachers) have lost
the plot and no longer understand the purpose of the school system. They
now seem hell-bent on using their pupils as  pawns in an educational game --
in my eyes what we are witnessing is little better than a type of child
abuse. The 'rewards'  of which we will see as the next generation passes
into adulthood.

I wonder what value they will put on their experience of education and how
will their experiences be passed on to the next generation.

bob


-----------

Bob Adsett
Bingley, Yorkshire, UK

Tel.   +44 (0) 1274 77 95 02
Mobile +44 (0) 7980 85 22 34
e-Mail bob.adsett@lineone.net
---
The great tragedy of science ­ the slaying of an original, beautiful
hypothesis by an ugly fact.


----------