samboct
Posts: 1817
Joined: 1/17/2007
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Hi Elisabella
While I think that bringing in rappers is probably not the best idea- I'd rather people try something rather than wringing their hands. There's also nothing in the Denver post article that says that these guys got paid. I suspect that given their tax bracket- they could call it a charitable donation and at the end of the day have nearly as much money as if the school wrote them a check.
Here's a link to the NY Times article-
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/28/education/28school.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&sq=failing%20schools%20massachussetts&st=cse&scp=1
In terms of the teaching problem- one of my friends is a teacher in NYC in a high school which isn't doing great. Her comment- 70% of the kids when entering tested at the 3rd grade level at best when entering. This indicates that the kids are getting passed through the system without picking up much of an education- and it's hard to fix subsequently. In short- the problem is at grade school or earlier. Parents are supposed to read to their children, but in an inner city, too many of them are in jail. I know this first hand, I did a brief stint as a substitute teacher years ago in Hartford, CT. I wasn't a success- I'm not much of a disciplinarian around kids and they pick that up instantly. It's why Teach For America is such a sick joke- you don't want smart college kids in the classroom, you want parents- you need people who know kids and how to control them.
Pam-
In New Haven, there are trade schools- there's a machining school I think called Eli Whitney. The problem is simple. When the business mantra changed to manufacturing abroad, everybody assumed that you don't learn anything setting up the manufacturing process or during production. Furthermore, its quite clear that not everyone is well suited to working on a computer (well, a lot of machining these days does involve computer work.) This is idiotic- and its one of the reasons why the country is doing so badly. So yeah, either the colleges should change their propaganda and the US should continue its downward decline, or we need to fix the economy. Manufacturing jobs are critical for this and your perfectly correct- we need trade schools because they're a good match for some students capabilities.
The idea that education should be valuable should be a truism. However, there needs to be grant money- not loan money for students. This is a function of warped priorities in Congress- we don't need weapons, we need textbooks- especially text books that aren't Texas compliant. Prior to Ronnie- the federal gov't picked up much more of the cost of education- now they've shifted it onto the backs of students, who with an economy spiraling downwards, are in terrible shape. Banks however, have made big money on education loans. Unfortunately, the massive student debt means that too many people are forced to look for high paying jobs. It's become a problem of too many chiefs, not enough Indians.
LadyC- I know we often use spelling as a proxy for intelligence, but it's not a good one. I've met some Ph.D. scientists who were very good at experimentation- who couldn't spell worth a damn. Conversely, I don't know many folks who are illiterate who can spell well, so spelling issues may indicate a lack of intelligence or motivation- or dyslexia.
Sam
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RE: I'm conflicted about this one. - 
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