Sometimes ignorace is bliss

Joe and I watched "Waiting for Superman" the other day. It's a documentary about public education in our nation. It put me in a bad mood for a couple of days! Joe and I have had lots of discussions about education, seeing how he is an educator. It is interesting kind of being on both sides, the parent with kids in school, and the teacher. But the film certainly points out how broken the system is. The problem is no one seems to know how to fix it. And those that try meet so much resistance. I certainly don't have the answer, but it is really frustrating to know it needs to change. And right now things are going to get better, with the economy and all the budget shortfalls. Joe came home yesterday and said their district will have to cut 20 full time positions for the coming year. They are a small district, I don't know how many positions total, but that has to be a large percent. And that is on top of what they already cut last year. Joe should be safe because he is the only art teacher at the high school, but at the same time, it's an elective and if this trend continues, pretty soon all they will have are reading and math and maybe science teachers. Only the ones that have to teach what are on the dumb tests the kids have to take.

Ugh CSAP. My kid doesn't even have to take it yet, but I can't stand it. How can you measure progress comparing different kids each year? And if there is no student accountability, what makes them even try? I understand the need for assessment, in order to get federal funding, but why is my kid's elementary school on probation or whatever they call it, because they didn't meet AYP (annual yearly progress) because they missed my 1 percentage point in the category of second-language learner's English? So I get a letter at the beginning of the year that says I can choose to send my kid to a different school in the district, but why would I do that when those schools are sending out the same letter to the parents of kids at that school? If no one can seem to be proficient in these things, what does that say? Is it because the kids are too dumb? I think not. Bad teachers? At every school? Not likely. So what does that leave--the tests! Somehow the curriculum with more reading and less recess doesn't seem to be making a difference.

So that is my ranting on that. Just thinking about it makes me agitated. So I should stop. Sometimes I think I would just rather live in ignorance of it all. I feel so helpless. I know I can't fix the system and all the problems. I need to just do what I can. We all do. I suppose that is what "Waiting for Superman" was all about. Trying to prod people into being upset and trying to do something. I haven't figured out what it is I am going to do exactly. Have any ideas? I am sure this is something a lot of you out there have thought about.