Labor Is Not The Same As Work Nor Wealth The Same As Capital

http://www.itsfridayandiwasthinking.com/2015/05/readin-riten-n-rithmatic.html

It starts here:

WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 2015

Readin' , Riten', n' Rithmatic.

Once again I tread in waters I’m not sure of.  I am not a public school teacher, administrator, or board member.  I know practically nothing about public schools.  There, that is my disclaimer.

I do know this.  High School graduates certified to be prepared to do college level work aren’t.   That’s right.  I am saying that a great many high school students who have been certified by those schools as being ready for college are not prepared to read or write at the college level nor are they able to do college level math.

They can pass standardized high school level tests.  This is good because it appears this is one of the determining factors for funding and teacher raises/job security.   However one cannot say that the student is good at passing all test because they cannot score well enough on college level assessment exams to get into college level work.

I am willing to go along with the fact that almost all schools now have to teach to some standardized exam.  But are we really willing to blame standardized tests for all of our woes?  I watched my own child progress through the grades and I watch kids now.  These kids are in band, honor societies, sports, choir, and any number of extracurricular activities.  If they have enough time they are in school. 

It is finals week for our local school system.  The kids only have to attend about a half a day.  Most of them seem to be "exempt" from their final exams.  Which seems to have more to do with attendance than performance.  And attending half a day is really false, they need to be at school by 10:00 and stay for 15 minutes so the school can count them for funding.  A whole week of school wasted in my opinion. 

I don’t understand the modern education system.  It is nothing like when we went to school.  However it is considered an advancement.   Yet we came out of high school ready to go to college or to work, provided the military didn’t grab us first. If we went to college and didn’t make the grade we were booted and had to go to work, if the military didn’t grab us first.  There was no remedial system that we could partake of for a couple of years before starting college level work.

Teaching to the test is one more government initiative that is not working.  Yet we will continue to do it because the handful of people who do vote are voting for representation that approves of this kind of education. 

So you just continue to stay home and watch Dancing With the Stars or The Bachelor and don’t bother to read op ed pieces, watch news shows, go listen to the folks running for office or God forbid, head to the ballot box.  Your vote doesn’t matter anyway.