It is truly amazing to me the number of people who think they are experts on education because they attended school.
You may want to do a little research on retention. All you're doing is setting a kid up to be a dropout. They become overage students who can't succeed. Use the internet to do a little checking instead of commenting on something in which you have so little direct knowledge. You'll find that most of these students started behind because they were not exposed to vocabulary and print in the home. They start behind, and it is almost impossible for them to catch up. The brain grows exponentially from birth to age 3 ... a time when they were not exposed to the kinds of things that promoted brain growth.
By the way, teachers who are trained in content area subjects (history, math, science, etc.) are NOT taught in strategies for the teaching of reading. It is important that they get staff development in this area ... and I'm not even a teacher.
llinsin ... You're confused regarding "dropout rates" of years ago. If you attended school many years ago in the South, then the schools were not really representative of the entire community. Entire segments of the population did not attend school - they were excluded. All you have to do is look at the number of non-high school graduates in the census data to see that you are incorrect. Oconee County has one of the highest non-high school graduate populations on the census figures that I've read. These are young kids, but older adults.
March63: Not all children were educated back then. Many never went beyond 6th or 7th grade (they went to work in a textile mill). Children with learning difficulties were in the basement. Black children were not afforded equal opportunities with whites (only 6 months of school compared to whites with 9 months). Are you calling for a return to that kind of education system? Today's world is very different than the one in which you grew up. I want all children to be productive citizens.
To llinsin – I looked at your 90+ comments on this website. You obviously have “issues,†and my real concern is how someone can be so negative. Why don’t you work for the good of the community instead of trying to criticize everything?
I, for one, want my taxes to support the schools. My future as a senior citizen is dependent upon these children becoming employed citizens down the road. I also want some economic balance in our community to protect us when there are downturns in the economy.
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Posted on May 15 at 7:50 p.m.
On Tell Willie: 5/15/08
It is truly amazing to me the number of people who think they are experts on education because they attended school.
You may want to do a little research on retention. All you're doing is setting a kid up to be a dropout. They become overage students who can't succeed. Use the internet to do a little checking instead of commenting on something in which you have so little direct knowledge. You'll find that most of these students started behind because they were not exposed to vocabulary and print in the home. They start behind, and it is almost impossible for them to catch up. The brain grows exponentially from birth to age 3 ... a time when they were not exposed to the kinds of things that promoted brain growth.
By the way, teachers who are trained in content area subjects (history, math, science, etc.) are NOT taught in strategies for the teaching of reading. It is important that they get staff development in this area ... and I'm not even a teacher.
Kudos to Dr. Lucas was signing his comment.