Re: PHYS-L Digest - 28 Feb 2000 to 29 Feb 2000 (#2000-68)

[David Ward <dward@BUSTER.UU.EDU>]

Dear Colleagues:

Being a lurker of softer temperament than some on the list, I perhaps should
not wade into this political discussion. But I am a political junkie with
a few strong convictions yearning be be expressed:

1) The federal educrats are beyond my reach. However, I can speak to folks
at my local
school board. I can attend many of their meetings, if I choose to. I can
lobby
at the local level and my voice can be heard. School board meetings-
especially those
involving funding- are very well-attended here and parents views are
listened to.

2) I confess that my child is enrolled in private school. With far fewer
funds and facilities
than the local public schools, the standardized test scores at my son's
school are far beyond
the public school's scores. Why hasn't Federal largesse resulted in better
public school
performance? (BTW, I am adamantly opposed to school vouchers- I fervently
believe the government
ultimately will ruin many fine private schools- not to mention their
pricing!- should the government
get involved. As a rule, the government- particularly the Federal
government- ruins any social
institution it touches.) As fast as a new private school opens here it
fills up, as parents willingly
sacrifice financially in order to flee the failing governmental education
system.

3) It is true that some local school boards may misuse block grants. There
is no utopia. Funds will
always be mismanaged to some extent, and I here in Tennessee may not agree
at all with the spending
priorities in S. Dak, but folks in S. Dak pay taxes too. Once they get
their appropriate share of
the pie it is their business how they spend it.

I could say much more, but that is probably enough to get the cannons
trained on me. I never knew
the list discussed political matters when I signed on. These topics can
have a tendency to go on
as t approaches infinity, and no resolution is ever acheived. Still, it's
fun! :)

[Oh- thanks to all those folks who gave me personal input on a real physics
topic-
Advanced Lab. Your help is MUCH appreciated!!]

I now return to lurking...

David


> Date:    Mon, 28 Feb 2000 23:04:15 -0500
> From:    Hugh Haskell <hhaskell@MINDSPRING.COM>
> Subject: Re: Education
>
> > Someone else wanted all of us to write to our senators to beg for a
> > worthless welfare hand out ostensibly for enhanced science education --- as
> > if more money solves any political problem.  A better way to spend the
> > requested money would be to test the teachers. <g>
> >
> > Jim Green
> I'll buy that line just as soon as you show me a test that will
> reliably tell whether a person is a good teacher or not. The other
> thing we could do is fund the gazillions of bureaucrats who would be
> needed to go into every classroom on an extended basis and evaluate
> each teacher--according to what criteria?
>
> And of course, when, as I suspect you expect to happen, many if not
> most fail these tests, where will we find the replacements to teach
> the students that show up at the door every year, whether or not
> there are teachers there to teach them?
>
> I know there are problems with teachers--I have seen them myself in
> visits to classrooms--but by far the larger problem is  class size,
> especially in science (read: laboratory) classes. If their
> preparation had been better (for the most part, not their fault) most
> would be much more effective than they are, but that is only a small
> part of the problems facing education today. I could list them and
> incompetent teachers would end up pretty far down my list, and fixing
> the things that are higher up on the list would do a great deal to
> fix the teacher competency problem.
>
> Let's not talk about reducing the money we spend on schools, whether
> federal or local. We need to increase the spending level--by a lot.
> Of course, we don't just throw the money at the schools, which is
> what block grants are essentially doing. We need to be sure that the
> money gets to the classroom and not the bloated administrative
> budgets.
>
> Although it's not an education issue, does anyone here remember a few
> years back when the federales decided to give the local police
> departments in several areas block grants to help them improve their
> policing? Well, I remember any number of local police departments
> that promptly spent their grant money on some kind of police "armored
> car" to be used for god knows what (but of course, if they have it,
> it will be used, for better or worse--usually worse). Now there was a
> case of the locals knowing better than the feds how best to use the
> money, Sure.
>
> I'm sorry, Jim, but if I am going to send my money to bail out the
> school district of Resume Speed, S, Dak., I think I want a few
> strings attached to that money, and I want some assurances from their
> funding agencies that they won't cut their contribution by the amount
> of the grant, and that they won't use it to teach creationism.
>
> Hugh
> --
>
> Hugh Haskell
> <mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>
>
> Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
> have to..
> ******************************************************
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of PHYS-L Digest - 28 Feb 2000 to 29 Feb 2000 (#2000-68)
> ************************************************************
Dr. David Ward
Dept. of Chemistry & Physics
UNU#3160
Union University
1050 Union University Dr.
Jackson, TN 38305
ph. 901-661-5241
email- dward@uu.edu