Re: [Phys-l] Kozol fasts to protest NCLB

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@saintmarys.edu>]

While I get very tired of Bernard's constant postings of politically charged 
(his politics) offerings, this one is particularly slanted.  Note that there 
is no mention of the reason for NCLB--the droves of illiterate graduates 
that our school systems have been turning out, largely (but not exclusively) 
amongst minority students.  Those teaching at the College/University level 
certainly have felt the decline in math and reasoning skills and I suspect 
our colleagues in English have seen the same with writing and vocabulary.

Like most of what the Federal Government does, whether it is education, 
military actions, homeland security, federal intervention in local/state 
issues or the like, NCLB is an over reaction to real problems.  However, the 
basic idea that to graduate from a public school program one needs to 
demonstrate some minimal level of skill and knowledge is exactly in keeping 
with the purposes of taxpayer funded education.  That the set of skills and 
knowledge are so ill-formed in most states is largely the fault of those 
states.  State standards (here in Indiana is no exception) get burdened down 
by every whim and pet topic of those who end up developing the 
standards--and the tests.  So, in the end, those minimal skills and basic 
knowledge that we could probably (mostly) all agree with, become totally 
unwieldy and so expansive that they do tend to set the entire curriculum for 
teachers rather than just the 'core' curriculum.  Again, blame your state 
education system for this.  That the means for enforcing NCLB is draconian, 
that you can lay on the Federal Government.  However, the notion below that 
if little Joey has a nice idea behind a nearly incomprehensible essay, that 
should be OK really doesn't fly--at least not with me.   Personally, I would 
prefer a series of gate-keeper tests (to middle school, to high school, for 
graduation) that really focus of basic skills and knowledge.  I'm less sure 
what to do about given schools or given systems in which students 
consistently fail to achieve those basic skills and knowledge, but I do know 
that a BIG part of the responsibility needs to go back onto the students 
themselves and equally as important their parents.  [And there's the rub 
with today's society--are there parents present and are they involved in 
their children's education?  BC will have a harder time (but I'm sure he'd 
find a way) to blame that situation on GWB.]  ;-)

Rick

***************************
Richard W. Tarara
Professor of Physics
Saint Mary's College
Notre Dame, IN
rtarara@saintmarys.edu
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Free Physics Software
PC & Mac
www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bernard Cleyet" <bernardcleyet@redshift.com>

> JONATHAN KOZOL - This morning, I am entering the 67th day of a partial
> fast that I began early in the summer as my personal act of protest at
> the vicious damage being done to inner-city children by the federal
> education law No Child Left Behind, a racially punitive piece of
> legislation that Congress will either renew, abolish, or, as thousands
> of teachers pray, radically revise in the weeks immediately ahead.
cut