Is Our Educational System Fair?

What is education? According to dictionary.com one of the definitions of education is “the act or process of imparting or acquiring general knowledge, developing the powers of reasoning and judgment, and generally of preparing oneself or others intellectually for mature life.” Most people who read this definition will think that it is a good fit but is this definition being applied in our educational system?

If we analyze the definition part by part we can come up with the conclusion that education, according to dictionary.com, is not part of our educational system. Giving this answer many questions arise, why is our educational system not functionally correctly and why is there nothing being done about it?

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“No Child Left Behind”

The Obama administration is making a blueprint to repair the program “No Child Left Behind”. There are five key changes that the Obama administration would like to change about this program. One of the changes is increasing the standard level of Math and English to college level work. The administration wants to focus more on skills students will need for the future. I agree with the idea that students should learn skills that will help them outside of schools. Grades do matter but having different skills is also important.
The administration believes that students needed to be well rounded and have an outlook on all subjects. So they plan on spending $3 billion on competitive programs that will help students grow. Using the programs, we can teach students about local politics. In the blueprint that the administration is creating, they are adding a new curriculum and maybe we can use this opportunity to help our curriculum about local politics be established in schools.

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Schools Are Set to be Clones

While students around the nation study towards their individual tests in their individual schools, teachers set the standards for education. Most school systems in the United States develop their own curriculum, therefore everything the students learn is part of that schools vision. According to a panel of educators selected by governors and senators around the nation, EVERY school should share one vision.

This idea asks for a raise in standards. Raised difficulty in lessons  is supposed to make it more difficult  for students to graduate. But even more important, it is supposed to connect schools around America. Through this process, comparisons between schools and between students in different states becomes more valid, supposedly.

Final versions for curriculums are allowed to be commented on by the public until April, which is not a long time. However, this policy will cause a lot of questions to arise. If all schools are adopting similar methods of teaching and topics, how can these schools differentiate themselves? This is where schools really become clones. And what was really interesting was that experts from Collegeboard, and the A.C.T., the main creators of standardized tests,  were working towards this change and higher graduation standards. Does this mean that schools will gear their lessons towards these tests?

But most importantly, with set curriculums, how can students become more aware of their local government. With these changes, it becomes harder for students to engage in their community while they are educated to learn the same topics and issues everyone else  in the United States is learning. In many ways, this is a way for the government to define exactly what they want each student to learn, and local government may not be one of their concerns.

By Christopher Itua

Article discovered by Tamara Mann

Response to Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools

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Will our NYS governor resign?

In my government class today, my teacher asked, “So, who is familiar with New York State Politics?”

Awkward silence, not surprisingly.

Then, she dropped a bomb, “There is a possibility that Governor Paterson may be resigning.”

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Wait….What? You mean the governor of New York State who make all the important decisions for us New Yorkers?

Wait, isn’t he the boss of Marissa (Deputy Director of Communications, she came to speak with us in the first meeting)?

Wait….who is this guy anyway?

A little embarrassing to say, but I have to admit my ignorance in local politics. Luckily, google was invented. So here are my findings that may help you, if you are like me.

1. He is the first governor of New York of African-American heritage.

2. He was elected lieutenant governor – which means that he got the job because the former governor has resigned relating to a prostitution scandal. Funny thing is that, one day after Paterson’s inauguration as the Governor of New York, he told the public about having had extramarital affairs.

3. He just dropped out from the 2010 Governor’s race, because he is in trouble. Why?

It is a long story. It starts with a guy called David W. Johnson, who used to be Paterson’s driver, and is (or was, until he got suspended 2 weeks ago), one of the most senior people in the governor’s administration. For your information, he got arrested twice on felony drug charges as a teenager, including a charge of selling cocaine. Johnson also has a history of altercations with women.

Okay, this guy has a history, but what makes everyone so concerned all of a sudden?

Here is a short summary of what happened. Excerpt from New York Times.

In the fall of 2009, the woman went to court in the Bronx to testify that Mr. Johnson had brutally assaulted her and to get a protective order against him. he returned to court twice to press her case, complaining that the State Police had been harassing her to drop it. The State Police, which had no jurisdiction in the matter, confirmed that a member of the governor’s personal security detail visited her.Just before she was due back in court to seek a final protective order, the woman received a phone call from Mr. Paterson, according to her lawyer. She failed to appear for the hearing on Feb. 8, and her case was dismissed.

Oh No!! A SCANDAL! In simple words, Paterson likes this Johnson guy so much, and wants to protect him from legal charges of assaulting.

According to New York times, ….” the governor instructed his press secretary, Marissa Shorenstein, to ask the woman to publicly describe the episode as nonviolent, contradicting her accounts to the police and in court. The person briefed on the matter said that at the time of the call, Ms. Shorenstein was not aware of the severity of the alleged assault…. Ms. Shorenstein failed to reach the woman….”

and Paterson’s response was that “he was unaware of the details of the case until The Times reported them, and has said he did nothing improper.”

Oh, great. Here comes another impressive quote.

“On Monday, speaking at the breakfast in Manhattan, he emphasized that he would not resign. “I think there is an hysteria that I’ve been the victim of over the past couple of months,” he said. “I’ve been resigning about five times before this weekend.””

So, he said, he is not responsible for all this…

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How Do We Select Teachers to Teach the Next Generation?

Central Falls High School in Rhode Island has undergone a tremendous change in the past week. Reported as one of Rhode Island’s worst performing schools, the state’s board of education was required to choose a “model for school turnaround.” The plan- in case you are interested- is to let go of all the employees at the school and hire a whole new set of teacher. The story is an eye-catcher because I have never heard of such a thing. It made me curious about the New York Board of Education. As I read the New York Times article, I wondered if there is anything in their policies that could allow a similar story to occur in New York. I have yet to see such a policy, but I am still searching.

Another interesting aspect that occurred to me while reading about the high school was “How do schools go about hiring teachers? How do school officials determine who is truly qualified to teach the next generation?” These are just some of the important questions us Teaglers will have to face this spring. Will we teach the fundamentals of our curriculum to the teachers who will then teach it in their classrooms? And if not, how will we determine which teachers are qualified to teach the course?

Authored by Lorraine Njoki

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