Who is going to build our roads ? Keep our building clean ? Cut our grass ? Keep our cars going ? Sell all the consumer items ? “ Why have we devalued those jobs and more ? My father was a brick mason and one of the smartest men I know . He could do things that I only dream of . In my opinion , there is not any PHD that has anything on him . I remember just out of high school in 1973 , I went to auto parts store to get a part for my car and one of my classmates was working there . We discussed what we were doing and when I said I was going to college ; his quote was “ so you are going to be one of those educated dummies ”. I remember telling him , “ no more than you ” When asked what I meant , I explained the way I looked at it we were no different as he needed a high school diploma to get the job he wanted and I needed a college one . That did not make me any different from him as we were both equal and both were in pursuit of the same goal which was the job of our choice .
Let ’ s get back to the point of this article . Are there schools that are failing students ? You betch ya there are . Are there teachers that need to be let go ? Darn right . But let ’ s not throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water . When a car has a problem , you do not have to buy a new one when it needs to be repaired and if it ’ s not broke it does not need to be fixed . Also , we do not live in a society where one size fits all . In the past , I have seen schools do a good job with looking at the differences of students and try to meet their individual needs , but yet today I feel we are trying to do a blanket affect and treat all students the same . I definitely see that happening to teachers as we are all put into the same category and are expected to teach the same way regardless of teaching style or personality . Let ’ s allow people to be who they are and give the teachers the benefit of the doubt as to how to approach it . Look at athletics . Successful coaches are basically set in their ways as they know how to be successful , but the elite successful coaches have longevity for they have learned to adapt to times and different teams they have from year to year . They still stay to basics but understand that you have to work within the framework of what they have , and direct the team and players in accordance to their skills and abilities .
To close with , I want to refer to the TV show , “ Star Trek the Next Generation ”. In the show was an android called DATA . In the show DATA was third in command and extremely intelligent . He knew much of the facts of the universe and could do complicated math computations in an instant . Of course he could do this because of what he had been programmed with by his maker with the intelligence to recall , comprehend and to learn new information . To me , he is what I feel the lawmakers want to make our kids today . DATA is extremely successful because for a reasoning machine to be third in command of a starship was an incredible concept . But through the show , one of DATA ’ s personal high goals was to become more like humans . Even with our flaws , he wanted to be able to feel emotions and to love . There were times when this was quasi achieved , but most of the time he was only the intelligent thinking android called DATA . There is sadness to that and I ponder , is this we want to make our students today ? You often see TV ads where a very young child will ask their parent a question about a product or something connected to the science of the product . The parent usually gives an age appropriate answer only to be corrected by the child in a complex answer including the proper complex science involved . In other words , a collegiate like answer . Most viewers view this as cute , but I don ’ t . This is what our lawmakers want to make our children today . Why can ’ t a child be a child any more ? Why must we put the stress on them of high stakes testing and having to compete at such early ages ? Do we want normal progressing children or do we want little DATAs ? Our children are not little computers to be programmed so they can regurgitate the information back so they can be called educated . I once thought that the real education was the journey not the destination . How many of us can recite what we learned through school . How many of us can speak the foreign language we took in school ? How many of us can do the math we learned in school ? I would dare say the answer to my questions is not many and most of us would say we have been happy and successful with our lives . I would love to establish a law that when law makers establish the tests protocols for our students that the law makers be held to the same standards . I would love for each law maker to be required to take the tests given to our students and if they do not pass they must immediately take a leave of their positions , go back to school until they can pass the test . They should not be given study time before the test or be permitted to use the excuse of being a long time out of school for not passing . In these tests , we are saying this is what you need to know to be successful and educated .
Answers to our education needs are complex , but do not necessarily have to be met with complex methods . It ’ s easy for law makers to bash our education system . Who is going to vote against trying to improve schools and improve the education of our children ? But if schools are so bad , how did the law makers get so smart to begin with ? If schools are so bad , how did we put man on the moon , invent all our technology and have the highest standard of living in the world ? Many of our law makers have never attended a public school and I would bet most have their children going to private schools which do not have to follow the guide lines that are being put forth to public schools . Private schools are known for their success , but they have a right to do something that public schools do not and that is to be selective . If a
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