Charting a Course

Over at Critical Mass, Erin O'Conner has a great post on charter schools in response to a column by David Brooks. We will not post much on that here, as one can read it easily enough at the linked site.

CM makes an amazing statement after the Brooks quotes while listing
the numerous faults of the present education setup:

"School choice and high standards work. We should stop arguing about it, and start doing it. It's the most decadent, arrogant form of waste to argue against it--it steals kids' futures for the sake of adults' partisan politics in the present.

FWIW: The year I spent teaching at a boarding school was a sharp and clear lesson in what kids respond to and what doesn't work for them. The school was hobbled by a rigid adherence to certain progressive practices and beliefs -- as in, no grades (just supportive report letters); no emphasis on basics such as spelling and grammar (because that might turn kids off); no tracking of any kind (because egalitarian mediocrity that served no one was preferable to the comparisons kids might draw if some were allowed to excel).

The most striking point in the quote describes the "egalitarian mediocrity" which permeates like some virulent miasma within our primary education system. Aye, several of us remember in our Obedience School where dogs could not learn new tricks-it would be unfair to those who were sub par.

In other noteworthy events, Chapin Rose had grilled skunk for breakfast last week during a question and answer session with skunk White. White is trying to cast aside criticism of his new (but hardly improved) version of the Global Campus 2.0. Panelists for coming up with a way to sidestep scrutiny of the failed program have made comments including by the co-chair "The proposed initiative would never run at a deficit." (not true unless the UI considers an excess of $3 million does not qualify as a deficit) to "We owe Global Campus a debt" (sort of true-as far as emphasis on "debt"). Watching White squirm under the examination makes us wonder whether in future if he will adopt the Glen Poshard method of alleviating scrutiny and criticism, as he has already once attempted to make himself arbiter of IL law in a move that only Palpatine could approve of, by undertaking ethics policy that should be left to lawmakers.

Posted by Alpha Hound