There are countries in the world that recognize that not all
students will be, or even can be, rocket scientists.
They treat them with respect by allowing them to take a
path through school that sees them graduate with the skill
set to make a decent, and honorable living as a plumber.
Or as a machinist, a sheet metal worker, an electrician,
a cosmetologist, a nurse, a dental tech, an EMS,
a fire fighter, a police officer, a lobotomist ...
We don't do that. For the same reason that we "socially
promote" students who haven't made the grade.
As soon as you try one of these tacks,
some minority or another will show up in disproportion.
And rather than recognize that there are real and
remediable reasons for the disproportion,
we stop doing anything that might illuminate it.
Tracking is a bad thing, only if it is imposed on students
against their will.
APS tracks students, against their will, and
against their interests.
(Virtually) all APS students find themselves being prepared
for college. They are beaten over the head with college prep,
and beaten, and beaten, and beaten.
Out of frustration they become truants, and eventually,
inevitably, drop outs.
Then APS devotes their entire energy into determining
which mathematical formulas will yield the correct number
of truants and drop outs.
What they do next, is unknown.
They've never gotten that far.
Out of arrogance, and out of snobbery.
imho
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Truancy and Tracking
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7 comments:
Watching the board meeting last night, I was pleased to see not only you during the public forum, but Mr Esquivel seemingly trying to get to the bottom of RDA's and PED's double talk. Then Brooks speaks about how all criticism should go through him and he'll take it up with his staff. Was that in relation to what Esquivel had just been doing do you think?
Also, in regards to truancy, I really had to laugh when they were describing how they counted it. Every school I've been at in the last 12 years has counted it creatively. Such as only taking attendance during 2nd or 3rd periods so that the tardies are not counted. If a parent walks in daily with kid in tow at noon saying the kid had a DR.s appointment, administration counts that as an EXCUSED absence, even though it is obvious the family is dysfunctional at best. Then to top it off, when the kid fails periods 1 to 4, we have to pass them on because the absences were excused. I think we've pushed the business model a bit too far. ENRON maybe?
TalNet?
There was a time when I had faith in Marty Esquivel.
I have arrived at the conclusion that he is just another political hack, with neither the courage nor the character to put administrative ethics and accountability on the table for candid, forthright, and honest discussion.
There is no equivalent gesture, even asking a few (harmless) questions about the double talk surrounding truancy and dropping out.
The double talk itself is patently dishonest.
It is just a bunch of game playing.
I totally agree with you about Esquivel, but what I was wondering was more about Winston. It almost looked like Winston took it seriously and wanted to head off the board at the pass, in the future, don't deal with MY staff directly, (lest you inadvertantly find out something you're not supposed to know) deal with me and I'll tell the staff how to spin it so we can all get our stories straight. I'm wondering if Winston knows he and the board are on the same team. Just a thought.
the metaphor that comes to my mind;
rats on a sinking ship,
every board member and administrator for themselves.
I definitely agree that college isn't for everyone, at least right out of high school. We need smart kids in the skilled trades! This is important work, that must be done here, not overseas. Many of these jobs have good pay and benefits, and are more interesting and useful than office work.
By the way, what is "a lobotomist"? Maybe you meant a phlebotomist, who draws blood?
Steve Martin is COOL.
I have been purusing youtube, and not just for porn, I found some cool stuff on why the Media, Government, Colleges, and Big Business all ignore us. Because they CAN.
They own everything, and plan to throw us into the biggest global depression in known history so they can take control again, a contructed dark age so the Ilumminati and Elites and Good Old Boys can have some uneducated, poor, ignorant sheep to shear, not the sorta smart but loony ones like us who know too much.
They want the dark ages back, where is was GOOD to be the king!
Mel Brooks, we NEED you man!
Michelle;
I actually typed in phlebotomist, correctly spelled. The spell checker suggested lobotomist (one who performs pre-frontal lobotomies) instead.
I figured why not?
Which reminds me of;
"I would rather have a bottle in front of me,
than a frontal lobotomy"
for whatever that is worth.
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