exam 02 my first common core student failed the math

[woodsmoke]

This student is my first verifiable ( by how the problems were attacked ) person who was taught using common core.

I have NEVER seen such botched up reasoning and "hen scratching" on so many pieces of "show the work" paper.

Here is an example of how common core is done:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2QGiGqz-xs

THE CREATOR of Common Core admits ON CAMERA that he created it......

.......... NOT TO IMPROVE ALL STUDENTS

..............................but to "end white privilege"

Fortunately the audience roundly boos him but the audience is then "shused" by the moderator....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ8Nr3_2724

AS A NOTE: the REAL reason that such a student ended up in my class is seemingly valid.

there is some cause to think, going back quite a few years, that using "a test" to determine if a student should take "remedial" classes in the first semester can actually increase dropout rates whereas if a student "self selects" to take a remedial class after a first semester that the student's chance of success is improved.

Since this is a pretty high tech campus within the system the college decided to allow "self selection" for remedial classes. And, by and large it has worked well, This is a rural, agricultural area and the schools, by and large, still teach "readin, ritin, and rithmatik" in the elementary grades so we usually get a very high caliber student. This is in contradistinction to the "main" campus which is a catchall of the normal students. I fear to think what will happen if they decide to try self selection for all of the campuses.

My campus teaches laboratory tech, environmental tech, medical laboratory tech, physical therapy, dental hygenist, hearing technology, we are in a pilot program about the cochlear implant in addition to the normal hearing stuff,

Appended below is an example of one of the first studies ....please notice that even back in the eighties the number of students who need remedial work was very large, nothing has changed except the talking heads that shout out of the telly at the poor taxpayer..

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED239679

Fortunately our state legislature opted to lose a lot of money and drop common core and also to drop our mandated state wide test ( which I and a bunch of other educators slaved to make but then the legislature decided literally to SELL it to a book publisher and it turned to a monstorous abortion). They are going to make another stab at the TEACHERS AND PARENTS and the college airheads acting only in an advising capacity...actually making the new statewide exam.

woodsmoke

[GreyGeek]

I began my first year as a public school teacher being an "Acting" principal of a K-12 school because they couldn't find a person with the necessary degree and qualifications and I had the highest degree and the most college hours of any teacher on the staff, including ones that had been teaching for one or more decades. It was a GREAT learning experience. One of the classes I assigned myself was the 9th grade remedial math class. It was an eye-opener. These kids were not in the -1 or -2 sigma range. They were sigma 0 or higher. Why couldn't they do simple addition, subtraction, multiplication or division in their heads? Because they had no confidence in their results. One of my duties was to "observe" the teachers while teaching, in order to create an evaluation. I saw the first grade math teacher doing her stuff. It was all butterflies and then 1+1=2. Then more butterflies. No rote, no repetition. A lot of the kids never learned their math FACTS. When they were stepped to the 2nd grade an evaluation test divided them into two tracks. The ones who "knew" 1st grade math facts and the ones who did not. The second track was required by state law to be taught by a "special ed" teacher. One "specially" trained to teach math (or what ever) to "slow learning" kids. Special Ed teachers were paid more because they were a "specialty". What did they use for their special ed math texts? The first grade math curriculum. I observed that this form progressed all the way through elementary and into Jr High. The second track kids weren't dumb. They realized that the teachers believed that they were stupid and couldn't learn at their age level, so the kids ignored the teachers and just putzed around during class, doing as little as possible. As an experiment I programmed my Apple ][+ to generate a table of 12X12 math facts for +-X/ and had the kids come to the computer and take the tests in a timed manner, scoring them on both speed and the number right. It was a computerized version of the flashcards I used as a child to learn those math facts. By half way through the first semester the kids, ALL OF THEM, were lightening fast on the 12X12 match facts. They KNEW 9+6 instantly and had no doubts. By the end of the semester those "2nd track" kids were doing amortization tables on auto and home purchases and computing the monthly payments, divided into interest and principal. From that we could discuss how much a home really costs when you make small payments over a long period of time as compared to larger payments for a shorter period of time. Even the "advanced" college prep math class students couldn't calculate an amortization table, or future value, etc....

It wasn't that these kids couldn't learn math, it was that they never developed confidence in what they knew because they never had those facts DRILLED into them. If a problem asked for the result of 7X8 they weren't sure what the answer was, even if they knew it. They'd give up.

I picked up my grandson from school one day a couple years ago. He had some math problems to do. You guessed it. Common Core. He was took 30 minutes to do 10 multiplication problems. He asked me to correct them. He missed most of them. His paper was covered with stacks, blocks, cross outs, digits scattered everywhere. I talked it over with my son, his dad, and explained the problem. My son, a math major, new what to do. Last week I picked up my grandson. He had math homework. Multiplying two and three digit numbers. He knew the answers almost immediately. His problem was putting the answers down so it "looked like" he used common core to solve them. As a fifth grader he should be well beyond three digit multiplication and into geometry and trig, so he could take intro to calculus as a sixth grader. That's what the rest of the world is having no trouble doing with their similarly aged students. But, the US can't, unless the kids go to special private schools or home school. That is why the math scores for US students are dropping. But, despite that, the PTB are doubling down on Common Core, blaming everything else for the problem. So, we continue our "Race To The Top" by taking one step forward and three backwards.

IF I had school age kids today I'd home school them, then I'd pay for their voc tech training in a skill that cannot be outsourced or H-1B'd away. Then, after they have that skill and can support themselves I'd help them get a college degree in a solid major, if they wanted one. Nurse, Doctor, perhaps a lawyer or a civil engineer. But, send them to college and hope they graduate with a degree for which they hope that they can find a job using such a degree? No way. There is no reason to hold a Master's in Sociology just to drive a lawn service truck. And, you don't need a BS, BA, MA, MS or a PhD to do auto repair, wire homes for electricity, weld, service stationary power plants, install solar power or wind systems, be a chef, or do many other things that require state certification but no college degree. Plumbers make more than social workers, and usually do more good.

[woodsmoke]

A) EVERYONE should read or REread what GG posted because I have seen ALL of what he says including the thing about using the previous years curriculum.

B) I am a strong supporter of self designation as to classes but I thought I'd relate what I said to the Dean and was going to visit for a few minutes today, but...

to my GREAT GOOD LUCK.... she was not in....her secretary asked what I wanted to visit about and that maybe I could call her or whatever, and I said not it wasn't that important, it was a "long term" thing and kind of related it and

She stopped me about three/quarters of the way through and said very STERNLY .........to the effect of: "NO, do NOT even mention this, you are an adjunct and the full time people can make things very uncomfortable for you, you ALREADY make them uncomfortable because of your students, but LEAVE THIS for them to finally figure out a few years from now. You are always ahead of things that other people do or learn later... just keep quiet.

Ok!!!

C) The reason that my students do so well with the math is that I spend the first three weeks on getting them to KNOW that they have made the calculations correctly, with simple things like D = M / V that when M increases the D increases and is a direct relationship and then V and D as an inverse relationship, We do things doing simple math problems, a density count of corals that I ran, a density of the trees in the woods by the campus, and which can of soda floats in water because of sugar or aspartame.

It SEEMS to be a big waste of time, but my students get excellent results on the math and we actually cover MORE math than the other teachers, ( it is a "concepts" class that I have turned in to Holt Rinehart and Winston).

So, again...please REread or READ GG's post below this.

woodgratefultoGGsmoke

[TWPonKubuntu]

Being out of the public school system for 20 years, I'm not exposed, directly, to "common core"...

My fear is that students which the schools are now releasing into society will be failures, both to society and to themselves...

More scary is what Woodsmoke revealed in the conversation with the school secretary: an attitude of "wait a few years and let the teachers figure it out for themselves". It will be too little, too late.

We don't have "a few years", we are losing an entire generation of children. They will not be good employees for business owners, they will NOT be starting their own businesses and they will be a drain on the economy, perhaps for their entire lives.

If you have children in public schools, either speak up, loudly, to get this changed or get your children out of the public education system. I am a champion of home schooling. I don't see many other options available. Private schools are simply too expensive and too few to make up for the failure of public schools.

[rant to be continued]

[woodsmoke]

nice comments TWP!

Here is another unknown nugget that may or may not be available in YOUR state.

Ya know those standardized tests?

In MANY STATES, the school WHERE YOU HAVE AN ENROLLED STUDENT.... are required by state law to allow YOU, the parent, to "view" the test.

You cannot have a cell phone, or a pencil or pen and paper to "take notes", or to have a camera.

You are allowed to "turn the pages" and "view" the exam, at any time during the year.

If the parent has a quick memory she or he can probably view the problem questions for the particular child and jot them down later to have the student work on it.

One CAN....also "sit in" on the child's classroom at any time, an as many times as desired.

One CANNOT .....DO ....anything, I mean ...........nothing.....

But one can sit in on when the studying for the exam is occuring and there will be many days set aside.

Also.............

The whole thing about the standardized testing is that it is a MONEY MAKING activity for the book companies that make them, such as CTB McGraw Hill, some of this money is "kicked back" to the state legislatures or the state education department.

The critical thing here is that these tests HAVE to be available at "the land grant college" in the reference section, one should not SAY a word, one should go to the "education section" in reference and manually just spend time looking through all of the "reference books" about "education / testing / etc". A copy of the PREVIOUS year's test will be there. Unless there has been a big shift between years they are mostly the same.

Do not plan to find it in the computer database.

That can be copied, photographed, etc, and the librarian won't say a word because it is part of the "public record"

Another thing to do......and this is so ludicrous....is to literally go TO ANOTHER STATE.... and one can purchase a copy of the test for YOUR state....it is just insane...BUT, you have to have a state teacher liscence to so do, so find a friend of a friend,

Also there is a pedagogical reason for this....

the whole raison' detre for the "new tests" is because of the whole debacle of "how can a kid in a ghetto know what a "tu-tu" is?"

The problem with all of this is that the ONLY way that a kid can "understand a question on a paper test" is to be CUED on the test items.

There was an attempt in the late sixties to have a standardized test which was ONLY.............ONLY.......... a bunch of line drawings of shapes and the student was to pick out which one matched others, was different, was turned differently, the whole thing about "how many things can you find in this drawing" for kids...

But.... almost all of the "standardized tests" also have................a Study guide book that "cues" the students with "the same questions" only the "nucleus" is a different line drawing but the cue is what is the thing that contains DNA and a different line drawing.


MOSTLY the tests "alternate years" and the students go through the study guide in off years.

This book does not have to be in a library, but they CAN be purchased "online" if it is by a "designated teacher"....

Guess what, find a liscenced home schooler to buy it for you. lol

Again, one might just be able to walk into a bookstore in another state to purchase it and it MIGHT be available to a parent because it is a study guide.

But, the big point here is ...........BE COURTEOUS..... and just ASK the principal, after she or he is supposed to be your "pal" for a look see at the exam. They are required by law to show you the thing, depending on the state.

NOW here is another dirty little secret.

The physical exam books are supposed to be shipped back to "the state department of education" after the exam is given...

But in many cases, there literally is not the storage at the state level OR the human power....so the tests are stored in a "local safe".

If the person says something like "we have to get a copy in from the state, can you come back on such and such..."

That is just a way to get you to think that it is stored elsewhere ..

very courtously say yes I would be glad to do that, but CONFIRM the day before that you are coming in the next day so that they can't put you off.

If you are in a "BIG UNION" state, you willl probably get NOTHING but run arounds and I would not push it because they will only take it out on your kid.

woodsmoke

[TWPonKubuntu]

So parents can 'game' the system and they are also being 'gamed' in return...

I'm so glad I got out, and that I was never in the K-12 schools.

I did get to see what they produced, when the kids came to the community colleges before trying for a degree. Sad, and that was before common core was introduced.

[woodsmoke]

As to the parents "gaming" the system, it happens so few times as to be farcical.

Parent's, by and large, "respect" teachers, maybe not "the system".

So, the number of parents who actually "go" to sit in on a class are few, very few, and I'm talking about "just sitting in" for a "regular class'.

Is the few cases, it is "usually" because the student has some kind of disability and the parent realizes that they need to stay aware of what is going on, however, the teachers really do not want the parent there because....

well, there is a saying about sausage making, the result might taste great but you don't want to actually see the process.

The people who are really gaming the system are the politicians.

There was an "old saying" for well into 5 decades up until the 90's when the Democrats decided that they were going to "own" education, like they were going to "own" the black and minority vote and the media vote.

And it was, that "education and metal health" are the "whipping boys" of politcians.

That it was and is, today, the thing that they can rant and rave about and do nothing because they want to have it to rant and rave about during the next election.

++++++++++++++

And here is a perfect example of how the politicians created a situation through the state departments of education to continually keep education looking like it wasn't working so that they could rant and rave;

The scores on the state tests are not a comparison of the apple this year to the apple next year, so that the student can show improvement.

"English" is tested once, "biology" is tested once, etc. now yes, they have "components" of the disciplines but there is an emphasis on a large topic each year.

The politicians and the "eucationists" (not the educators - there IS a difference) realized that they "blew it" by having "objective standards" that were comprehensive, like....."after students in your school take biology they are tested at the end of the year". That is a valid standard, one can say that the student should know several parts of the cell, the ecological food pyramid of energy, the structure of DNA etc.

After they set that system up, which the TEACHERS heartily endorsed and the parents heartily endorsed, the teachers did what teachers do......they adapted to teach biology, or english, and to "cover what was considered to be a standard of information"... oooopsy...... grades went up and stayed up! Can't have THAT.....there is no reason to be continually increasing the states education buraucracy and the taxes and the yada yada...

In the WRITTEN press, there were quite a few states that had variants of "the Connecticut Miracle" in the headlines.........scores had INCREASED, ....WE ARE FINALLY GETTING THINGS RIGHT...This occurred generally at the beginning of the eighties..

nope....can't have that..

So the tests were...........enhanced......................

Most exams now have "sets" of questions which are literally..................THREE questions..... about..... say...."drama", or "the civil war"....

notice............THREE questions.............. if the student gets ONE correct then the student is "not progressinig", if little Suzy gets TWO correct the student "is progressing' and if he gets all three right the student "has progressed"...

Well..............that kinda seems ok....until the next thing is thrown in.............

The test is given at the beginning of the fall semester for the class that was taken last year... hmmmm summer break.....

AND..........

No matter how many questions the student gets correct or not....

The "cohort", the "group of students taking the particular exam............THAT INSTANT IN TIME..........are then CURVED against.............all of the other "cohorts" taking the exam....

Again............the teachers adjusted and scores were going up, but...............not "for the school"............

Schools where the scores were averaging........... 90 percent were deemed to be FAILING because in the curving of the cohorts, there will always be a left middle and right of the curve... The "passing schools were AND ARE TODAY/.... "succeding" when they were at 98 percent!!!

WHAT?

The actual "score" for the "school's effort" are never release they are given a "below average, average, above average" grade in the press release....no actual statistics are provided

The PARENT never actually SEES what the kid gets wrong or right, and never actually SEES the actual scores, they are given a "not progressing, progressing, progressed" word for each topic..

I mean WHAT!!?? :0

That IMPOVEMENTS becuse the kids were coming home with A in the class and getting a "not progressed test score" that parents were beginning TALK TO OTHER PARENTS...and ..to ask what was going on... UH OH....the eddicationists had to do SOMETHING

so....they threw in that the "age" of books were part of the score...okaay.......then.... grade a school on"how new the library books" are... again on a curve so that libraries are told directly to pitch books five years old because they are graded down against other....richer ....schools who literally just throw out whole sections of a library..............annd of course, how NEW was the gym? A perfectly fine gym that met all requirements of just a few years ago suddenly was failing because of "new requirements to ENHANCE the gym"...

new bond election, new taxes... it became farcical even to the most "liberal" of the parents, because their kid who was supposed to go to an ELITE school....had bad scores on the test but great grades and...

oooopsie..... scores on the pre ACT and pre SAT were..................woah.......just fine!!!

It was SO BAD.......that a true, "5A" (the highest ranking) , regionally ranked school just across the border from where I am typing..........was given a FAILILNG grade by the state department of education...

The politicians RAN FOR COVER....

And the parents / boosters / everybody said, enough is enough and a "letter" was written to the editor of the local MASSIVELY LEFT LIBERAL newspaper, which has gone so far south in revenue that it now has four pages of local and 8 pages of USA Today and it's WIDTH has been shaved by two inches.... that said..... anonymously............"fix this or the game will be exposed".....

The Superintendant of schools and the school board and.........lol............lagging waaayyy behind, the area representative went to the Department of Education to discuss the possibility of a "statistical error"...

and..........low and behold....a month or so later.......the state department of education discovered an ERROR in the statistics and that actually the school did just fine....

The standardized test for the state was dumped two years ago ......and a new one is in process being made by "educatORS" and "parents".... in addition to a replacement for "common core" again by parents and educatORS.

But..........just as the sand slips through the hourglass...... these are the days of continuing taxes down the drain...



The state department has grown from about thirty people in the seventies to over a hundred and sixty as of a few years ago....and...... to do this "new" stuff..... they are going to have to increase the budget and hire more people.....

The SELF STUDY COMPLIANCE REPORT of the average school in our fair state now comprises...... five stacks, four feet high of paper. it takes a year to do, and the schools have to hire extra specialized staff, trained by the state department to.........help the locals who are not doing their normal job get through what can only be called a grinding of grain between rock wheels.

The TEACHERS are in fear of their jobs because they are given an hour private interview before THREE state inquisitors about.........OTHER teachers.... in the form of.... an "anonymous survey"

Time to get back at the woman who took the last of the coffee creamer in the teacher lounge.

Follow the money..........follow the politics..... The republicans used to kind of push education but they were also about cutting taxes....so now the Dems own "education" and they WILL have their due...

what a joke...

woodsorryforthelongpostsmoke

[whatthefunk]

Please dont blame this all on the Democrats or Republicans. Both parties have contributed to the standardized testing dumpster fire our public school systems have become. Any time the federal government tries to get schools to do what it wants, the way to track 'performance' is by testing. You want standardized testing, look at Bush's No Child Left Behind policy. That was all about standardized testing. And then that ended and Obama tried his thing, and the next president will try their thing, and the next another thing. Our educators will always be one step behind what the government wants and our kids will be the ones suffering. So yeah, blame the democrats. And the democrats will blame the republicans. And we'll all vote along party lines for people we dont really believe in because they arent that other party.

Also woodsmoke, statistically, your data is pretty crap. One student?! Thats all you got?! Every education system on the earth produces a few people who just dont get it. There will always be that one guy who cant figure it out no matter what you tell him or how you teach him. So lets not jump to conclusions and write pages and pages on barely intelligible stuff on the internet because one student sucks at math. Im not defending common core or anything, but you cant tell if its working or not by the actions of one student.

[TWPonKubuntu]

Woodsmoke and whatthefunk

I'm going to defend Woodsmoke here. Even allowing for this being an opportunity to "blow off steam", the education system in the US is seriously malfunctioning (broken, failing, corrupted, pick one).

Woodsmoke is right in the middle of this and can see how it effects his ability to do his job.

WTF (if I may abbreviate your handle), politics is an integral part of the problem. My perception is that the "liberal" side of politics, no matter which political party, is a big part of this failure.

I saw this when I was in the scrum (soccer term for those who don't recognize it, a good liberal game). Instructors (not Educators, not Teachers) were about (my estimate) 80% in the liberal camp, having come from the predominantly liberal college system (even back then) and having been exposed (indoctrinated) to the idea that traditional education methods were no longer valid.

No matter who you want to blame for the current situation, THERE IS A PROBLEM.

Solving it should be much higher priority. We do face a generation (20 years) of student who have NOT been taught, they have been, if anything, shown by example that success does not depend on either education or the amount of effort they need to apply to learning and "life after school".

That is why I support home schooling. That is why we face an economic depression. That is why you, the parent, should be teaching your children how to survive IN SPITE of the public education.

[rant continued later]

[Snowhog]

I agree that there is a problem in the eduction system here in the U.S. It has been my opinion and belief for a long time -- a very long time -- that that problem is the U.S. Department of Education. When our federal government decided 'they' had to 'be in control' so that a 'one size fits all' system could be developed and enforced, the quality of (our) education started going down hill. That isn't to say that there aren't still good -- very good -- teachers, but I hate to say, they are in the minority.

[Qqmike]

Yeah, re TWPonKubuntu and Snowhog (above).

Another way at this issue is to see what may have "slipped," starting in the past somewhere.

Many of you here share my history in school: First grade was about 1954 or so. Somehow, most of us learned arithmetic, writing and spelling, gym and sports and exercising, and all the other subjects. Did we have a choice? Not in my experience. The only other choice was to have your ass kicked by parents and teachers. Time to learn fractions? You bet, bring it on. And we learned the stuff. They kept you after school if you didn't. Second grade: I couldn't get the hang of long division, it just didn't make sense to me by rote; Mrs. Jacobs kept me after school until I got it. (Later in life, I got an M.S. in pure math.) And we memorized things, important things, like in Geography. We learned to read maps. We did it all--at a basic, public education level, preparatory for college or for further self study.

So where did this common-sense approach to public education veer off course? I mean, this need not be rocket surgery ...

[TWPonKubuntu]

Qqmike, I think there were many factors contributing to the change in direction of education.

The question is, how to steer the craft back to what worked? Massive failure has this effect, if at a high cost both in time and money.

I'd rather accelerate and reverse the changes, using what is known to work. Since the public education system is not working, I prefer the home schooling option, so long as we have parents who still remember what and how to learn... As you say, the common-sense way.

[whatthefunk]

TwPonKubuntu

I also think that the public school system is a disaster and has been for a long time. The main problem though is not any one political party. Its that the federal government (both parties) trying to dictate and evaluate what schools do. When the federal government says to schools 'You have to achieve this!' they need some way to show that their education plan has worked. That would be standardized tests. And then when they tell schools further that if they dont meet your expectations they will receive less federal funding, that puts schools and teachers in a very odd situation. Meanwhile, kids in the rest of the world are far exceeding ours. Yes, even in Europe where they use all those liberal teaching methods you talk about, kids leave the public school system fluent in at least one foreign language and with a better math skills than most of America's college graduates.

As to home schooling... That isnt very practical for most people. If both parents work, how are they supposed to teach their kids? And what about socialization?

[TWPonKubuntu]

whatthefunk

I'm open to other options. What can be done to change the public school system, preferably back to what worked in prior decades?

I'm mot sure I agree that the European school system is using "liberal teaching methods". Perhaps it is that the method is not the message being taught there?

I do agree that home schooling requires a large commitment on the part of parents and that few are able/willing to do this. I cannot offer a solution to that, but the method does give results that I consider desirable, ie. and educated child who knows more about society and how to operate in society. That is two separate results, not one.

Ideally, the (our U.S.) public school system would be changed... and I don't see that happening for the same reasons that home schooling is not a larger success. Too few people want to make the change or even see that it is needed.

Parents need to recognize the need for change, first, and as you note, they don't have the time or resources. They are busy trying to survive in today's society. A vicious spiral downward.

Pessimistic? Yes, I am in this regard. If there is a thread of hope in this discussion, it is that we are having this discussion at all.

I will give this to Woodsmoke, he is still in the trenches, fighting the good fight.

[GreyGeek]

TwPonKubuntu

I also think that the public school system is a disaster and has been for a long time. The main problem though is not any one political party. Its that the federal government (both parties) trying to dictate and evaluate what schools do. When the federal government says to schools 'You have to achieve this!' they need some way to show that their education plan has worked. That would be standardized tests. And then when they tell schools further that if they dont meet your expectations they will receive less federal funding, that puts schools and teachers in a very odd situation. Meanwhile, kids in the rest of the world are far exceeding ours. Yes, even in Europe where they use all those liberal teaching methods you talk about, kids leave the public school system fluent in at least one foreign language and with a better math skills than most of America's college graduates.

As to home schooling... That isnt very practical for most people. If both parents work, how are they supposed to teach their kids? And what about socialization?

You're right WTF! Democrat or Republican, it doesn't seem to matter. The political class in general seems to lack any moral foundation and their only goal is to increase their own personal power and perks.

A foreign exchange HS student from France tested out of every class offering at the local HS. They brought him to the college where I taught and enrolled him in my Physics and Calculus classes. My classes were filled with the cream of American HS graduates. They were in the top 90% of SAT and ACT scores. Sebastian blew them all out of the water and held the top grad in both classes. During the Xmas break, since his family was too far away to visit, I invited him home for Xmas dinner. During our discussions I asked him what he planned to major in when he went to college in France. His reply: "I'm not good enough to get into college at home. I am entering a votech school to study Inert gas welding" I was stunned. A Year later he was back in Lincoln doing an Intern at a place near the campus which specialized in what he was studying.

You are also correct when you state that most parents are not well educated enough to teach home schooling. Many of them are doing it for religious reasons and while they may be well grounded in their Faith, their knowledge of other areas can be woefully inadequate. Unfortunately, a large number of teachers are not well educated enought to teach the subjects they supposedly know. In American public schools administrators can assign up to 27% of their staff to teach subject areas they have no formal training in. It's called a "Dislocation". So, you have a lot of coaches, hired because of their coaching record, "teaching" hard core subjects they know nothing about. They are fired because they didn't have a winning record, not because they can't teach.

One way to begin returning American schools back to the task of teaching (not propagandizing) students is to eliminate extra curricular activities like football, basket ball, vollyball, etc. Already many public schools no longer sponsor base ball teams because the season cuts into the teacher's summer break. In many schools class attendance revolves around the sport schedule. School has been reduced to baby sitting. If a town wants their kids to play football or basket ball let the parents who do create and support those teams and take that financial burden off of the school. Those who want to play can pay. Sports is the golden ring in the nose of schools leading them around the sandlot without any regard for the majority of students who do not play.

This, and other reasons, have caused a lot of kids to not care about their own education because they get the feeling that the school doesn't care, regardless of the lip service. It is more a matter of power and control. When I first began teaching in 1968 about 90% of the kids (and parents!) were interested in learning and tried to do well. When I quit teaching in 1995 only about 10% of the kids had an interest in their own education. Most teachers cannot handle the majority of the 90%. I was fortunate. 6'6" and 245 lbs, little fat, and a practiced death stare. But, for the most part, the kids knew that I was interested in my science and wanted them to learn it. I kept them engaged and challenged, sans "busy work". I LOVED teaching. I just couldn't afford to stay in it.