How to improve American Education in 2021. (1 Viewer)

[Paul]

The most recent PISA results, from 2015, placed the U.S. an unimpressive 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science. Among the 35 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which sponsors the PISA initiative, the U.S. ranked 30th in math and 19th in science.

U.S. students' academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries

U.S. students continue to rank near the middle, and behind many other advanced industrial nations, in international math, science and reading assessments.

www.pewresearch.org

My suggestion is rather simple.

1. Study why immigrants from East Asia, India, and Nigeria do well with American education. Apply that insight to other groups (if possible).
2. Manage public schools as if though they were private schools with uniforms and discipline.
3. Create high end special schools for those that are truly disenfranchised.
4. Create a force of social workers to treat family dysfunction with regards to education.
5. Reduce the curriculum to the simple basics and repeat that on a yearly basis.
6. At about 10th grade divide college bound students away from non-college bound.
7. Provide solid basic education and trade training for non-college bound kids. There is no point in offering free college to these kids.

 

[SystemShock]

Why can't I do that? I know you guys get defensive about people talking about your religion but mine can be brought up to 'own the cons'? Your right, it is not a good look, just like when you did it.

I asked you not to do it because it is a tiresome, stupid argument and false equivalency that makes you look bad.

For the last time, I am for the vaccine if you need it or want it. I am not for anyone forcing anyone to take it. To me, that is the biggest difference.

Why are you telling me this?

 

[Farb]

I asked you not to do it because it is a tiresome, stupid argument and false equivalency that makes you look bad.



Why are you telling me this?

Come on. We were talking about the agency of children and you bring up sunday school. Obviously you really wanted to talk about religion, as you did for the next couple of pages but yeah, I am the one bring up tiresome, stupid argument of false equivalency.

Yeah, I don't want dim my stellar reputation on this board.

No reason other than I thought we were friends and you wanted to get to the know the 'real' Farb. Talk about unapproachable.

 

[wardorican]

Is the flu shot mandated? I don't think it is but not sure. And yes, that is the line the sand.
In order to force people to get the jab, it has to hinge on fact that is stops transmission. If it does not stop transmission, then there is no logical way you can demand someone take a jab. IMO.

Yes, I believe it is mandated to get the flu shot every year in service. I'll find a link later.

Edit: Here's the link.

Vaccine Recommendations by AOR

Vaccine Recommendations by AOR

www.health.mil

 

[zztop]

I’ve seen you say therapeutic enough times today to know for a fact that some right-wing media outlet is pushing that as a new narrative. You certainly didn’t think of it yourself.

Trump is saying it too (at his recent rally)

“The left is now rationing lifesaving therapeutics based on race, discriminating against and denigrating, just denigrating, white people to determine who lives and who dies. If you’re white, you don’t get the vaccine, or if you’re white, you don’t get therapeutics.”

 

[MT15]

It’s a lie, of course. Or rather twisting what happened in NYC to stoke racial animus. He knows that’s his best chance at staying relevant with people who support him.

 

[Farb]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/connecti...sexual-likes-and-dislikes-such-as-giving-oral

One Connecticut school is under fire for handing out a "Pizza and Consent" assignment, where eighth-grade students were given a handout stating that pizza can be used as a "metaphor for sex," which instructed students to list their favorite and least favorite pizza toppings "in relation to sex."

"Here are some examples: Likes: Cheese = Kissing," the assignment states. "Dislikes: Olives = Giving Oral," stated the assignment given to eighth graders within the Enfield Public Schools.

I know that most liberals don't condone sexually grooming children. I am sure some will defend it just because I brought it up but why do some on the left feel this is the correct way to 'educate' children?
If an adult walked up to your eight grader on the play ground and asked if they dislike oral sex, would you thank that adult for discussing a sensitive topic to your child or would you call the police? Why are teachers any different?
They also say this was an accident but why would that lesson plan even be available from a vendor? For the 'these are not your children, they belong to all of us' crowd, this is why your point is not taken seriously any longer.

 

[bird]

https://www.foxnews.com/us/connecti...sexual-likes-and-dislikes-such-as-giving-oral

One Connecticut school is under fire for handing out a "Pizza and Consent" assignment, where eighth-grade students were given a handout stating that pizza can be used as a "metaphor for sex," which instructed students to list their favorite and least favorite pizza toppings "in relation to sex."

"Here are some examples: Likes: Cheese = Kissing," the assignment states. "Dislikes: Olives = Giving Oral," stated the assignment given to eighth graders within the Enfield Public Schools.

I know that most liberals don't condone sexually grooming children. I am sure some will defend it just because I brought it up but why do some on the left feel this is the correct way to 'educate' children?
If an adult walked up to your eight grader on the play ground and asked if they dislike oral sex, would you thank that adult for discussing a sensitive topic to your child or would you call the police? Why are teachers any different?
They also say this was an accident but why would that lesson plan even be available from a vendor? For the 'these are not your children, they belong to all of us' crowd, this is why your point is not taken seriously any longer.

Nor is yours, if it ever was.

Sexually grooming children…your words. The purpose of which is to generate outrage. The stupidity of the exercise is self-evident. The stupidity of conservatism as relates to to concept of sexuality which all humans have is also self-evident. Conservatives bleat that children are being taught to have sex. This is not only a lie, understandable coming from conservatives, it completely misses the point. Young people have been having sex with or without their parents knowledge for millennia. Trying under the guise of guilt-ridden pseudo religious bullschlitz to prevent it is simplistic and a failure. Teaching children about their bodies and why they need to think and make informed decisions is far better than loading heaps of guilt and fear on them.

 

[H B Lowrey]

Come on. We were talking about the agency of children and you bring up sunday school. Obviously you really wanted to talk about religion, as you did for the next couple of pages but yeah, I am the one bring up tiresome, stupid argument of false equivalency.

Yeah, I don't want dim my stellar reputation on this board.

No reason other than I thought we were friends and you wanted to get to the know the 'real' Farb. Talk about unapproachable.

Don't pout Farbie, it's all gonna be ok.

 

[H B Lowrey]

Trump is saying it too (at his recent rally)

“The left is now rationing lifesaving therapeutics based on race, discriminating against and denigrating, just denigrating, white people to determine who lives and who dies. If you’re white, you don’t get the vaccine, or if you’re white, you don’t get therapeutics.”

Yeah, the old "them darkies and the left gonna take your shirt" bit. Still resonates in america.

 

[Optimus Prime]

finally a florida law I can get behind
========================

Florida lawmakers are considering making a financial literacy course a requirement for high school graduation, as more states seek to improve youths’ understanding of how to manage their personal finances.

A bipartisan bill winding its way through the state House of Representatives would require high school students to earn a half credit in personal financial literacy and money management. If passed, the bill would take effect starting with students entering the ninth grade in the 2022-23 school year, and make Florida the sixth state to require taking a stand-alone course in financial literacy for graduation.

The class would cover checkbook balancing, completing loan applications, inheritance, insurance, computing federal income tax and “contesting an incorrect billing statement,” among other topics. The draft legislation seeks to “better prepare young people in this state for adulthood by providing them with the requisite knowledge to achieve financial stability.”

Another version of the bipartisan bill is undergoing vetting in the Florida Senate.

The bill — along with similar education laws passed in other states, such as Virginia — aims to tackle a national problem: Many Americans suffer from financial illiteracy. Gaps in financial literacy levels along socio-demographic lines are also much wider in the United States than other developed countries, according to a recent report by the Milken Institute.

“The financial literacy gap between men and women in the US is about 37 percent wider than the [38-country Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] average and about 59 percent wider than the world average,” the authors of a 2021 report published by the think tank wrote. “Inequality in financial literacy among adults is relatively high in the US,” they said, even when compared with emerging economies............

MSN

www.msn.com

 

[Optimus Prime]

I'm not running for public office, so I'm going to tell you something practically no one seeking election in 2022 is willing to say out loud:

Parents aren't in charge of our public schools – and they shouldn't be.

That's not a problem; it's a best practice, and one that has prevailed in this country for a hundred years. It also happens to be the law.

Maybe you don't like that law. Maybe you believe that parents alone should dictate what goes on in the classrooms their children attend. If so, you're in luck: Dozens of private and parochial schools are in frenzied competition for your tuition check.

Almost certainly you can find one whose curriculum, library catalogue and hiring practices are compatible with your own political views, religious values and cultural preferences.

But my concern here is public schools, which Merriam-Webster defines as "free tax-supported schools controlled by a local governmental authority" (emphasis mine).

See? Not a word there about moms, dads or legal guardians. Because public means everyone – or at least, every citizen eligible to vote in the election for whatever local government authority calls the shots in the school district they reside in.

That includes plenty of moms and dads with school-age children, but also those whose children are grown, or dead, or living in foreign countries. Not to mention the legions of voters whose households, whether by choice or circumstance, include no children at all.

Of course, parents of school-age children tend to pay much closer attention to what happens in the public school classrooms their kids attend – and the vast majority of teachers have neither the desire nor the stamina to do their difficult jobs without the support of their students' families.

The better the teacher, the more interested he or she is likely to be in cultivating close, mutually supportive relationships with every student's parents. Good public schools recognize the unique importance of that partnership by sponsoring curriculum nights, setting aside time for parent-teacher conferences, and supporting parent-teacher associations that function as farm teams for the local school board.

But those with no children of their own are stakeholders, too – and they have every right to expect that the schools they subsidize with their tax dollars will prepare students to live and work in a democratic society that includes people with political and religious views different than their parents'..........

Despite what you hear, parents aren't in charge of schools. That's a good thing.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Amid a worrying rise in internet misinformation and political conspiracy theories, New Jersey students are poised to become some of the most informationally literate in the country.

Gov. Phil Murphy on Wednesday signed legislation, NJ S.B. 588 (22R)/NJ A.B. 4169 (22R), that will make New Jersey the first state to require that K-12 students learn about how information is produced and spread on the internet, critical thinking skills, the difference between facts and opinions and the ethics of creating and sharing information both online and in print.

“Our democracy remains under sustained attack through the proliferation of disinformation that is eroding the role of truth in our political and civic discourse,” Murphy said in a statement. “It is our responsibility to ensure our nation’s future leaders are equipped with the tools necessary to identify fact from fiction."

The bill received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Legislature — somewhat surprisingly given the political polarization of “disinformation” spread online and the role online conspiracy theories have played in recent elections.

The Senate version’s lead sponsor, Republican Sen. Mike Testa (Cumberland), said the new law will help students "weigh the flood of news, opinion, and social media they are exposed to both online and off."

"This law isn't about teaching kids that any specific idea is true or false. Rather, it's about helping them learn how to research, evaluate, and understand the information they are presented for themselves," Testa said in a statement.

Under the new law, the state Department of Education — in coordination with a committee of school library media specialists and teachers — will develop information literacy curriculum standards each school district will have to incorporate “in an appropriate place in the [district’s] curriculum.”

At minimum, the curriculum will have to include instruction on:

— The research process and how information is created and produced.

— Critical thinking and using information resources.

— Research methods, including the difference between primary and secondary sources.

— The difference between facts, points of view, and opinions.

— Accessing peer-reviewed print and digital library resources.

— The economic, legal and social issues surrounding the use of information.

— The ethical production of information............

New Jersey becomes first state to mandate K-12 students learn information literacy

 

[Optimus Prime]

California next year will become one of the few US states to teach students media literacy, a move experts say is imperative at a time when distrust in the media is at an all-time high and new technologies pose unprecedented challenges to identifying false information.

A state bill signed into law this fall mandates public schools to instruct media literacy, a set of skills that includes recognizing falsified data, identifying fake news and generating responsible internet content.

Researchers have long warned that the current digital ecosystem has had dire consequences on young people, and have argued that such instruction could make a difference.

The US surgeon general has cited digital and media literacy support as one way to combat the youth mental health crisis spurred by social media.

The American Psychological Association already has urged parents and schools to teach media literacy before they expose young people to social media platforms.

“What happens online can have the most terrifying of real-world impacts,” the California assembly member Marc Berman, who sponsored the bill, said in a statement. “This instruction will help students to be more responsible digital citizens, more intentional about what they put online, and better understand online safety and privacy.”

Just 18 states have enacted formal media literacy education standards or requirements so far. Those that have made it a focus – ranging from New Jersey and Delaware to Texas and Florida – cut across the political spectrum. When assembly bill 873 passed this fall, it was with nearly unanimous bipartisan support.……

Teaching kids to spot fake news: media literacy to be required in California schools

Experts say skills can teach critical thinking and even combat the youth mental health crisis

www.theguardian.com