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I just finished reading the paper. It sounds like common sense to me.
Why does nobody want to say out loud that not everybody is equal? We're all human and all deserve basic rights and respect, but we are not, nor have ever been, all the same.
So all that money was spent on No Child Left Behind, and after 6 years, nothing has changed? And yet people want to keep a failing policy going? If this were a business, it would have long ago been bankrupt and deservedly forgotten.
This need for high self-esteem seems to be a failure as well. Just because you feel good about yourself does not mean that you will now magically do well at something. Higher self-esteem does not equal higher aptitude.
It's too bad that parents do not have more of an influence. They and teachers, more than anybody else besides the children themselves, can see what will and will not work for their children. I know most of them love their children and want the best for them, but they can also see when more money and more enrichment programs simply do not work, hopeful as they may be at first.
It's also too bad that the children themselves don't have more influence. Not only do they know what doesn't work for them, they're also much more likely to tell it how it is. If children hate something, they will tell you honestly. They haven't yet learned to sugarcoat or double-talk or pretend everything is fine like many adults do.
Children know all too well that not everybody is the same, and most of the time they don't try to change that. It's the adults that need to learn that all over again.
2 comments:
I just finished reading the paper. It sounds like common sense to me.
Why does nobody want to say out loud that not everybody is equal? We're all human and all deserve basic rights and respect, but we are not, nor have ever been, all the same.
So all that money was spent on No Child Left Behind, and after 6 years, nothing has changed? And yet people want to keep a failing policy going? If this were a business, it would have long ago been bankrupt and deservedly forgotten.
This need for high self-esteem seems to be a failure as well. Just because you feel good about yourself does not mean that you will now magically do well at something. Higher self-esteem does not equal higher aptitude.
It's too bad that parents do not have more of an influence. They and teachers, more than anybody else besides the children themselves, can see what will and will not work for their children. I know most of them love their children and want the best for them, but they can also see when more money and more enrichment programs simply do not work, hopeful as they may be at first.
It's also too bad that the children themselves don't have more influence. Not only do they know what doesn't work for them, they're also much more likely to tell it how it is. If children hate something, they will tell you honestly. They haven't yet learned to sugarcoat or double-talk or pretend everything is fine like many adults do.
Children know all too well that not everybody is the same, and most of the time they don't try to change that. It's the adults that need to learn that all over again.
Here is another article you may find interesting: http://www.cantrip.org/gatto.html
Have a good day.
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