Ah..."teach to the test".  If I have one huge beef with Dubbya, "No
Child Left Behind" and the resulting "teaching to the test" would be it.
In Ohio, many schools took the "Highly Qualified Teacher" guidelines as
set in stone and implemented the mandates that the secondary level
teachers have 20 semester hours in the taught subject.  Whaddya
know--Special Ed teachers teach EVERY core subject.  That means that
certified SE teachers in Ohio would need to go back to school, full
time, for two years in order to meet the guidelines.  They were trying
to apply these guidelines to teachers who had been in the classroom 30+
years!  No wonder these folks were taking early outs.  I think, in part,
a lot of school boards used "Highly Qualified Teacher" to get rid of
expensive teachers with lots of years in the system and replace them
with 20-somethings who would work for $20K per year.

-----Original Message-----
From: Cerebral Palsy List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Kendall D. Corbett
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 12:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Let's Shift Gears ....

Linda, et al,

My grandparents were teachers, my aunt was an elementary teacher and
school
principal, my dad taught at the University level, my mom taught high
school,
and my sister and I both teach at the University level (although my
teaching
is limited to guest lectures on disability topics, as I haven't
completed my
Master's yet).  I've had the opportunity to do this in nearly all of the
"colleges" - Engineering, Health Sciences, Arts and Sciences, and
Business -
across the University, however.

Another aspect that emphasizes the importance of families inculcating
values
in their children is that with standards based education being the
driving
force behind funding, teachers must increasingly "teach to the test."  I
don't argue think that proficiency in core areas should be allowed to
slip,
but in a 6.5 - 7.5 hour school day, many of the "values based"
curriculums
take a back seat to these "core areas."  There are too many schools who
have
eliminated art and music programs to devote time and money to "teach to
the
test."  Unfortunately, citizenship is not a large part of these tests.
Much
of the writing I see in freshman level students tells me that teaching
being
driven by a specific test isn't working well across the board.

Have a great time in New Orleans!

Kat,

As far as "who elects the politicians?" it could be argued that it's
largely
done by the largest campaign finance organization, or the one who can
fool
or intimidate the voters the best.

On Nov 1, 2007 2:32 PM, Linda Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> You are correct. Teachers not paid enough, classes too large, parents
> expect too much, etc. however there are some awesome teaching
> materials put out by the anti defamation league that teach kindness
> and understanding and when it is not taught in the home I think it
> can be taught as part of good citizenship. I've interviewed many kids
> raised by racist parents and many of them reject the ideas of their
> parents simply from knowing right from wrong and most kids have a
> sense of fairness and justice. I think our democracy is in peril
> because of the schools and I am not blaming teachers for this but
> citizens and politicians who do not seem to appreciate how important
> education is. What if we spent one week of the Iraq war budget on
> schools. Soapbox standing down. Gotta prepare for my trip to New
> Orleans. Excited as I've never been there.
>
> --
>
>
> Kendall
>
> An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)
>
> The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
> persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all
progress
> depends on the unreasonable man.
>
> -George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950
>

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