We are in a manufacturing town now that lost its largest employer. They moved to Mexico and are paying $1.25 an hour. This was a heavily union and democratic town for generations. But the economic collapse dictated the election.
It is a one high-school town. They are scoring at about the 12th percentile internationally on standardized tests. A high school graduate from Shanghai is five academic years ahead of the high school graduates here.
It is an understatement to say things are bleak. The high school also closed its skilled worker training program, what we called industrial arts in my day, to align with common core according to the district curriculum director.
For about $7,500 plus food they can teach our kindergartner the alphabet and how to count to 20. That's it, for one full school year.
That's one letter every 7 school days and one number every 9 school days. Almost $300 per letter of the alphabet. $375 per number.
If you already know how to read, do math, and are socially mature, the law forbids you from being in a higher grade. There's no private school. No catholic school.
So everyone is lock-step into this age-sorted lame curriculum from Kindergarten through high school, automatically programmed to be a below average town in a below average state in a below average country.
I call it Trump Town because he won the election here. But it is democratic, and more importantly there is one place where democrats and republicans hug, kiss and cheer all as one: Football.
The town was decorated - the houses, lawns, businesses, etc. for the big homecoming game. Special edition in the paper. A bunch of different goings-on. It's the main event of the year.
A number of parents hold their kid back from school in order to be a year older, bigger, and stronger at that peak education experience: Football games.
They had a losing record in their district and did not make it to state playoffs, but the newspaper had glowing reports about how strong the team was. The paper literally said Friday nights were "sacred".
It's a complete lack of self awareness. In terms of the global labor market. If you can't offer skilled labor, you have to offer intellectual capital.
In the meantime, the Common Core is dead and the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is in force. The feds are paying states to form committees and have meetings to completely re-write their educational evaluation procedures. Nobody here knows anything about it. There's 35 people on the statewide committee and they have to be done in six months.
From No Child Left Behind, then Race to the Top (Common Core) to now the ESSA - it's chaos in education. Trump will have an initiative too. Whatever this newest fad proposes in July of 2017 will already be on its way out with the new lock the Republicans have on the House, Senate, and Presidency.
So education in Trump Town is pretty much guaranteed to continue putting out kids that are ineligible for work in trades and years of remedial work away from gaining admission to a decent university course of study.
But the football? That will continue to shine, to bring the town together. It's basketball season now. Track in the spring, I guess.
I don't have anything against sports. But this town is typical for the state, and there are numerous states like this in the nation. There are a lot of regions worse than this too, of course. Asleep at the wheel academically, doing no work training, but lots of hoo-rah over social events.
They're all clueless to the fact our human capital competition is international now and several regions of the world, SE Asia in particular, have stiffened up the business. We are in chaos.
The chaos is so radical that under Obama and Bill Gates, every child was going to be an interchangeable commodity like a wall socket as he put it. Now under ESSA it's all about individuality. Quite the backlash against common core. May I suggest next time a balance between a common core and individuality?
In this chaos parents need to take much more interest in what their children are doing. You can't rely on the schools. The school boards are more about negotiating with the union over wages, not taking on educational challenges.
To pursue excellence, to compete with these tough SE Asians and the like, sets you so far at odds with the culture in Trump Town that you cannot fit in their lock-step program to third world education.
First in your class still makes you a mediocre OECD prospect. You need to be first in the class that's three or four years ahead of your own age to start raising eyebrows in college admissions. Or learn skilled trades outside the school system in order to get a decent job. That will do it too. Think of all the hours in sports practice - a lot more than typical apprenticeship programs.
But parents certainly don't think like this. In fact,most of it is illegal for any trades that actually pay well. The state child labor laws prohibit operating so much as a weed eater at age 14 and 15. No mechanic work, no construction, no cooking/baking - it's a long list and even up to age 18 you still can't do much of anything that pays.
But you can bash your head six nights a week in football. Then break your arm during wrestling season. You can run ten miles a day for track or cross-country but can't walk one block to deliver anything for pay.
A whole system in Trump town that virtually guarantees you won't have decent work experience or education at age 18.
It is a one high-school town. They are scoring at about the 12th percentile internationally on standardized tests. A high school graduate from Shanghai is five academic years ahead of the high school graduates here.
It is an understatement to say things are bleak. The high school also closed its skilled worker training program, what we called industrial arts in my day, to align with common core according to the district curriculum director.
For about $7,500 plus food they can teach our kindergartner the alphabet and how to count to 20. That's it, for one full school year.
That's one letter every 7 school days and one number every 9 school days. Almost $300 per letter of the alphabet. $375 per number.
If you already know how to read, do math, and are socially mature, the law forbids you from being in a higher grade. There's no private school. No catholic school.
So everyone is lock-step into this age-sorted lame curriculum from Kindergarten through high school, automatically programmed to be a below average town in a below average state in a below average country.
I call it Trump Town because he won the election here. But it is democratic, and more importantly there is one place where democrats and republicans hug, kiss and cheer all as one: Football.
The town was decorated - the houses, lawns, businesses, etc. for the big homecoming game. Special edition in the paper. A bunch of different goings-on. It's the main event of the year.
A number of parents hold their kid back from school in order to be a year older, bigger, and stronger at that peak education experience: Football games.
They had a losing record in their district and did not make it to state playoffs, but the newspaper had glowing reports about how strong the team was. The paper literally said Friday nights were "sacred".
It's a complete lack of self awareness. In terms of the global labor market. If you can't offer skilled labor, you have to offer intellectual capital.
In the meantime, the Common Core is dead and the new Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is in force. The feds are paying states to form committees and have meetings to completely re-write their educational evaluation procedures. Nobody here knows anything about it. There's 35 people on the statewide committee and they have to be done in six months.
From No Child Left Behind, then Race to the Top (Common Core) to now the ESSA - it's chaos in education. Trump will have an initiative too. Whatever this newest fad proposes in July of 2017 will already be on its way out with the new lock the Republicans have on the House, Senate, and Presidency.
So education in Trump Town is pretty much guaranteed to continue putting out kids that are ineligible for work in trades and years of remedial work away from gaining admission to a decent university course of study.
But the football? That will continue to shine, to bring the town together. It's basketball season now. Track in the spring, I guess.
I don't have anything against sports. But this town is typical for the state, and there are numerous states like this in the nation. There are a lot of regions worse than this too, of course. Asleep at the wheel academically, doing no work training, but lots of hoo-rah over social events.
They're all clueless to the fact our human capital competition is international now and several regions of the world, SE Asia in particular, have stiffened up the business. We are in chaos.
The chaos is so radical that under Obama and Bill Gates, every child was going to be an interchangeable commodity like a wall socket as he put it. Now under ESSA it's all about individuality. Quite the backlash against common core. May I suggest next time a balance between a common core and individuality?
In this chaos parents need to take much more interest in what their children are doing. You can't rely on the schools. The school boards are more about negotiating with the union over wages, not taking on educational challenges.
To pursue excellence, to compete with these tough SE Asians and the like, sets you so far at odds with the culture in Trump Town that you cannot fit in their lock-step program to third world education.
First in your class still makes you a mediocre OECD prospect. You need to be first in the class that's three or four years ahead of your own age to start raising eyebrows in college admissions. Or learn skilled trades outside the school system in order to get a decent job. That will do it too. Think of all the hours in sports practice - a lot more than typical apprenticeship programs.
But parents certainly don't think like this. In fact,most of it is illegal for any trades that actually pay well. The state child labor laws prohibit operating so much as a weed eater at age 14 and 15. No mechanic work, no construction, no cooking/baking - it's a long list and even up to age 18 you still can't do much of anything that pays.
But you can bash your head six nights a week in football. Then break your arm during wrestling season. You can run ten miles a day for track or cross-country but can't walk one block to deliver anything for pay.
A whole system in Trump town that virtually guarantees you won't have decent work experience or education at age 18.
via International Skeptics Forum http://ift.tt/2fOn7dg
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