This Bridge Should Be Burned Dave Hodges 8/2/13 CommonSenseShow As our students go off to school later this month, what will be waiting for them? Will there be eager teachers ready to ignite our children’s fires of curiosity? Will there be books, lessons and curriculum designed to move our children to the top run of educational achievement on the planet? The Failure of NCLB Gone is the failed educational initiative we called “No Child Left Behind (NCLB).” After a decade of experimentation NCLB made our education system the laughing stock of first world nations as we witnessed an SAT decline (articles.washingtonpost/2011-09-14/local/35273262_1_composite-score-scores-drop-average-math-score) of 30 points in reading comprehension scores. NCLB has been judged by nearly all to have caused irreparable harm to our children by doing nothing for learning while turning them into testing machines with seemingly endless standardized tests which subsequently replaced many previous days of legitimate instruction. NCLB was based upon two guiding principles: (1) the premise that telling school officials that if their students did not pass “standardized” tests, which contained the statistical properties of little to no reliability or validity measures, that they would all lose their jobs and the government would take over their schools; and, (2) students would not graduate if they did not pass these bogus tests. In most of these standardized tests, the reliability measures between the test and the curriculum was not fully documented. If a test does not contain measures of the various types of validity and reliability, you have no legitimate test. NCLB was nothing but nonsense. However there is one element, related to NCLB, namely, the introduction of “Zero Tolerance” policies, that has survived NCLB intact. This concept of unyielding Zero Tolerance philosophy is preparing our children to live in age where the only acceptable use of force is that which is applied by the government. Obama to the Rescue Just as Obamacare is preparing to right the wrongs of the managed healthcare industry, “Obamacore” promises to do the same in education. In reality, Obamacore will do for our children’s education what MERS has done for the sanctity and security of home mortgages. The Obamacore that I refer to is formally labeled as Common Core. In this series, it will become clear that Common Core should be labeled as Communist Corps because this is, in essence, preparing to have our children live in a dumbed down society and to accept whatever edicts are thrown at them by those inhabiting the ivory towers. Let’s begin our analysis of the new directions being taken by the educrats by first looking at a program, which survived NCLB and is walking in lockstep with a culturally dangerous and legally unconscionable program known as Zero Tolerance. Zero Tolerance is the authoritarian bridge between the failed NCLB and the new Common Core standards. Zero Tolerance If a student brings a gun on campus, they are expelled and they should be expelled. If a student brings any kind of weapon on campus, they are also expelled and, once again, they should be. However, like it is with all tyrannical programs, the initial principles are based upon guiding philosophy of Zero Tolerance are reasonable and most people would concur with the application of these policies as expressed above. However, in the following paragraphs, you will quickly see how Zero Tolerance is based upon the antithesis of our time-honored legal codes. The Right To Defend Oneself Two men meet by happenstance. One man attacks the other man. The victim fights back and beats off the attacker. The police arrive at the scene and cite the instigator and the second man is allowed to go home without being arrested. The legal principles contained in the above example are basically universal in our culture in that an attacked victim has the right to defend themselves so long as they use reasonable force. In every governmental jurisdiction within the United States, a citizen has the right to defend themselves from harm except within the confines of the public school system where self-defense is outlawed and punished. In fact, not only is the inherent right to defend oneself from harm outlawed by most public schools, the schools have even gone so far as to criminalize being a victim. As our children return to school this month, the following scenario will be repeated over and over again. A bully approaches a boy on the playground and begins to punch him, without warning, in the face and continues to pummel the victim while he lies helpless on the ground. The beating continues until a teacher breaks up the fight as he escorts the perpetrator and the bloody victim to the office. The facts are clear, one boy was the aggressor and one boy was clearly the innocent victim. However, Zero Tolerance has replaced fairness and common sense as both boys are suspended for 10 days. Yes, that is correct, both boys receive the same punishment regardless of who started the fight and regardless if the victim fought back or not. It is called Zero Tolerance and it is the policy in most schools and this fall you and your child may have to deal with this nonsense.
Posted on: Tue, 06 Aug 2013 18:15:15 +0000
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