Remember the Tytins

From Patrick Welsh in USA Today:

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Last month, as I averaged the second-quarter grades for my senior English classes at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., the same familiar pattern leapt out at me.

Kids who had emigrated from foreign countries - such as Shewit Giovanni from Ethiopia, Farah Ali from Guyana and Edgar Awumey from Ghana - often aced every test, while many of their U.S.-born classmates from upper-class homes with highly educated parents had a string of C's and D's.

As one would expect, the middle-class American kids usually had higher SAT verbal scores than did their immigrant classmates, many of whom had only been speaking English for a few years.

What many of the American kids I taught did not have was the motivation, self-discipline or work ethic of the foreign-born kids.

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Welsh believes reform efforts are misguided:

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A study released in December by University of Pennsylvania researchers Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman suggests that the reason so many U.S. students are "falling short of their intellectual potential" is not "inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes" and the rest of the usual litany cited by the so-called reformers - but "their failure to exercise self-discipline."...

"Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."

As my colleague Ed Cannon puts it: "Today, the teacher is supposed to be responsible for motivating the kid. If they don't learn it is supposed to be our problem, not theirs."

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But the blame goes all around (emphasis mine):

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Every year, I have had parents come in to argue about the grades I have given in my AP English classes. To me, my grades are far too generous; to middle-class parents, they are often an affront to their sense of entitlement. If their kids do a modicum of work, many parents expect them to get at least a B. When I have given C's or D's to bright middle-class kids who have done poor or mediocre work, some parents have accused me of destroying their children's futures....

Neither the high-stakes state exams, such as Virginia's Standards of Learning, nor the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have succeeded in changing that message; both have turned into minimum-competency requirements aimed at the lowest in our school.

Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration.

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But this story was written in Virginia. In California, students are learning - how to go to court:

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Board of Education member Donald Fisher [says] the exam measures basic English and math skills that all potential high school graduates should possess.

"The test is very simple," he said. "I would be surprised if they could be 'highly proficient' and not be able to pass this test."...

About 100,000 seniors, more than one-fifth of the state's roughly 450,000 high school seniors, had not passed at least one of the sections at the start of this school year.

State officials have said they do not have updated figures, although they say the number is likely much lower now because students have had several chances to take the exam.

One group of students has filed a lawsuit claiming the exam is illegal and discriminatory. The students are seeking a court injunction to delay the consequences of the exam for the Class of 2006 - an exemption already won by special education students, who received a one-year reprieve....

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, who wrote the original law while he was a state senator...recommended the board keep the exit exam as the sole measurement of whether students should earn diplomas.

Students who fail it can get extra tutoring, take another year of high school or move on to community college and take the test again later, he said.

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What?!? Take another year of high school? That fascist. The Oakland Education Association has a better idea - tax the rich:

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The "No Child Left Behind Act" with its tests and sanctions was already previewed in California by former Governor Gray Davis. Jack O'Connell, now State Superintendent of Education, introduced most of the "school accountability" bills in the legislature while he was in the State Senate. In fact, California's testing regimen starts earlier and is more frequent than federal requirements.

The bipartisan "accountability" movement is a substitute for adequately funding the schools. It's robbing our students of their education and our teachers and other school workers of their livelihoods under the guise of reform.

The Oakland Education Association (OEA) -- the teachers' union -- is responding to this attack by joining with other community organizations to demand real reform: funding from Oakland's wealthy corporations to keep the schools open with no cuts, no layoffs, no debt, and democratic local control.

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Rather than looking to the wealthy corporations as a source of money, perhaps Oakland teachers should be looking to the wealthy corporations as a source of employers for the students they are teaching. But then again, how educated are the employers? Look at this job ad:

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INSTRUCTORS: Marshall Arts Instr's. Must work well w/kids. P/T work, F/T pay.
925-957-9900
Web id CC03101761009

Source - Contra Costa Newspapers

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I guess that these people, when hired, will train you in the art of airlifting food to war-torn areas of Europe. But this job is common, as is evidence in this guitar-related article:

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Pickup Guru Tim Mills is also an accomplished guitarist who played guitar for Elkie Brooks for years. Now he plays for top Ozzy Osbourne tribute band Ozzmosis, reproducing the licks of Zakk Wylde, Randy Rhoads and Jake E Lee while dodging gallons of water and huge pyrotechnic explosions. Tim is also a fully qualified marshall arts instructor skilled in a wide range of armed and unarmed combat techniques. Burglars and hecklers beware.

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And the Freemasons apparently want marshall arts instructors:

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A marshall arts instructor in London said he had been approached to join a 'secret group of enlightened people' that wished to bring the world together in harmony. His views on nationalism and religion were sought but he refused to join saying that he didn't feel comfortable with the person trying to recruit him, he didn't trust him.

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For those who haven't caught it yet, the word is "martial," not "marshall." Here's how the word "martial" is used. From Theology of the Body:

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If you love someone and have been in a relationship with them and are moving forward towards marriage, I think and feel there is nothing wrong with premartial sex.

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For an opposing view, look here:

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Oh my goodness, my blood is boiling. What about this piece of **** CA court telling Catholic Church's they HAVE to distribute condoms and safe sex material, even though promoting premartial sex is strictly forbid in the Catholic religon.

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These people are not well educated. Perhaps the Oakland Education Association has the right solution:

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I dont mind heavy taxes as long as i get my share of the money in the long run.

But i realy hate it when the goverment starts messing with the health care system and tries to privetize it!

and yes Tax the ritch to death luxery texes are good TAX THEM TO A SLOW AND PAINFULL DEATH!

Ritch people are mostly crocks (Statistics clearly show this)

i also belive that inheritance should be baned.... (exept maybe one the exeption of one or two heirlooms...)

but anyone that would make a tax for video and computer games should be nottered and then sent of into exile in som desert country for all time.

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Now of course one can argue that the ability to spell is not necessarily a mark of intelligence, and one can also argue that...uh..."creative" spelling is a stylistic affectation. Take a look at these examples (unless you have a teenage or pre-teenage daughter).

From the Ontario Empoblog (Latest OVVA news here)