Stupid, stupid, stupid
I'm guessing that I'm not the only one who has noticed that some crazy, imbecilic stuff goes down in the state of California. Here's the latest: Two elementary schools in Chino had class schedules on Fridays during the past school year that were five to 10 minutes short of what is required under state law. School administrators, afraid they would lose $7 million in attendance funds, had to come up with a plan to make up for the time lost on those 34 short days. Their solution: Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to reopen the schools this summer and require students to spend 34 more days in classes. Said Amy Nguyen-Hernandez, principal of one of the elementary schools, "We try to be rule followers here, so we'll try to do whatever needs to be done." What needs to be done is for somebody to go to the common sense store and buy some for these idiots. I did a little math (not one of my strong points) and determined that, based on each of the original days in question being, on average, 7.5 minutes short, the youngsters in the two elementary schools missed a total of 4 hours and 15 minutes of required schooling. A person with any grasp on reality would see that the obvious solution (aside from just forgetting about it, for gawd's sake) is to have the kids come in for another half day of classes, feed them lunch and send them on their way. But it seems that didn't occur to anyone in La-La Land. Their solution has proven to be an exercise in futility. One of the schools has a student population of 280, but just 40 to 60 are showing up for the make-up classes. The reason: Final report cards were issued June 7, so there's no way to enforce attendance. Also, the kids aren't exactly digging deeply into their textbooks. One kid told the AP that her class spent a whole week crafting paper airplanes in a study of aerodynamics. And now, state school officials, because of the lack of real classwork and the paltry attendance, are saying that the make-up days might not even count. But there is a lesson here for the kids: Whatever you do, don't grow up to be as stupid as the adults involved in this mess.
Labels: Complaints, Education, Government, Stupidity
posted by Brant at
2:31 PM
16 Comments:
The truly scary thing about this story is that the State Assembly is considering an EMERGENCY measure to allow them to make up the time in just 2 days. So, I guess this proves that common sense has to be voted on in California.
This country does need some new blood in aerospace engineering. Perhaps some budding young stars will emerge from this program.
we see this crap here too. in my son's school, nothing was done really in the last month of school after the final pssa tests. they took numerous field trips, went to the parks, had 1/2 days and basically screwed around since the state required tests were finished. just stupid.
This is why more and more people are home-schooling their children. {cher} makes the same point. I heard one estimate that only about 15% of the time spent at school is devoted to academics. Home-schoolers are able to use their time much more wisely. No, the program isn't for everybody, but the widespread gains is because of these stories, and others like it.
Any wonder why California is bankrupt?
Just think of the money wasted for that month of school. I'll be the teacher's union loved it, though.
One of the things I always wondered about is why the school day does not match the work day. Many schools release their children at 3 p.m., about an hour or two before the work day is done for most people.
If school started at 8 and ended at 4, most children would be coming home when parents are. I know it might intterupt extracirricular activites, but that can be worked out. Teachers who come in at 8 and leave at 3 or 3:30, put in a 7-hour work day (counting half hour for lunch).
A later start would mean kids don't have to wait for morning buses in the dark.
a whole new crop of night editors in the making....
In the 50s and 60s, we went to school from 8:30 to 4. Of course back then, not all mothers worked. However, these hours included a one-hour lunch break because the schools had no cafeteria and most kids walked home for lunch. When they built a new junior high, kids in grades 7, 8 and 9 were dismissed at 3:30 because the school had a cafeteria and lunch was only 30 minutes. My son's high school starts at 7:30 and dismisses at 2:40.
It only seems to make sense to run school from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. so that it more closely mirrors the parents' work schedule. It would also give more time for teaching, and that's why we have schools, right? It also would eliminate some kids coming home to an empty house.
Back in the "old"days of the mid to late fifties, I attended high school in Claysville. School was in session starting at 9:00 AM and we were released for the day at 4:00PM. After school activities usally started at 8:00PM. As most students were able to sleep until 7:30-8:00 AM, going to a weekly activity at the school was no problem as far as getting enough sleep and doing homework. My bus picked me up at 8:15AM and traveled all over hades half acre before arriving at school.I never remember waiting for the bus in the dark as students do now. I don't know why the time was changed over the years, but I would bet money that the teacher's union had a hand in this.
Stupid, Stupid, Stupid.
I thought this post was about Cap and Trade.
I lived in California for over fifty years - I KNOW why they are broke! Barack will have to bail them out, not that he should but I can see it coming!
Ron Wilson
Brant, How about a post on Cap and Trade?
It seems to be the biggest news story out there.
Feel free to talk about it right here. I don't mind if we diverge from the subject at hand.
Cap and trade will crush our Washington and Greene Counties. It will bring the rest of the nation to it's knees.
One ton of green house emmissons divirted here in America, means two tons of green house emmissons made in China! They don't have a climate change bill.
Coal mines, gone! Cause the coal powered generated power plants will be gone. Even if we go to clean coal power plants, pass the cost onto the consumer. Refineries here in America, gone. When we should be building more to drive down the cost of gasoline. We will import more gasoline. I'm just going to leave it at this... read my post left on diversion.
Cap and trade will be the largest tax increase in U.S. history. It's a classic bait and switch.
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