JimF-LowBari Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 (edited) i highly agree with the highlighted portions.i teach in an economically disadvantaged area. the cycle of poverty is rampant and hard to break. education isn't valued in the least and free thinking and creativity (on the whole) is like pulling teeth. i am glad that our state has recently upgraded its educational standards giving us the rank of having the 2nd most difficult logic and reasoning standards in the nation. however, the downfall to that is our test scores are going down big time this year. it's difficult at times to understand why the students and their parents think like they do. i was not reared with their mentality. a large percentage of my family holds advanced degrees in professional careers. it was a "no brainer" even when i was in elementary school that i'd be getting more than one degree. no other idea was conceivable. From what I can tell (as we've never met) is we have had the luxury of being able to work on getting college degrees. I was the first one in my family to go to college but that was because my home life (including finances) was secure. The difference between us and some of the kids in the poorer areas is prioities. We were able to make a college education a priority because lot of other things were OK. For some of the kids in the bad ###ed areas, making it thru the day fed or even alive is the main priority so worrying about a long term plan like education is a moot point. That's one of the reasons why the school breakfast program was started. IOW - Kids can't learn if their minds are concentraiting on their empty stomachs. Let alone if they are going to get shot or mugged.... PS - Harrisburg just got tagged with most violent city in PA in the state for it's size. Had a lot of shootings over the summer and lot of under 18s were victims and perps. Edited September 29, 2009 by JimF-3rdBari Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paralda Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 While this is technically true, my wife is a pre-k - elementary teacher/service provider, the feds have a way of using "withholding" goverment funding to get their way. This called an unfunded mandate. The Federal Government uses it all the time to regulate state Governments. For instance, when the drinking age was lobbied by MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) to be increased from 18 to 21, the Federal Government issued a mandate that said if you wanted your highway funds, you had to raise your drinking age. It's not mandatory, but most states don't want to lose that funding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnZ Posted September 29, 2009 Share Posted September 29, 2009 sorry all, but with that, I'm going to close this thread. some of you heeded the warning, and I thank you - there was some good drum corps related discussion still here, but unfortunately it continued to stray into the politics, and not of the impact to the activity. thanks all, and thanks Boo! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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