I N P h o b e: dumb-down

Showing posts with label dumb-down. Show all posts

2.04.2010

North Carolina Schools May Cut Chunk Out of U.S. History Lessons

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584758,00.html

https://sites.google.com/a/chavezschools.org/quarles-dropouts/_/rsrc/1240249735354/Home/DF_01_1.jpg

He may be the president who governed during the Civil War, freeing the slaves, but under a new curriculum proposal for North Carolina high schools, U.S. history would begin years after President Lincoln, with the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes in 1877.

State education leaders say this may help students learn about more recent history in greater depth.
[...]
Under the proposed change, the ninth-graders would take a course called global studies, focusing in part on issues such as the environment. The 10th grade still would study civics and economics, but 11th-graders would take U.S. history only from 1877 onward.
"The answer isn't to throw out fundamental portions of U.S. history," said Mike Belter, a U.S. history teacher and social studies director. "This is not preparing our kids to have a deep historical perspective that can be used to analyze modern events for themselves."

12.18.2009

Mass Society Drugging - MSM News

[Feel dumb lately? Cocaine, MDMA, heroine, hemp, etc... you think these are bad? Lithium, fluoride, carbamazepine, mercury, chloramphenicol, etc... are all found in regular drinking water -all over the world. Do you know what these chemicals do to you???]

Mass Drugging Of Society With Lithium, FOX...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPvumNbXl3E

Pharmaceutical Drugs and Toxic Chemicals Found in All US Drinking Water Supplies, MSNBC...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2qUwtUFy_M

Poison tap water in Major USA Cities, CNN...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQ3x_D4drss

Mood stabilizers being placed in drinking water, KWGN Denver...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vks_TubZHOU

Drugs in Drinking Water, Mind Control and Others (research)...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGWWarqyp8I

7.09.2009

U.S. Society Ignoring Serious Boy Problems

http://www.livescience.com/culture/090701-boys-issues.html

http://www.redicecreations.com/ul_img/7106boys_swim.jpg

While both boys and girls face issues — in school and out — the problems affecting boys are serious and have not been properly addressed by policy makers, according to a new review article by psychologist Judith Kleinfeld. Among the results: high rates of functional illiteracy and a troublingly high suicide rate that's become even more pronounced in recent years compared to the rate among girls.
[...]
Kleinfeld finds that, compared with girls, American boys have lower literacy rates, lower grades, less engagement during school and higher drop-out rates. Boys also have higher rates of suicide, arrests and premature death.
[...]
One of the most urgent issues, says Kleinfeld, is boys' writing. She looked at scores from the National Tests of Educational Progress, and found that boys' scores are far below those of girls. For 12th grade students, about 26 percent of boys had scores at the "below basic" writing level, while only 11 percent of girls were in this category. The situation is similar for younger boys. In 8th grade, 17 percent of males scored below basic while just 7 percent of females scored at this level.

4.03.2009

A masterclass in bribery: pay your school kids

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6024983.ece

If we are serious about helping poor children to get better grades, perhaps we should ditch our hang-ups and try cash incentives. [!!!!!!!]
[This is capitalism at its best.....]

If you get to the end of this article, I'll give you £5. Actually, I won't give just anyone £5 - only if you're poor and uneducated, because I think you lot need a bribe to do something worthy.

Insulting? Yes. Effective? Maybe. A radical approach to poverty that is sweeping American primary schools and health clinics? Yes. A missed trick for Britain? Certainly.

This week the scores of England's primary schools were revealed, showing that a quarter of children leave them without mastering the basics in English and maths - mostly those from poorer families. No one is quite sure what to do about it. More than a decade of laudable investment in teachers, and endless fiddling with the curriculum hasn't helped those kids, who now have little hope of catching up.

The most pioneering American economists would take one look and offer a simple solution: pay kids for doing well. At least seven major pilot schemes have started in the past two years, on thousands of young children in the poorest parts of Washington, New York, Chicago, and Dallas. In another big pilot study in New York, the Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is paying thousands of poor women to be better mothers.

[But this came out on MSNBC in April 2007...]

Parents Buying Off Kids For Good Behavior.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18140247/

Experts caution against bribery, urge rewards that make sense. [So, who's right?]

4.02.2009

Half of primary pupils fail to master English and maths

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article6018146.ece

St Mary's Church of England primary in West Yorkshire, where pupils' 'brain breaks' have led to great test results

Tens of thousands of children are being taught in schools where less than 50 per cent of pupils are mastering the basics in English and maths before they leave, league tables published yesterday show.

Although overall attainment in the national curriculum tests for 11-year-olds was up slightly last summer, the results show that the rate of progress has slowed, with schools now having to work harder for smaller gains.

The proportion of 11-year-olds reaching Level 4 in English edged up one percentage point to 81 per cent, and in maths by two percentage points to 79 per cent. In science 88 per cent of children achieved a Level 4 pass, the same as last year.

Level 4 is the standard considered necessary to have a chance of doing well at secondary school, but only 2 per cent of schools — 329 out of more than 14,500 — managed to get all pupils up to that standard in all three subjects.

More than 160,000 11-year-olds — a quarter of the total — left primary school last year without reaching this standard in English and maths.

The results for boys were even worse, with 30 per cent failing to reach Level 4 in English and maths. However, for maths alone, boys did better, with 79 per cent gaining Level 4, against 78 per cent of girls.

[Although this is british news, illiteracy and dumbing-down is a world wide pandemic and a problem that is not getting the attention it deserves.]