In the end many don’t. I was in a small enough town that I went through school with some students that were in 1st grade with me. I was a “jet” in the reading department. I was reading the “see Jane run” crowd on day one. There were kids there still working on the alphabet. They “caught them up” to me, but predominately these kids were always a step behind. By high school graduation, I was headed off to engineering school, and most of them were lucky to be getting a degree (a couple never did). My guess is that these kids never really were “caught up”, but merely were able to pass some test (potentially more of a subjective test than an objective one). And I’d bet I spent the summers going to the “book mobile” and reading 5 or more books a week (many psuedo nonfiction subject books of inventors and historical figures) while they probably watched alot of TV and hung out at some play ground.
It’s not that kids can’t be helped to “catch up”, it’s that the reasons they are behind in the first place rarely go away. Exceptions abound of course, but to presume that a teacher/school can “catch up” a kid without really addressing how or why he is “behind” in the first place would seem to me to be an institutionalized form of “betting against the house”. Apparently they see that with Head Start. They get these kids up and running, but as they progress through elementary school, with out the cointinued help, they just fall behind again.
Some Nerd, DU
Whenever someone puts into writing how many books they read over the summer; especially when followed up with “and those other kids wasted their time playing” you got yourself an insufferable fucking nerd on your hands. Anyone who thinks education is wasted on people really needs to be sterilized. Now. We can live without more of their ilk clouding up the world; I know it’s not likely someone with such a toxic attitude will ever reproduce, but let’s nip this in the bud now.
This is the same kind of person who votes to cut taxes; then complains about the state of government services and infrastructure. They ask questions about social services like “Why can’t they do more with less?”
It’s like their terminal lack of human contact made them into some kind of other species; devoid of human empathy or reason.
I have no doubt that this person is better educated than I am; seriously. What has that done for them?
You are just bitter because you are a nerd
Published by NiteMayr on March 18, 2009Whenever someone puts into writing how many books they read over the summer; especially when followed up with “and those other kids wasted their time playing” you got yourself an insufferable fucking nerd on your hands. Anyone who thinks education is wasted on people really needs to be sterilized. Now. We can live without more of their ilk clouding up the world; I know it’s not likely someone with such a toxic attitude will ever reproduce, but let’s nip this in the bud now.
This is the same kind of person who votes to cut taxes; then complains about the state of government services and infrastructure. They ask questions about social services like “Why can’t they do more with less?”
It’s like their terminal lack of human contact made them into some kind of other species; devoid of human empathy or reason.
I have no doubt that this person is better educated than I am; seriously. What has that done for them?