It's hard to believe that this ideology wasn't seeded by someone who wants to dismantle the government schools. "Right wing" school choice advocates have never made a case as compelling as these bureaucratic busy bodies.
This is a mass-scale tragedy damning our innocent youth to poverty and a lower quality of life. There will be nothing equitable about the results.
Having come to America only in 2020, I have to say observing the educational discussion here (especially in San Francisco - Alison Collins and Gabriela Lopez should be never near any children!) is quite an experience.
I think this is sad on two levels. One, if I am not mistaken, historically school has been a way to integrate immigrant children into the American society by teaching them English language, history of the country, and the broadly defined civics class. These days, at least in California, these children will learn how awful the US is, and how the racist white supremacist system will make them fail no matter what they do.
Two, as a kid who maybe wasn't particularly gifted but always knew he can only advance in life using his brains (as I was never a sporty child, nor a beautiful child), and whose parents couldn't afford to send him to private schools, I really credit my life as it is now (good job, income security, comfortable wealth, travels across the world, friends with similar interests, work visa to the US - which is really hard to get!) to the quality public schools back in my home country. I cannot imagine having e.g. advanced courses taken away from me. What am I left with then? Just bullies who will peak in high school.
It's crazy to me that among all of the education reforms, longer school years aren't considered. The US has one of the shortest school years at 180 days - why not 190 (like Norway and Finland), 200 days, or more (210 in Japan)? All have higher PISA scores than. Or at least we could break up summer break into summer and winter.
Lengthening the school year should directly improve educational outcomes, if you believe that education works at all (and what are the odds that our "default" # of days of 180 is optimal). Moreover, most of the gaps people are concerned about are in substantial part due to different rates of learning over the summer! Some kids forget (due to few resources), while others learn. Teacher who complain about not having enough time to teach would get that time, and all students could be lifted up, instead of attempting "equality" by bringing everyone to zero.
The Two-Front War on Academic Standards
It's hard to believe that this ideology wasn't seeded by someone who wants to dismantle the government schools. "Right wing" school choice advocates have never made a case as compelling as these bureaucratic busy bodies.
This is a mass-scale tragedy damning our innocent youth to poverty and a lower quality of life. There will be nothing equitable about the results.
This is a bomb article! So impressed with Maxwell Meyer!
Having come to America only in 2020, I have to say observing the educational discussion here (especially in San Francisco - Alison Collins and Gabriela Lopez should be never near any children!) is quite an experience.
I think this is sad on two levels. One, if I am not mistaken, historically school has been a way to integrate immigrant children into the American society by teaching them English language, history of the country, and the broadly defined civics class. These days, at least in California, these children will learn how awful the US is, and how the racist white supremacist system will make them fail no matter what they do.
Two, as a kid who maybe wasn't particularly gifted but always knew he can only advance in life using his brains (as I was never a sporty child, nor a beautiful child), and whose parents couldn't afford to send him to private schools, I really credit my life as it is now (good job, income security, comfortable wealth, travels across the world, friends with similar interests, work visa to the US - which is really hard to get!) to the quality public schools back in my home country. I cannot imagine having e.g. advanced courses taken away from me. What am I left with then? Just bullies who will peak in high school.
It's crazy to me that among all of the education reforms, longer school years aren't considered. The US has one of the shortest school years at 180 days - why not 190 (like Norway and Finland), 200 days, or more (210 in Japan)? All have higher PISA scores than. Or at least we could break up summer break into summer and winter.
Lengthening the school year should directly improve educational outcomes, if you believe that education works at all (and what are the odds that our "default" # of days of 180 is optimal). Moreover, most of the gaps people are concerned about are in substantial part due to different rates of learning over the summer! Some kids forget (due to few resources), while others learn. Teacher who complain about not having enough time to teach would get that time, and all students could be lifted up, instead of attempting "equality" by bringing everyone to zero.