Saturday, May 30, 2009

Basic Education Plan

I've done two postings on this & the press has yet to pick up on what these new proposed regs actually mean for schools & towns; except for Projo. Even teachers (except for school librarians) seem to be clueless.

Tom Sgouros has picked up on the story with "But who will run the programs?" He gets it. Lots of yak-yak in the new regs about great programs, but zilch about who will run them, how, or even when.

Talk about gutting education, these will do it. These regs are school committees' bibles. It details most everything down to how many books need to be in a library & how much $ needs to be spent per pupil (?$1.69- last computed in 1969). Updated- yes. But these were gutted. And what are we getting for it? Simplification. Yeah. That's what they say. Change that to stupefication.

What we really need to do- come up with a plan (state, federal, AND local) to fund education, not strangle it.

I was speaking last week to an art teacher who currently works in the h.s. & formerly the elementary schools. She was speaking of how students get a top notch experience in primary grades, but most then receive zilch in middle school. In h.s. students are req'd to take one art class. A senior was given a "C" by her. This student wanted "A" for a grade point average, so kept coming after school to work with her until the grade was achieved. She lamented that this would not have been necessary if the student had rec'd a better background in Art, but... Think this will improve?

Newport School Committee woman, Dr. Sandra Flowers, who writes here, says these changes are a good thing & will give teachers more freedom in the classroom. I don't get it. B.E.P. never caused me any problems and actually helped me as librarian. The only constrictions that I ever felt were caused by Principals & School Committees who seemingly rec'd messages from God & issued their commands while descending from the mountain and intermingling with we, the sinners- the common people.

However, maybe Sandra is right & I'm missing something. The great flying spaghetti monster hasn't communicated with me recently.

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