Public Service Announcement

As a teacher of gifted students, I see the kids that get "left behind" by the euphemistic "No Child Left Behind" act. This is what happens when politicians get to make educational policy ~ they create something that sounds good for a sound bite without really understanding all the true effects that will occur down the line.

Read on...

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From the San Diego Union-Tribune, Wednesday, August 29, 2007. See http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20070829/news_lz1e29goodkin.html
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Gifted children are being left behind

By Susan Goodkin and David G. Gold

With reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act high on the agenda as Congress returns from its recess, lawmakers must confront the fact that the law is causing many concerned parents to abandon public schools that are not failing.

These parents are fleeing public schools not only because, as documented by a recent University of Chicago study, the act pushes teachers to ignore high-ability students through its exclusive focus on bringing students to minimum proficiency. Worse than this benign neglect, No Child forces a fundamental educational approach so inappropriate for high-ability students that it destroys their interest in learning, as school becomes an endless chain of basic lessons aimed at low-performing students.

These predictable problems were reported as early as 2003, when The Wall Street Journal warned that schools were shifting their focus overwhelmingly toward low achievers. Expressions of concern from distressed parents and educators of gifted children have come in increasing numbers ever since.

No Child is particularly destructive to bright young math students. Faced with a mandate to bring every last student to proficiency, schools emphasize incessant drilling of rudimentary facts and teach that there is one "right" way to solve even higher-order problems. Yet one of the clearest markers of a nimble math mind is the ability to see novel approaches and shortcuts to attacking such problems.

This creativity is what makes math interesting and fun for those students. Schools should encourage this higher-order thinking, but high-ability students are instead admonished for solving problems the wrong way, despite getting the right answers. Frustrated, and bored by simplistic drills, many come to hate math.

Talented writers fare no better in language arts education. Recently, a noted children's author recounted her dismay when fifth-graders attending one of her workshops balked at a creative writing exercise. She was shocked to learn that the reluctant writers were gifted. The children, however, had spent years completing mundane worksheets designed for struggling classmates and thus rebelled at an exercise they assumed would be yet another tedious worksheet.

One suggested revision to address these concerns is "growth modeling," which tracks the progress of all students, including those already scoring above proficiency. But as long as No Child requires that every student reach proficiency by 2014 and it continues to focus only on grade-level material, teachers will lack incentives to appropriately educate students who can master their grade's curriculum well before spring testing. Nor will growth modeling prompt schools to provide an enriching curriculum that goes beyond the basics.

The response of many parents to this situation was summed up succinctly by one of our numerous friends, colleagues and family members who have pulled their children from neighborhood schools: "We've learned that the real solution is called 'private school.'

"Perhaps if more policy-makers sent their children to public schools, they would address these unintended but disastrous consequences of No Child. Rather than trying to rectify this situation, however, many politicians advocate a voucher program that would only encourage more parents to desert public education.

Some politicians justify vouchers with the Orwellian claim that taking money from public schools to pay private tuition will improve the public schools by forcing them to compete for students. This claim is absurd given the uneven playing field between public and private schools.

Most obviously, private schools can reject any student who would require extra time from teachers. Thus it is left to public schools to handle children with behavior problems or severe learning impairments, and non-English speakers. Until private schools receiving vouchers are required to accept all applicants, vouchers simply allow them to cherry-pick public school students, giving them an insurmountable competitive edge.

Ironically, the private schools to which President Bush and his allies are so anxious to hand public funds are also exempt from the standardized testing these politicians declare to be the critical measure of educational success. Private schools need not impose upon their students the drudgery of preparing for and taking weeks of standardized tests and can offer an enriching curriculum beyond the basics without worrying about No Child sanctions. Given these one-sided constraints, no one could honestly claim that vouchers do anything but drain resources from the public schools this act was supposed to improve.

In adopting the No Child law, Congress finally addressed the shameful neglect of students in failing schools, particularly inner-city schools. Now it must address the fact that the requirements it imposed are driving away many of the concerned and involved parents critical to our ailing public school system.

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Goodkin is executive director of the California Learning Strategies Center, a Ventura-based education think tank. Gold is a lecturer and consultant on strategic issues in negotiation.
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Another great article on this topic: Time Magazine's Are We Failing Our Geniuses?

My Newest Internet Obsession

Anyone who knows me knows that I love to read. I will devour most any type of book and once I get started reading, it is hard for me to force myself to quit reading to do any of the other things that daily life requires.

I am also a book collector. I prefer to buy my books than go to the library to borrow them. I like having my bookshelves crammed full of Stephen King and Wally Lamb, J. D. Salenger and Madeleine L'Engle. Plus, going to the library often costs me more than just buying the book in the first place; I've actually been known to have library fines totally over $83 - no joke!

Enter BookMooch.com. Brought to my attention by fellow blogger Caroline Bender, I am totally hooked. This site allows me to post books that I am willing to give away to fellow bibliophiles, while "mooching" books that I am interested in reading from them. For each book that I post in my inventory and each book that somebody mooches from me, I am awarded points. I, in turn, use these points to get the books that I want to read.

The only cost is postage. The person who is giving away the book pays for postage, but I figure the couple of bucks spent there is recouped by the money that I don't have to spend on shipping and handling from buying the book off eBay or buying the book new at the store. Plus, if it is a book I love, I can add it to my collection instead of having to return it at the end of two weeks.

I've already sent off five of my own books and am awaiting the first two that I've requested. I'm excited to have some new summer reading... Anyone have any recommendations of great books that I should mooch??

Saturday Morning Skeptic... and Stuff

I admit it: I read junk mail. I look through the catalogs and coupons that are sent in the mail on a daily basis. Occasionally, one will stand out to me, and I'll pull it out thinking, "Ooohh, I could use this." However, I never end up using them and they all end up in the trash eventually.

This morning, I was looking through these little cards, each with an offer, when I came across this one:


"Everyone deserves a smile they can be proud of!" it touts, above a before and after picture of somebody with really nasty teeth, apparently fixed by the the teeth straightening and whitening process advertised on the back of the card.

Maybe it is just me, but somehow I don't think that the "before" teeth were simply straightened and whitened in order to get the "after" teeth. If it is the same person (which the appearance of similar facial hair seems to indicate) there was other major dental work performed in order to reach point A to point B. I have a feeling that it isn't even the same person in both photos, though.

But, I may just be too much of a skeptic.

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Several of you requested information about the Citrus Shrimp and Penne Pasta meal that I cooked last week. After seeing that post, Blogarita was so impressed with my culinary skills, that she asked me to be an author on her kitchen blog! I made my first post over there yesterday, so if you are interested in it (or other delicious recipes that Blogarita posts) click on over and check it out.

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Speaking of other blogs, I have posted the discussion questions for "Fall On Your Knees" by Ann-Marie MacDonald on the Check This Out book club blog. Those of you who read it along with us and those of you who've read it before, please go on over and add your two cents to the conversation.

Our next book that we'll be reading is "Running with Scissors" by Augusten Burroughs. It was recently made into a movie with Alec Baldwin and Annette Benning. I've already started reading it and it is a pretty quick read, so please join our discussion at our book club. The more, the merrier!

(After this book, we'll be choosing something lighter, from a chick lit line, per the request of Paula and Jen, so stay tuned!)

Thursday Night Weblog

For a rare occurrence, I'm going to use the blog for what it was actually intended: a log of websites (web-log) that I think my readers might find of interest.

"Duke grad builds beer tossing fridge"
Contraption can launch 10 cans before needing a reload

• Hellllllooooo! We sooo need one of these. I mean, seriously, Bill and Doug... Can we make this happen?

"Snakes (almost) on a plane — 2,400 of them"
'Slithering sounds' heard by cargo workers; snakes were meant for diners

• Dude, someone's trying to ship snakes on this m*th$r f#ck!ng plane! Who eats snakes, I mean, really? Gross! Do you think that the workers who heard the snakes would have thought anything was out of sorts if it were not for Samuel L. Jackson in this movie?

Ms. Pac-Man turns 25! The "femme fatale of the game world."

• Feminists, rejoice! From changing the original fourth ghosts name from 'Clyde' to 'Sue,' Ms. Pac-Man has shown that she is Ms. Independent. The 25th anniversary of her inception is a tribute to the progress that women have made in the world, from video-gaming to doing what the hell we want to do when we want to do it!

Funny Stuff

Okay, okay, I know that I promised not to talk about American Idol all the time on this blog, but I happened upon this commentary by Craig Berman and was laughing my @$$ off as I read it. I know that you all are lazy bastards and most of you won't actually click on the link to read it, so I'll pull out a couple of quotes to share with you:

• It’s still early in “American Idol’s” sixth season, but environmentalists like Al Gore are already clamoring for this year’s cast to be extended indefinitely. With all the waterworks coming from the semifinalists, a little bit of engineering could provide enough water to irrigate the entire greater Hollywood area and make droughts a thing of the past.
• But this season seems to have more criers than most. Even Kellie Pickler nearly broke down at the end of her guest performance. Not only is she not a contestant, she’s already sold dozens of records, guest-hosted “The View,” and apparently hired Dolly Parton’s wardrobe consultant, hair stylist and comedy writers.
• [Hunt] shared the stage with both Barba and the 17-year-old Jordin Sparks. Barba got sent to safety first, as the teenage boys hoping for more risqué photos to crop up on the Internet carried the day.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled blogging.