\doc\web\99\05\norwich.txt From: Nanny714@aol.com Date sent: Tue, 23 Mar 1999 13:51:05 EST To: "ClearingHouse" Copies to: Gary.M.DeGasta@dartmouth.edu, adler@sover.net, cheney.mcnally@valley.net, Tunybird@aol.com, pascoe@together.net, ZorroFRR@aol.com Subject: [education-consumers] Re: Fwd: Perhaps it's like heminway's hyena Send reply to: Nanny714@aol.com ===================================================================== Children haven't been tracked or graded in our K-6 elementary school for many, many years now. We've been on the "cutting edge" of every progressive fad known to mankind. We don't have textbooks and the "constructivist" approach is the primary teaching philosophy. It's a "Nightmare On Elm Street." We live in a town full of very liberal democrats and professionals with links to Dartmouth College. There is a mass exodus from our schools given that two private Core Knowledge Schools have opened up across the river in New Hampshire, and people are just unwilling to buy the overinflated real estate given that the schools is developing a bad reputation and is no longer what parents are looking for. Enrollment is declining dramatically and the trend is expected to continue. But. . . many, not unlike an alcoholic, choose to remain in denial and blame the decline on "an aging population." It's not "ability grouping" that has caused harm to children. In fact, the opposite is true. The standard is lowered to reach the lowest achiever, and the teacher runs around like a chicken with her/his head cut off attempting to "individualize instruction." The lack of ability grouping in favor of attempts to individualize instruction (or achieve the unachievable) has brought the system down. So has the flawed idealism of "equal outcomes," promoting "self esteem" which leads to narcissism instead of "self control" and progressive education fads that are destroying the system. Finally, the attempts by politicians and bureaucrats to foist the responsibility for curing all that ails society at the school house doors has been a most destructive force. It's reversed and confused the roles of parents and teachers. Now you have teachers crossing big boundries, asking invasive questions and telling parents how they should or shouldn't raise their kids, while parents run around enrolling their kids in supplementary academic programs and/or buying supplementary materials in order to keep their children afloat academically. I don't send my children to school in order for the teacher to scrutinize and supervise my parenting. I don't have the time for the day to day scrutiny and supervision of teachers in order to assure that my children receive a quality education. They've kinda got us everyday parents and everday teachers pitted against one another, don't they?! (o: Nancy Hall Norwich, Vt. ===================================================================== EDUCATION CONSUMERS CLEARINGHOUSE networking and information for parents and taxpayers on the internet Subscriptions & Archives: http://education-consumers.com or You are currently subscribed to education-consumers as: arthurhu@halcyon.com TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send a blank email to leave-education-consumers-989462S@lists.dundee.net ===================================================================== For less mail, click on the following link and choose 1) a daily digest, 2) a daily list of subjects, or 3) no mail (read postings on Web) http://lists.dundee.net/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=education-consumers For more help & info: http://www.lyris.com/help or