NEW YEAR QUOTABLES
Two Americas
"'We're becoming two societies, two Americas,' [sociologist Robert] Putnam told me recently. There's a deepening class divide that shows up in many places. It's not just a matter of income. Education is becoming the key discriminant in American life. Family structure is part of it too." (Doyle McManus, L.A. Times)
More on China's test-crazy schools
"But don't the PISA results at least show that China's K-9 education is the best in the world, and that standardized testing, as U.S. President Barack Obama seems to believe, is necessary to improve American schools? Not really. According to research on education, using tests to structure schooling is a mistake. Students lose their innate inquisitiveness and imagination, and become insecure and amoral in the pursuit of high scores." (Jiang Xueqin, WSJ)
"How can it be possible for individuals with no prior criminal record to be sentenced to two consecutive life terms for a crime in which no one was hurt and $11 was taken? Who had it in for them, and why was that allowed to happen? The Scott sisters may go free, but they will never receive justice." (Bob Herbert, NYT)
You don't have to have $ to raise intelligent, life-affirming, well-read children who value. What is often missed in such pronouncements and protests is that learning and education are not valued by some of these "underserved" communities: more than that, they are seen as bad things in and of themselves. I can say this with some authority having worked and lived in New Orleans for a number of years with many of the "underserved". Ignorance is valued and everything else is the fault of the white man keeping you down.
ReplyDeleteMississippi is a scary place.