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PLYMOUTH — Graduates of a Massachusetts high school who received diplomas this month containing spelling errors are getting corrected versions of the precious document — plus an apology.

The diplomas handed out to 263 Plymouth North graduates on June 4 had the word "for" spelled "fro" while the word "and" was spelled "ans." Schools officials signed all of them without noticing.

Principal Kathleen McSweeney tells The Enterprise of Brockton that Jostens, the Minnesota company that printed the diplomas, sent new ones to the school that arrived Monday.

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More people should have the guts to expose the negative things of their own countries in order to change those negative things into positive things....I love my Australia, but what the governments did to our Aboriginals since 1777 is unforgiveable and the Labour govts. started to publicaly, formally and officially apologize to the Aboriginals for those horrors...for sure, it's not going to bring back the over 150.000 Aboriginals slain by the British colonies, but it's the first step to national reconciliation with the natives of Australia......this is a lesson that even the great America should learn:):):)!!!!!

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Language teachers should do their work with great passion because teaching and learning languages are not easy processes:). After doing the teaching/translating profession for over 30 years now, I can safely say that if teachers do not meet the right requisites for teaching....and that includes being patient with students and loving the English language.....they had better change their jobs...FAST!!!:)):)

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My elder son is a maths genius. Since Year One, he has been about three years ahead of his classmates' standard. He used to love the subject, but now he hates it. Why? Because his school is unable to give him challenging work. They argue that their budgets have been cut. I argue that it would cost no more if he were given more advanced textbooks to study, instead of him wasting his time doing stuff he knew how to do two years ago. They don't listen - and now it doesn't matter anymore, because he no longer has any interest in the subject.

You're right. They've made cuts. It appears there is a trend for schools to develop academies. You could scope out the academies to see if any of them address the issue of mathematics for advanced learners. But then you also need to evaluate if your child would be happy learning at that institution. So much depends on how the kids react to their new surroundings.

One strategy would be to find an academy that provides instruction in advanced mathematics at your child's level that he could take just a few hours part-time, that would easily fit into his current school schedule, so he would not have to change schools, but be enrolled full-time in his current school and part-time in the advanced academy. You would probably need to get permission from the full-time school if there were any scheduling conflicts. Seeing as he has surpassed their levels in math, they would probably allow him to attend a more suitable course elsewhere and consider the credit to be transferable to their own institution, or at least a better option in lieu of what they can currently offer, in order not to hold him back from his achievement levels.

An academy might offer weekend seminars that would be fun and fit easily into his schedule. Then you would not need to get permission over scheduling issues.

Then there is the cost to consider and whether or not there is an issue of affordability.

education.gov.uk

nationalstrategies.standards.dcsf.gov.uk/giftedandtalented

education.gov.uk/schools/leadership/typesofschools/academies

Academies are publicly funded independent schools, free from local authority and national government control. Other freedoms include setting their own pay and conditions for staff, freedoms concerning the delivery of the curriculum, and the ability to change the length of their terms and school days.
Edited by Silver Rider
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Charter schools have similar perameters to work within as the academies you are referencing.

And they are in the news. Some learning takes place on the sidewalk, which at times functions as a classroom, otherwise known as "the debate".

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By Fernanda Santos

nytimes.com

The debate began an hour before Justice Paul G. Feinman of the State Supreme Court opened a hearing on Tuesday on the lawsuit by the United Federation of Teachers against the New York City Department of Education. On the sidewalk outside the courthouse in Lower Manhattan, ...
Edited by Silver Rider
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The education mess in the U.S. is one of those problems that, like the Middle East, seems so exasperating and irretrievably broken that you end up wanting to throw your hands in the air and shout "FUCK IT! Let's nuke it and just start all over."

And EVERYBODY shares in the blame: government, the educational bureaucracy, teachers, parents, students.

I know a couple of teachers and they are good people, love their job, are hardworking and in it for the right reasons. And I hear the horror stories.

But I also know there are quite a few bad apples out there, and trying to get rid of these teachers can prove almost impossible thanks to union and tenure rules.

But to me, at least here in California, it all started to go wrong in the late-70's, when the twin events of Prop. 13 and Social-Engineering began to leave their mark on the school system.

Prop. 13 caused a reduction in local revenues, which simultaneously meant less money for schools and more money and concentrated power in Sacramento.

Then there were the social do-gooders...suddenly it wasn't enough to just teach the 3 R's(reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic). No, now little Johnny and Sally had to feel "good" about themselves. In fact, students self-esteem started to become more important than actual achievement.

2+2=5? That's okay, at least Johnny tried. World War II occurred in 1967? No problem Sally...at least she knew what side won, right? Don't know where Europe is? Who cares...they're just a bunch of America-hating commie fags anyway.

Gold stars for everyone. Your team lost at baseball? Don't cry, everybody gets a trophy. Everybody wins. Cause god forbid someone's kid feels bad about losing or getting the answer wrong.

But that wasn't enough. The baby-boomers, once they started having kids, decided they were the most special and perfect kids in the world. And why not, for the baby-boomers themselves thought they were the most special and perfect generation in the history of mankind! They had invented sex, drugs and rock n roll...and had even ended the Vietnam War and gotten rid of Tricky Dick.

No teacher was going to say a BAD word about their precious child, let alone actually have the nerve to discipline said spoiled brat. So, over time, the power balance shifted in schools, as teachers lost authority and control over the classroom, as the students could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. This coincided with the rise in litigation, so schools began to fear doing anything to upset a student, lest the parents take the school to court.

As the spoiled brats grew up to have spoiled brats of their own, it got worse and worse, until now, where you have in certain schools a complete breakdown in discipline. I go back to my old high school...it looks more like a prison than a school. Every week you read the same stories. Students raping students...teachers raping students...students raping teachers.

Then there's the periodic decrees from the Federal and local do-gooders. Every 5 years somebody claims to have the answer to our educational woes. ESL. Bi-lingual education. Phonetics. Whole reading. New math. No Child Left Behind. It's like Stalin's Soviet Republic or Mao's Red China with their 5-year plans...that always failed.

How can you hope to succeed this way? It's like a sports team that keeps changing GM's and coaches. There's no continuity...no momentum built for the future. Everybody is tugged this way and that every couple of years.

I wish I knew what the answer was...other than dumping Standardized testing and No Child Left Behind and returning to the BASICS. This whole "teaching to the test" is a scourge. Kids don't have to read entire books anymore...the teacher just gives them the parts to read that they'll be tested on. They're memorizing, not learning.

But I fear that the decay has been going on for so long...over 30 years now...and is so ingrained, that nothing short of total destruction and a brand new start will ever get us back on track.

Nice. :)

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Children are also not being taught the value of an education at home. For many reasons. Single parenting seems to come to mind, although I am the product of a fractured family. Simply wasn't tolerated. Thanks Mom and Dad. You are so cool. Hard work, initiative, sacrifice and simple common sense have all but evaporated.

As a mother of 2 teenagers, I can tell you there are many times I have purposely driven my little brats through undesirable neighborhoods in an effort to show them what a lack of education means. "So what if I drop out" My son actually said that to me once. You haven't lived until you've heard your child say something like that! Poverty, unwanted pregnancy, crime, addiction, and living in a 6 family with other people who couldn't care enough about themselves to want more out of life, so, guess what? They don't give 2 shits about you or your stuff either.

One more thing, and then I'll shut up. Strider referenced the Greatest Generation by mentioning Baby Boomers. Here's my feeling. The Greatest Generation did SUCH AN OUTSTANDING JOB OF PRESERVING EVERYTHING WE ENJOY TODAY, I.E. FREEDOM, that we now haven't the slightest idea what it would be like to lose it. We, yeah me and YOU, have become so insulated that we have allowed apathy to rule. I just read a statistic the other day that stated 4 out 10 4th graders IN AMERICA, meaning, plug in the town, I can't remember where and it doesn't matter, could not identify Abraham Lincoln in a photograph, nor could they articulate the importance of his presidency. Are you kidding me?

Mommys and Daddys, you can't leave your kids what you don't have. It starts with you. Stop blaming the schools, the coaches, the weather, and the internet.

Over and out.

Edited by planted
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Over the past 30 years, the standards of our O-Levels and A-Levels (taken at 16 & 18 years respectively) have fallen to such an extent that a modern A-Level is hardly more difficult than an O-Level used to be, with the result that everyone is now getting A-grades. So now they've had to introduce tiers of A-grades.

Maybe it's a response to the local job market. People must be marketable, and to that end they avoid the scarlet letter syndrome. Have you read Nathaniel Hawthorne's book?

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Some of the stupidest people are those with college degrees in their late 20s and early 30s still living at home with their parents. We have a neighbor who's daughter has a MBA from a local university but for some reason hasn't been able to find a job ANYWHERE other than a part time job selling baby clothes at Walmart. She spends the rest of her time taking "refresher courses" at the local junior college in subjects like pottery and political science just taking up space in the classroom.

Good points. I know a few like this as well. Professional students, living with Mommy.

Losers.

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Interesting posts up here.......as the saying goes "education starts at home.....", that's TRUE, but the media especially TV have their share of blame if the kids of today are STUPID. TV and other media brainwash the kids into thinking what they and the govt. wants them to think and do. The kids don't want to have the "fatigue" of thinking freely with their own brains, there is TV that does that for them.....in the WRONG way of course. It's no wonder that things aren't changing much in society....history shows that in any society, things start to change if the young people have the strong desire to change them. Parents? One of their biggest faults is to leave this situtaton as it is....in some cases, parents actually foster TV brainwashing of their kids then complain about it as if they weren't part of it:):)!

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  • 3 years later...

The education mess in the U.S. is one of those problems that, like the Middle East, seems so exasperating and irretrievably broken that you end up wanting to throw your hands in the air and shout "FUCK IT! Let's nuke it and just start all over."

And EVERYBODY shares in the blame: government, the educational bureaucracy, teachers, parents, students.

I know a couple of teachers and they are good people, love their job, are hardworking and in it for the right reasons. And I hear the horror stories.

But I also know there are quite a few bad apples out there, and trying to get rid of these teachers can prove almost impossible thanks to union and tenure rules.

But to me, at least here in California, it all started to go wrong in the late-70's, when the twin events of Prop. 13 and Social-Engineering began to leave their mark on the school system.

Prop. 13 caused a reduction in local revenues, which simultaneously meant less money for schools and more money and concentrated power in Sacramento.

Then there were the social do-gooders...suddenly it wasn't enough to just teach the 3 R's(reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic). No, now little Johnny and Sally had to feel "good" about themselves. In fact, students self-esteem started to become more important than actual achievement.

2+2=5? That's okay, at least Johnny tried. World War II occurred in 1967? No problem Sally...at least she knew what side won, right? Don't know where Europe is? Who cares...they're just a bunch of America-hating commie fags anyway.

Gold stars for everyone. Your team lost at baseball? Don't cry, everybody gets a trophy. Everybody wins. Cause god forbid someone's kid feels bad about losing or getting the answer wrong.

But that wasn't enough. The baby-boomers, once they started having kids, decided they were the most special and perfect kids in the world. And why not, for the baby-boomers themselves thought they were the most special and perfect generation in the history of mankind! They had invented sex, drugs and rock n roll...and had even ended the Vietnam War and gotten rid of Tricky Dick.

No teacher was going to say a BAD word about their precious child, let alone actually have the nerve to discipline said spoiled brat. So, over time, the power balance shifted in schools, as teachers lost authority and control over the classroom, as the students could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. This coincided with the rise in litigation, so schools began to fear doing anything to upset a student, lest the parents take the school to court.

As the spoiled brats grew up to have spoiled brats of their own, it got worse and worse, until now, where you have in certain schools a complete breakdown in discipline. I go back to my old high school...it looks more like a prison than a school. Every week you read the same stories. Students raping students...teachers raping students...students raping teachers.

Then there's the periodic decrees from the Federal and local do-gooders. Every 5 years somebody claims to have the answer to our educational woes. ESL. Bi-lingual education. Phonetics. Whole reading. New math. No Child Left Behind. It's like Stalin's Soviet Republic or Mao's Red China with their 5-year plans...that always failed.

How can you hope to succeed this way? It's like a sports team that keeps changing GM's and coaches. There's no continuity...no momentum built for the future. Everybody is tugged this way and that every couple of years.

I wish I knew what the answer was...other than dumping Standardized testing and No Child Left Behind and returning to the BASICS. This whole "teaching to the test" is a scourge. Kids don't have to read entire books anymore...the teacher just gives them the parts to read that they'll be tested on. They're memorizing, not learning.

But I fear that the decay has been going on for so long...over 30 years now...and is so ingrained, that nothing short of total destruction and a brand new start will ever get us back on track.

Great post, Strider

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Some of the stupidest people are those with college degrees in their late 20s and early 30s still living at home with their parents. We have a neighbor who's daughter has a MBA from a local university but for some reason hasn't been able to find a job ANYWHERE other than a part time job selling baby clothes at Walmart. She spends the rest of her time taking "refresher courses" at the local junior college in subjects like pottery and political science just taking up space in the classroom.

I know people like this as well. Some people fail to grasp that after receiving a higher education -- a master's, a Ph.d, an MBA, a JD, etc. -- that they should want to get out into the real world and make something of themselves and make a positive contribution to society. Some of the happiest and most financially successful people I know only have bachelor's degrees -- or in a few cases, only high school diplomas.

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  • 3 years later...

I think the problem is teachers pay should be rewarded based on performance. If the students don't do well they should get less than the minimum. If the students do great then more than average pay.  In what other business should somebody expect more money for worse results?

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23 hours ago, kipper said:

I think the problem is teachers pay should be rewarded based on performance. If the students don't do well they should get less than the minimum. If the students do great then more than average pay.  In what other business should somebody expect more money for worse results?

The problem with that idea is that no one would be willing to teach in low income school districts.  Let's see, I could teach in Oakland or Palo Alto, hmmm...  I know what I'd choose!

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On 6/18/2011 at 11:06 AM, Strider said:

The education mess in the U.S. is one of those problems that, like the Middle East, seems so exasperating and irretrievably broken that you end up wanting to throw your hands in the air and shout "FUCK IT! Let's nuke it and just start all over."

 

And EVERYBODY shares in the blame: government, the educational bureaucracy, teachers, parents, students.

 

I know a couple of teachers and they are good people, love their job, are hardworking and in it for the right reasons. And I hear the horror stories.

 

But I also know there are quite a few bad apples out there, and trying to get rid of these teachers can prove almost impossible thanks to union and tenure rules.

 

But to me, at least here in California, it all started to go wrong in the late-70's, when the twin events of Prop. 13 and Social-Engineering began to leave their mark on the school system.

 

Prop. 13 caused a reduction in local revenues, which simultaneously meant less money for schools and more money and concentrated power in Sacramento.

 

Then there were the social do-gooders...suddenly it wasn't enough to just teach the 3 R's(reading, 'riting, 'rithmatic). No, now little Johnny and Sally had to feel "good" about themselves. In fact, students self-esteem started to become more important than actual achievement.

 

2+2=5? That's okay, at least Johnny tried. World War II occurred in 1967? No problem Sally...at least she knew what side won, right? Don't know where Europe is? Who cares...they're just a bunch of America-hating commie fags anyway.

 

Gold stars for everyone. Your team lost at baseball? Don't cry, everybody gets a trophy. Everybody wins. Cause god forbid someone's kid feels bad about losing or getting the answer wrong.

 

But that wasn't enough. The baby-boomers, once they started having kids, decided they were the most special and perfect kids in the world. And why not, for the baby-boomers themselves thought they were the most special and perfect generation in the history of mankind! They had invented sex, drugs and rock n roll...and had even ended the Vietnam War and gotten rid of Tricky Dick.

 

No teacher was going to say a BAD word about their precious child, let alone actually have the nerve to discipline said spoiled brat. So, over time, the power balance shifted in schools, as teachers lost authority and control over the classroom, as the students could pretty much get away with anything short of murder. This coincided with the rise in litigation, so schools began to fear doing anything to upset a student, lest the parents take the school to court.

 

As the spoiled brats grew up to have spoiled brats of their own, it got worse and worse, until now, where you have in certain schools a complete breakdown in discipline. I go back to my old high school...it looks more like a prison than a school. Every week you read the same stories. Students raping students...teachers raping students...students raping teachers.

 

Then there's the periodic decrees from the Federal and local do-gooders. Every 5 years somebody claims to have the answer to our educational woes. ESL. Bi-lingual education. Phonetics. Whole reading. New math. No Child Left Behind. It's like Stalin's Soviet Republic or Mao's Red China with their 5-year plans...that always failed.

 

How can you hope to succeed this way? It's like a sports team that keeps changing GM's and coaches. There's no continuity...no momentum built for the future. Everybody is tugged this way and that every couple of years.

 

I wish I knew what the answer was...other than dumping Standardized testing and No Child Left Behind and returning to the BASICS. This whole "teaching to the test" is a scourge. Kids don't have to read entire books anymore...the teacher just gives them the parts to read that they'll be tested on. They're memorizing, not learning.

 

But I fear that the decay has been going on for so long...over 30 years now...and is so ingrained, that nothing short of total destruction and a brand new start will ever get us back on track.

Pretty much nailed it Strider!  I grew up in Ca the same time as you and saw the "twin events of Prop. 13 and Social-Engineering" implemented too. 

Your assessment that "...there's the periodic decrees from the Federal and local do-gooders. Every 5 years somebody claims to have the answer to our educational woes. ESL. Bi-lingual education. Phonetics. Whole reading. New math. No Child Left Behind. It's like Stalin's Soviet Republic or Mao's Red China with their 5-year plans...that always fail." is so dead on! 

There's a cycle of "educational flavor of the month":

1. Choose the latest and greatest quick fix and easy answer.

2. Implement it poorly and underfund it.

3. Declare failure and start again. 

When was the last time a kid got through the required 13 years of public education without a total revamp of the process?

Allow me to add two major problems that I see:

1. Professional Administrators.  When I was working in private industry I always ended up as the training guy.  Everyone said "You're so good at this, you should be a teacher."  I would always joke "For what, the big pay or the social respect?"  That's why our generation didn't go into teaching!  It used to be that after 12 -15 years, a teacher would want to move up into administration, but since our generation didn't go into teaching people started jumping up into admin with less years of experience.  Now many people go into teaching just to become admin.  They do their minimum five years and move on.  Problem is most of them never mastered the job of teaching, five years is just not long enough.  Since they don't really understand teaching, they are easily B.S.ed by companies selling that latest and greatest educational fad.  It's the single biggest problem I see.

2. The Educational Messiah Complex. My late father-in-law grew up in the bad part of Chicago and was going nowhere fast when his sixth grade English teacher told him "Sanford, you could be a lot more than a street punk."  Somehow this changed his life and he devoted himself to public education, he became a huge believer in the power of education to improve lives and change the world.  He got his Ed.D. and became the Education Department Chairman at Fresno State, and spent his life teaching and writing about education.  His final book, completed by his youngest daughter (my sister-in-law) and published posthumously was called The Educational Messiah Complex.  His thesis is that there is an irrational belief, in America, that a good public education solves all social problems.

I see this all the time in the "mission creep" part of my job.  I thought I was going to teach science, but I have to teach sex ed, anti drug, alcohol and cigarette propaganda, make sure they wear their glasses, check them for dress code violations, have a nutritious lunch, aren't bullies, etc. etc, etc!  How often do you see the meme "Re-post if you think they should teach this stuff in schools."? How about taking your responsibility for raising your own kids Mr. and Mrs. America?

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6 hours ago, chef free said:

The problem with that idea is that no one would be willing to teach in low income school districts.  Let's see, I could teach in Oakland or Palo Alto, hmmm...  I know what I'd choose!

Why are kids in oakland not as smart as kids in Palo alto?   

 

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1 hour ago, chillumpuffer said:

Nasty bastards them Geese. Especially on the canal I cycle when they have cygnets. 

Aye, territorial buggers them things. One of my Gran's neighbours had Geese, not wise to invade their space.

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14 hours ago, chef free said:

 How about taking your responsibility for raising your own kids Mr. and Mrs. America?

In 2012, 72.3% of blacks were born out-of-wedlock; 66.2% of American Indians/Alaska Natives; 53.3% of Hispanics; 29.1% of whites; and 17.2% of Asians/Pacific Islanders.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/latest-statistics-illegitimate-births-roger-clegg/

9 hours ago, kipper said:

Why are kids in oakland not as smart as kids in Palo alto?   

See above.

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