HOW FAR DO WE LOWER THE STANDARDS?

@Real Music,

Quote:

Someone told me that some High Schools drivers education is now taught only with driving simulation machines.

7. And that students no longer go out on the roads and streets in Divers Ed.

I highly doubt number 7 - at least I can vouch for MA - they are required to have a certain number of hours driving with an instructor and also a certain number of hours observing - all on the road.

This is with kids that got their license just a couple of years ago.

I know when I was in high school since our school was so large we actually had a driver's ed room - and yes we had simulation type driving, but we also had to do the actual driving as well - and yes the school had a small number of drivers' ed vehicles.

2 Replies

@Linkat,

Real Music.

1) Right now, in the year 2021, we have schools largely segregated by race.

2) The primary mechanism for segregating schools by race is that most children from areas with large minority populations are prohibited by law from attending the better schools attended by mostly White students.

This has nothing to do with transportation. Kids in Hyde Park live a 10 minute walk from Milton High school (a majority White high school that performs better than the high school they need to attend). It is against the law for them to do so.

3) Political liberals are supporting these laws and are tacitly supporting school segregation (i.e. they are doing nothing about it).

Our education system is largely segregated by race where schools with majority White students perform better in every measure. More kids from White Schools go to college. Kids from White schools get higher test scores and end up earning more.

4) The idea that instead of addressing racial segregation we can just "make ethnic minority schools better" is nothing less than a return to "Separate but Equal". And that is what we seem to be doing.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Schools have never taught driving over here.

It's something you do when you're an adult.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

Nothing has changed.

Kids are just as smart (and just as stupid) as they have always been. Old people are just as critical and bitter as they have always been.

Robert Russel circa 1695 wrote:
... I find by sad Experience how the Towns and Streets are filled with lewd wicked Children, and many Children as they have played about the Streets have been heard to curse and swear and call one another Nick-names, and it would grieve ones Heart to hear what bawdy and filthy Communications proceeds from the Mouths of such...

Lord now it FACEBOOK that is a threat to our young people and congress need to take actions and in the 50s it was the threat if comic books that called for congress to act to protect our children.

0 Replies

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

I think cursive writing has always been about elitism. It is about showing your social status.

The only time I have ever used cursive writing is when I was writing a letter and a card and felt it looked more formal. I have never found any other practical use for it. I was taught cursive in elementary school. My daughter wasn't taught it. She was busy mastering two languages.

It seems like a waste of time to me.

I had yet to run into an MD with anything but awful writings that you do not need to spend a fair amount of time trying to read his or her notes,

1 Reply

@BillRM,

There's an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm where Larry David takes some terrible handwriting to a chemist to read on the assumption that if he could read a doctor's handwriting he could read anything.

Cursive isn't about elitism, it's about being able to write quickly and legibly when taking notes at a lecture or any other event.

It's quicker than printing.

There isn't so much need for it now with other devices and stuff, but there still are times when we need to jot something down quickly.

0 Replies

@izzythepush,

izzythepush wrote:

Schools have never taught driving over here.

It's something you do when you're an adult.

It depends on the school. You do still need to pay for it - I had it in my high school because it was very large and could accommodate it. The high school in the town I live in now does not - however, there is a driving school that will hold driving classes in the high school typically at night or on a weekend - the school allows them to make it easier for students but it is not associated with the school at all.

I don't think most high schools in my state offer this though as part of a school class during part of the school day.

1 Reply

@maxdancona,

maxdancona wrote:

1) Right now, in the year 2021, we have schools largely segregated by race.

2) The primary mechanism for segregating schools by race is that most children from areas with large minority populations are prohibited by law from attending the better schools attended by mostly White students.

This has nothing to do with transportation. Kids in Hyde Park live a 10 minute walk from Milton High school (a majority White high school that performs better than the high school they need to attend). It is against the law for them to do so.

This is not entirely true - some school districts in MA do allow students from other school districts to attend that are outside their school district - some do and some do not.

If I do remember correctly - I do believe that Milton does not allow this. I do believe though that Newton does allow this (which is another predominately white school district near some of these less "white" school districts).

There is potential and there are opportunities currently but to be honest I do not know how difficult it is and how well known it is.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Quote:

This is not entirely true - some school districts in MA do allow students from other school districts to attend that are outside their school district - some do and some do not.

Are you talking about METCO?

METCO is an important school integration program that takes kids from Boston and Springfield and buses them into predominantly White wealthy suburbs. It is a great program. But, since it includes about 0.3% of public school students in Massachusetts, it doesn't come anywhere close to solving the problem.

The real way to solve segregation is to stop excluding kids of color based on geography. Any family should be able to send their child to the school of their choice.

White communities allow METCO because they remain in control. The White schools admit a token few children of color and get their virtue points.

Schools receiving students as part of METCO are in no danger of being desegregated. And that is the point.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

The legal age for driving a car over here is 17.

Until very recently the legal age for leaving education was 16, a lot of secondary schools don't have a sixth form, so none of the students can legally drive anyway.

0 Replies

@maxdancona,

No - simply that some schools allow students from other districts to attend which is decided by the school district - referred to as "inter-district school choice" and would be noted on their profile in the MA education or whatever it is website. That was how a friend of ours had their children attend Avon rather than Randolph.

It is not METCO and does not have to do with inner city kids.

2 Replies

@Linkat,

We did have some schools in some northern towns segregated by choice which lead to rioting in the early 00s.

We've not got that in Southampton. I taught at a school that was broadly 40% White, 40% Asian, (Indian Sub Continent) and 20% Afro Caribbean with lots of variations in each group, most of the kids got on alright.

0 Replies

@nycdad,

Well in reality when a person achieves something great then colleges want to award them an honorary degree..... They may have never attended - but it does look good for the college. But without standards - and grades are not necessarily an indication of smarts but more of conformity to an accepted teaching. We could all be driving our cars on tap water - but the educational system teaches that reality is too expensive.... meanwhile they sit on or destroy inventions that can do just that. Half to admit - it is hard to tax water for road tax - so their are a number of reasons this tech is burried.

1 Reply

@Linkat,

Segregation is an important issue. We stopped adressing it.

I didnt lnow about intra-district school choice. That's cool and thanks for showing me something new. I know that towns like Belmont loudly oppose school choice. But in this case it is a White school keeping out minority kids.

I am curious if the existing system has any benefit in reducing segregateion (or if this is an interchange in mostly white suburbs).

1 Reply

@RMorris326,

I saw an American show where this guy converted his diesel truck to run on cooking oil. He was off the grid. We grow tons of canola here so if we were able to do that, it's a win-win. Even better, we wouldn't have enough to send to China. There's also a Canadian who has made some sort of fuel out of recycled plastic water bottles but he's not getting much attention.

0 Replies

@maxdancona,

I don't know much about it the inter district school choice just heard about it a bit ago as my friend had the opportunity to use it. I also knew the principal at Avon high school and he had told of them getting kids from other districts.

I am guessing it probably does not solve the segregation issue as certain schools against (would probably be your Belmont and Milton school systems) that prevent this. I would also venture to guess that a Dorchester or Roxbury or Hyde Park parent may be unaware of this opportunity. I remember mentoring a girl from an elementary school near methadone mile. She was moving onto middle/high school and her parents were trying so hard to get her into one of those charter schools as they were so worried about her at the regular public school there. No just the education but her overall safety. I cannot imagine being in that position.

The other thing is - there are many private schools in the area that give scholarships for financial need. I know a girl that was in my daughter's AAU program (she got a scholarship for that) and went to Milton Academy of a full financial aid scholarship. The thing is I am not sure parents are aware of these opportunities. Her coach helped her and her grandmom to get that opportunity. I also helped out with volunteer stuff with my former employer and pretty much most of the inner city Catholic schools are attended by students with 100% financial aid. Corporations like Fidelity give a lot to these schools; including Peter Lynch who no longer manages Magellan but he personally supports this; I sat next to him at a function at one of these schools. A very wealthy but very nice man.

0 Replies

HOW FAR DO WE LOWER THE STANDARDS?

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