Saturday, December 28, 2013

Consider the source, and ask yourself, "do I care?"

This is my soapbox post for the past several weeks!
It has been rumbling around in my head.
For several mornings the news kept having blurbs about how "US students perform in Reading, Math, and Science compared to international peers."
First of all --does anyone else notice that this "report" comes out every year since the beginning of time, and {we}--the United Statesian students have {never} been at the top?
Second of all--has anyone else ever noticed how the press reports this as some impetus to make all school teachers, parents, kids, and other school related people scramble like hell?
I think to myself--oh, oh, oh!! We better scramble so we can do better than those....{whoever}--pick a random country --and I bet they are {ahead} of us on the this {list}.
So I have to ask...who compiles all this data, and what are they using?
Then I ask--do I really care?
Do I really care that our fifth graders do not {read as well} than those of {pick a country}, when
all of those people are gonna be scramblin to
be educated in
OUR UNIVERSITIES???
If we are all so dumb here...why in the world do all of these countries have to send their
{genius} students to get an education here??
ugh...aren't all their smart{er} than ours people starting up some stellar houses of higher learning there?? ugh...
Also, if I am going to compare myself to someone, I think I will pick a {someone} who I might look up to, or aspire to be like in some way.
So what in the hell difference does it make if people in China or Romania, or {whatever} place read better than our children in third grade...have you listened to some {other news} about big Red lately??
Their cities are so polluted that they cannot breathe outside on many days.
People have become so desperate to grow and grow infrastructure-wise--and Real Estate-wise, that they have whole cities built, mimicking other cities in the world..
with no one
living there..???
Have  you seen any of their students in an interview?  It can be very sad to see troubled minds that have been stretched and worked to the edge, but not stimulated.
No thanks.
Do I want my children to be learning robots--not if it means that they do not use common sense.
I am very thankful that {most} of our US cities...with all of our sub-{par} students--have air that is decent to breathe!
Nope, I want my children to learn age-appropriate material, at a steady clip--provided by college educated, very smart teachers who understand childhood development.
I want them to see funny movies, go on hikes, bake cookies with me, and shoot b.b. guns in the yard. I want them to go to church and then eat at Grandma's on Sunday afternoon.
If one of them happens to be the kind of {genius} who is smarter than all of those {smarter} than them children all over the world--well, then I am sure nothing I do will stop them from learning all they want to.
I am very thankful that our population is made up of lot of common sense people who know how to fix things and build things when we need them--even if they can't {beat} other students in some
arbitrary metrics that get reported on the
{news}.
So, the next time you start feeling {terrible} about how {dumb} our U.S. babies are...just think...
Who did this measuring?
Who am I being asked to compare myself to?
Is my kid really dumb???
Then turn the TV to the Home Garden Channel, and ignore the hell out of that
{data}.
Gotta get off the soap box now and check out this house that these cutie pie twins have completely overhauled this house for this cute couple.
Man!-- Jonathan and Drew, they are {smart}--must be Canadian (I think they actually are.) LOL

2 comments:

Bethany said...

Haha! I know that show and those cuties ;)
Arbitrary metrics, too true. It is driving me nuts! WHY does my 5 year old have to read 20 words by December in kindergarten? This arbitrary rule will not help GA come up on the list of {smartest...} ;-)

Bethany said...

Haha! I know that show and those cuties ;)
Arbitrary metrics, too true. It is driving me nuts! WHY does my 5 year old have to read 20 words by December in kindergarten? This arbitrary rule will not help GA come up on the list of {smartest...} ;-)

Spot on!

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