It really irritates me when you make these sweeping statements
and provide no proof...do you let your students get away with this?
I call it empty rhetoric...I know over a dozen teachers personally...
teachers of K-12grade...they talk about what goes on in the classroom...
And their students are learning to read English and Spanish; write
in the sense of make letters to spell words; spell words;
add, multiply, subtract and divide; tell stories; take care of the
environment; get things changed that are unfair; take care of
small animals. They are learning the history of their state, country
and the world; how to use pencils, crayons, chalk and watercolors to
express their emotions and ideas...well, I could go on, but all those
those seem to me to be "things of value." I can't believe that only
the teachers I know are teaching these things...partly because the students
who come into my class can read, write, do math, make decisions, take
responsibility, etc. and none of them have been taught by the teachers I
know. Just what is your basis for saying american schools are going to
hell in a hand basket?
Darlene Sybert
http://www.missouri.edu/~c557506/index.htl
University of Missouri at Columbia (English)
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A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
It's loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
-John Keats "Endymion"
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