For the past 30 years we have seen a tremendous increase in stunting the growth of genius in the U.S. Our politicians and our lack of interest in what teachers really do for us has brought about a "dumbing down" of all curriculum in the core areas. This has been happening for 40 years. One might guess that it was done purposely to supply a service sector with lots of low wage employees. After all we do have government hired psychologist that spend all of their work hours figuring out how to pull the wool over the public's poor eysight.
Schools have done their share of using smoke and mirrors. 15 years ago it was decided that the 6 period day was too costly for schools to do so our great cost cutters came up with a 4 period day with classes every other day. The reason that was given the public was that children would do better with more time on task at one sitting. The real reason was that this allowed School Districts to cut teachers. The smoke of this is that you have a teacher teaching 8 classes every two days instead of 6 every day. That is a net of two additional classes to teach for every teacher that stays. The outcome of this is you can cut a teacher for every 4 teachers you have.
And to hell with the best education for your child.
Let's do the math? That is if you can do math which when you can't one wears it like a medal and one wants to tell everyone with pride. 6 period day was 6 periods of math (55 minutes) for 180 days. That is 9900 minutes on task for every student in a school year. On the 4 period day every other day you get 90 minute classes for 90 days in the school year. That is 8100 minutes in a school year. That is a net loss of 1800 minutes of instruction time or 30 days of school. Pretty slick huh? Politicians then demanded higher scores. By the way minutes are a teacher's most precious resource. They robbed teachers of this resource and demanded much much more.
Now, continuing the math, schools, because of money, are going to a 5 by 5 schedule every other day which will now be 75 minutes every other day for 90 days which comes to 6750 minutes of instruction. This allows elimination of two more teachers for every 5 teachers. But, to the detriment of your students they have lost another 1350 minutes of instruction for a total of 3150 minutes in a school year since this trimming began. If you are staying with me by chance the is a total cutting of the school year by 52.5 days of instruction. That is out of 180 which leaves 127.5 days of our original school year. Is that smoke or mirrors or both?
The results of this are that teachers are spending 90% of their time on a state test that the genius kid already has mastered so that the student having a difficult time can make the state mandated scores. In case you didn't know, teachers livelihoods are at stake if they teach the more advanced students at the loss of minutes on the struggling students. It is called teacher accountablility. As a side note, children aren't held accountable with grades. They are only accountable for the score on the state tests.
Finally, the wolves have been watching the hen house. The taxpayers are too busy working for their taxes to watch. They give the "experts" the trust to watch this valuable enterprise. The betrayal continues to be monumental. If taxpayers had the time to look into, or read, what folks like me are writing, they would be appalled. Our future is our kids? Sounds like the bank account is the future.
