Caduceus
Wow, lots of responses!
I’m overjoyed to see teachers and parents are active on here! :]
I simply brought up the WASL because it is grossly apparent that most teachers teach so their students will pass the WASL and not necessarily teach their students anything they will be able to use later on.
And because of this, if the WASL was changed to include things we as students and young people would be able to use in what should be our college-oriented goals then I speculate we would be seeing our community grow more constructively.
Now I understand college isn’t the goal for everyone, but it should be.
In this country especially, education is entirely dependent on how you will fair in life. (granted there are some exceptions.)
I do believe it’s safe to say most people don’t enjoy living pay check to pay check or having to deal with stressful money issues frequently.
A college degree will greatly increase an individuals professional opportunities, and higher degrees will open even more doors.
Now not to say you’re screwed without a college degree a lot of people get by just fine and live comfortably, but a large majority of the people with financial troubles do not have a college degree or even a high school diploma.
I will not touch on the subject of ESL students simply because that is an entirely different basket, and may spark bad feelings as that is a testy subject. But I will say this, and bare with me. I think it is un-fair to lower the standards for the children of families who have lived in this country for generations and speak English as their first language, because we have heavy immigration and the people who have English as a second language have a difficult time keeping up. Yes, I am aware that that is not the only cause for lowered standards. I am conscious of the average teachers ludicrously poor pay (in comparison to what it should be, which needs to be changed immediately), the often restricted budgets for individual schools (in terms of where they are placed and the ethnicity of that neighborhood). Etc
But I do suppose it isn’t fair to put all the blame on the school district. The lack of a child’s drive can be blamed on the parents I guess. But in High School, if a young-adult wishes to act like a child and has similar goals to a child then that is his or hers conscious decision and hardly reflects directly on their parents or the school district.
Our society as a whole needs a change of mentality, entirely.
We need to cease to be dependent on religion, entertainment, media (don’t even get me started on the news stations), traditional ideals, greed etc.
And begin to create a society based on co-existence and constructiveness.
Which seems to be a distant dream now-a-days which it probably is but it isn’t impossible.
And I believe a more useful education in a more constructive environment will help us get there that much faster.