Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Bad Time To Be Young

I hate to say how long ago I was young, so I won't. Things weren't great for young people then. But as far as learning stuff in a taxpayer-funded building was concerned, it was okay.

Not so these days.

I'm going to do some counting here:

September -- 3 to 4 days
October -- 2 days
March -- 3 days
April -- 4 days
May -- 2 days

That's 15 days this year that young people I am closely associated with will be taking ass --- es --- ments. These are not mere queries from me on topics the young people have recently delved into. These are standard +  ized t and e and s and t and s.

Three weeks of every 180-day cycle are spent on standard  +  ized    material! In one case the young people have to do the same one, exact same one, twice!

And they wonder why young Americans are not performing similar to their peers in Vietnam.

This has great import for the people (like me) who work with the teenagers. The object is not to advance our nation's mental capacities. It is to under + mine one of the few remaining powerful collective bargaining units in this country.

If medicine can be for profit, and pharmaceuticals can be for profit, and energy can be for profit, and college can be for profit, why not learning institutions for younger kids? There's money to be made and pensions to chop!

The victims are the young people. How stifling of all creativity, how anxiety-provoking, how deadly dull their year between Labor Day and Summer Solstice must seem! I feel for them. To Hell with what happens to me. It's them I feel bad for. This country is a joke.

9 comments:

yellowdoggranny said...

I fear for my GG's ..can you imagine what it will be like in 5-10 years?

Anne Johnson said...

Oh, JS! I can only hope the pendulum swings in the other direction.

Anonymous said...

I despair for this country too. There's great gobs of media busily brainwashing people to be "conservatives". and it's wrecking everything this country stood for. We should be doing more than just hope that the pendulum swings in the other direction -- but, what?
--Kim

Anne Johnson said...

I'm proud to say that my union dues have gone into a series of television commercials about the evils of standard + ized test = ing. There is a pushback, especially among middle class parents. I've also heard some "there's nothing to be worried about" commercials, no doubt put out by the corporations that will profit from the way things are right now.

Anonymous said...

delurking to say, I hope you know you are not alone. There is a growing backlash.

Even in my archetypal Midwestern, well-funded, usually high-scoring suburban school district, our Superintendent is taking a stand against the Nature Preserve obstacle courses. When I ran into her at a school event, I had tears in my eyes as I thanked her.

I think it's been true that people who aren't involved in the schools as teachers, staff or parents, haven't been aware but now what is going on is so extreme, well, they are.

Anne Johnson said...

Lurker, what is the Nature Preserve obstacle course? Is that some sort of survival/stamina test? It sounds like boot camp.

Anonymous said...

A nature preserve is a kind of PARK. An obstacle course requires lots of scrolling between screens. That's what I thought you were referring to. This secret code stuff is tricky.

Call me Swordfish.

Anne Johnson said...

Lurker! You are better at this subversion than I am! So impressed!

Anonymous said...

(blushes)