Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Race to Nowhere- any thoughts?

You nailed it!


I don't think it's written, but in our experience we were given no alternative: If a GT kid wanted any hope of learning anything at their level, they had to take AP classes, but due to ability level of the majority of butts in those classes, AP meant tons of homework.

The only way teachers could justify passing the majority of kids in these AP classes was to base the class grades on mass volumes of homework - rewarding activity over accomplishment. The straight A students were mostly the ones that couldn't pass the AP Exams(!) I don't know why the teachers couldn't just exempt the higher ability students from the homework if they made above certain scores on the tests.

I take that back, we did find an alternative: DD1 graduated 2 years early, DD2 quit to be home-schooled. Grrrr. I should ask for a refund on my ISD property taxes.

PS Val, I agree with everything you said. Just venting

OMG. You have just explained something that has had me completely befuddled.

Since my eldest started middle school, I've been at a loss to understand why homework counts equally with tests toward a semester grade. Now I get it. Homework is a way to compensate for slower students (especially because they get help from aides during homework club).

I spent a lot of time in a university system where the most important grade was the one you got on the three-hour essay-style final exam (NO multiple choice). The idea was that you spent the year learning, and the big test at the end measured your knowledge of that particular subject as a whole. What we would call "mid-terms" were for measuring your progress. They didn't count much (if at all) toward a final mark/grade. History/English-type subjects did use graded essays (but only one per term, usually), and the final was still super-important. Ditto for homework assignments, which were intended as learning tools and, as such, had almost no impact on the final mark. Why should they? the thinking goes. The whole point is that you're still learning and are expected to make mistakes.

The same idea applied (still does) the end of secondary school. Everyone takes a big exam (A Levels, Leaving Cert., "Le Bac.", etc.). The points on that exam are the sole determinants of what you study at which university. You get the points, you get in. It's that simple. No essays, extracurriculars, no legacy students, no nothing but points.

This really strikes a nerve with me today.

WE are seriously thinking about the consequences of pulling DD out in favor of homeschooling. But it complicates matters significantly in a couple more years when she's 13 and needs college level material but doesn't have a HS diploma. <rubs temples>

I'm just getting pretty tired of whipping my very capable kid through the sheer VOLUME of repetitive crapola the school seems to want, while I pretend to think it's actually caviar. <nevermind, total rant>

Not to date myself but everyone was taking Japanese when I was in college because they were going to rule the world. I think I have 1 friend that ever used it. Not saying it is a bad idea to take Chinese- just that things change.
Race to Nowhere was also shown at my kids' private school and one of the biggest things I took away from it was the lack of real learning and the do anything mentality to get a grade. Put the info in enough to regurgitate it then forget it. I was particularly struck by the statistic that was given that a high percentage of college freshman at one of the selective CA state schools needed remedial math and reading because they had never really LEARNED how to do these things. There was also mention of employers stating new hires sat and waited to be told what to do- they couldn't figure it out because they had never had to.

Anyone that went to Japan knew they would never stay long at the top. I had to go visit automobile companies during the 80s, in Asia and in Europe and here. Japan was a bubble. 100 million people in land the size of CA. But it was a good model of bottom up input in manufacturing.

China owns our debt. Without them buying our debt, we cannot maintain. We do not have job creation. We created jobs in he 80s by rebuilding manufacturing plants, redoing union rules. But even then, it wasn't enough because union workers want a certain level of lifestyle. Workers in Mexico expect a lot less. And we have NAFTA. The US peaked in the 60s. Many nations have been world powers, peaked and gone down. Spain, Britain, France, Russia under Catherine. Happens.

Not to say China won't have mishaps. But DD is learning Spanish also but that is part of her curriculum at school.

Anyone listen to our Fed Chairman the other day? We will have high unemployment for a long time. That is not good. I think many of our kids will have "nowhere" to go if they don't have options. And even if I am wrong, I think DD will be better off knowing Mandarin than not.

Ren

This conversation is moving into an area in which I am frustratingly naive, but I really want to understand this better:

A friend was recently telling me about the "imminent collapse of the dollar" and advising me to buy silver. He said that the price of silver would escalate and bring down one of the biggest banks and he said the Chinese were advising their citizens to buy silver. I asked why the Chinese would want to expedite the collapse of the dollar since they owned our debt.

He then told me that the Federal Reserve owns the US debt and the FED is actually privately owned by the a few wealthy families. If you Google "who owns the FED?" some really interesting stories come up, implying that the two US presidents to challenge the constitutional existence of the Federal Reserve System were assassinated. There are references cited for most of the claims, I haven't had time to check them all out yet but I am fascinated. If true, this is really alarming, if not, it would make the best conspiracy theory of all time I cant believe no one has made a movie about it.

I think this forum is made up of some of the most thoughtful/intellectual folks I know so I am hoping someone here can enlighten me further on this.

Markets are self-correcting. The U.S. currently has high unemployment and a trade deficit, and the Fed has responded to the former with an easy money policy that is pushing down the value of the dollar. (Gold at $1500?) As the dollar weakens, it will encourage companies to produce goods here for export, creating jobs and reducing the trade deficit. This is already happening. Foreign car manufacturers are opening plants in the U.S., at least in the right-to-work Southern states.

Policies such as a higher minimum wage (it went up about 10% in summer 2009), unemployment benefits lasting two years, and welfare benefits such as food stamps unaccompanied by work requirements are discouraging and in some cases restricting people from working. Deregulate the labor market and scale back the welfare state and more people will work.

You friend is misinformed. The Federal Reserve is part of the federal government . It does have the power to effectively print money by creating bank reserves, and it does earn interest on its government bond holdings, but it is required by law to send that interest to the federal treasury (after deducting operating expenses). I don't agree with current Fed monetary policy, but it is more open than it has ever been. Bernanke gave a news conference yesterday, a first for a Fed chief.

I think learning Chinese is too hard to make it worthwhile for non-Chinese . I have not tried to learn Chinese, but there is an interesting essay "Why Chinese Is So Damn Hard" by David Moser, who has: http://pinyin.info/readings/texts/moser.html .

Thanks, any idea where I can find that law? It would certainly refute the claims and save me a lot of unnecessary research time if I could start and end there.