Meaningless Legislation

Week 2 of the book club didn't go as I thought it would, I was the only one in my group who showed up, not only did I feel useless without my team I also felt nervous to present what I had for fear that it wouldn't make conversation but the professor kindly joined me and my worries diminished. It turns out that my teammates were out sick so I was the only who survived disease that week. Here are my notes as a discussion member/ discussion director on how the law and funding play a role in education (week 2 chapters 5-8)....

1) Ravitch mentions how Bloomberg tried to make an impact for schools in New York but there is a similarity in this to Jefferson's view of "raking the genius from the rubbish". (pg. 74)

2) No Child Left Behind did not help with bringing this country into the best conditions to compete with others, instead it brought more problems because people wanted to throw in more teaching methods that would either impede the learning experience for a child or make the lesson plan nearly impossible for a teacher OR BOTH! (pg. 105)

3) Students had the choice to break free of racist stereotypes but they still chose to stay in their respective schools/ communities in order to keep their their heritage and also because of their economic statuses which dictated where they could and could not go. (pg. 118)

Sections that caught my attention...

1) page 83 paragraph 2 -> Legislation did not change a thing! They were more concerned with what they would get out of it instead of focusing on the future of this country!

2) pages 102-103 paragraph 4 -> It was all a trap! A lie! (in Texas) they showed results of how the children were succeeding but the reality of those statistics was the fact that they looked positive because many kids were dropping out, losing their hopes and dreams, the information gathered were of children who stayed in the school system and pushed through! THEY LIED!

3) page 152 paragraph 3 -> Public schools had problems but charter schools faced more issues. Besides having limited seats and having a temporary job as a teacher (because unless you're a god at what you do, you're not going to last so long in the charter school system) charter schools have always been looked into advancements, this brought up an interesting discussion with the class on whether computer should replace teachers. I obviously objected as that would mean I wouldn't have a job, all of my years studying to do this job would be for nothing, but I did see some positive things in having a computer as a teacher, you would get more accurate information, we wouldn't have to worry about pedophiles but the downside to having a computer as a teacher would be that some kids would become distracted, the professor and I agreed that a computer cannot replace human emotions. Becoming a teacher means becoming someone's role model, their parent, their therapist, their justice, THEIR EVERYTHING!