Being a product (or lack there of) of Florida's educational system, I recognize that it does not (and has not) work. Let's be honest here... I finished high school with a GPA over 3.0. C'mon... As if that's not enough, Warp would have also finished high school had he not decided to leave. That's GOT to be a sign that something's very wrong. To add to it, I dated a teacher for a few months back at the beginning of the year. There's no way this woman was educating our youth correctly unless it involved being a mouth operated vacuum unit. She had her talents... Brains weren't one of them. Cut scene til last night. I visit my friend's house. My friend has been having trouble with her kid's moronic teacher. The kids all say that the teacher talks about food recipes and celebrities hair all day long (Mr. Garrison style). My friend even tried talking to the teacher about it and the teacher accused my friend of being too young and out of sync. The icing on the cake was when my friend's kid whipped out the results to her spelling test... I had to take a pic: *sigh* True story by the way, I added that text to the pic myself. Discuss.
Sad. I don't seem to remember things being all that bad when I went through the FL school system, but...it could be worse. You could be in Guam. My problem is with the Japan school system. It is designed to take as much money out of your pocket as possible. It will bankrupt the average middle income family. Good luck guys. Fix your school system.
When I was in high school (went to Southwest) we had to pay for our english textbooks. They never even offered CHEMISTRY! WTF?!? The citizenry have no one to blame but themselves. We allowed our school system to deflate into garbage. We should have higher standards and there should be generalized outrage regarding the school system. Its a travesty.
I find it amazing that we seem to care so little about the future of this country. The school system should be a top priority for us, and there is no excuse for it to not be the top in the world.
get rid of standardized testing, throw that money towards better books, supplies, etc. Having said that I come from the poorest city in the US, how is it possible the schools here offered up to chem 2 , bio 2 and physics 2 and florida doesn't?
In fairness to the teacher, it was a sports related sentence. We can't expect women to know those types of things.
I got one for you that ABSOLUTELY outrages me. We registered my dsughter for Kindergarten a couple of weeks back. We were asked if we wanted her in the "Bi-lingual Immersion Program" This has them doing 3 days a week in English and 2 COMPLETELY in Spanish I have no problem with learning more than one language and understand there are huge benefits to being bi-lingual, but we are talking about Kindergarten and 40% of their time. I personally think its importantant for kids to first master English AND THEN learn more languages
Mor, here in Tennessee that same test serves as our high school exit exam for graduation. So don't underestimate its extreme difficulty.
I've seen the Tennessee high school exit test. Even the spot where you put your name is multiple choice. A) Skip B) Bubba C) Scooter D) Other
Don't forget Ope us Tennesseans are also fond of two name first names: Jim Bob Bobbie Sue Ellie May Erica Dean ...and so forth, but the two name system is usually only used to denote cousin marriages which is only 43% of the population. So you were right in using the one name first names as the majority (which still does not exclude cousin marriages but that's a story for another day).
I don't know azn. I live in Canada, and we are VERY multilingual. In fact, it is very common for parents to speak their native tongue exclusively to their children so they know the language. They then literally go to school knowing very little to no english, but they can speak in Italian, Spanish, Polish, Hindu, Chinese, you name itn very well. In the end, the children learn quickly. Their capacity to learn languages at such a young age is astounding, and I personally think, based on what I've seen here, that it can be done with success.
My nieces and grand daughter are all learning both English and Spanish. Let's face it, Spanish is here to stay, and as this young generation gets older they will only benefit from having some sort of command of the language.
I honestly don't have a problem with learning another language, I just don't think its good to take that much time from teaching the things our public schools are already failing to teach. Being Bi-lingual is great. Being illiterate in multiple languages is un-acceptable IMO
I'm all for teaching a foreign language to elementary students just because the attempts to do it in high schools and college fails miserably (trust me I know personally). It broadens a students' horizons to know an extra language in so many ways and to me it should be one of the main things taught to elementary students, but I do agree with AZ if its going to be taught it needs to be taught correctly (but I still think it needs to be one of the top priorities for elementary schools). European countries have done a great job implementing foreign languages into their school systems and I think in that regard the US should borrow a page from their book.
We have to do complete days in Spanish too. I hate that garbage. I got *****ed at for answering every question with an English word and then just added an 'O' at the end of it.
No, the complete days of it. I don't mind it, I just hate having to say every thing in Spanish, even when I don't know how to say it. Sound like a complete dumbass.
immersion is the best way to learn IMO. Trust me on this, take the criticism, learn the language, screw whoever laughs at you, I doubt you will regret it.
i WISH i learned spanish. i tried to take spanish I, seriously in high school. then even signed up for spanish II, but got there, and realized i forgot everything i learned(if anything) in spanish I, so quickly transfered out... and yea, Florida schools is ridiculous. i graduated with a 2.1 and i literally did less then 5 homework assignments in my entire high school time. i almost had a 50% absenty rating my senior year and 36 tardies. i did just enough to play sports...nothing more.. not bragging, i was dumb to do that. wish i would of really put in a lot more effort.
I wish I took Spanish in HS. I took French (dumbass) and ended up married to a Spanish woman, working with a bunch of Spanish guys and having a customer base that is at least 40% Spanish. Now I know 50X more Spanish than I do French, I want to learn the language, I do not conjugate verbs properly, and I sometimes sound like 'Tonto' according to my coworker, but I get my point across dammit!
No, my wife is pretty picky with how I speak, I just, every now and then, **** up, as we say in English.
This reminds me of when I and my sister were in elementary school she had a teacher who insisted that 6 + 8 =13. I remember seeing her mark 14 as wrong. I also didn't learn Spanish when I was a kid. I was inculcated with the idea that it was wrong to speak anything but English. I later did learn it and progressed faster than most other students, partly because you can't escape being familiar with it in Miami and partly because I felt zealous about learning it. I speak it pretty well, but if I had started off when I was young it could have been at the same level as English for me.
I have always regretted not learning when I had the chance when younger and peruse Rosetta Stone every once in a while as it really isn't to late.
All kidding aside, although Tennessee does have one of the lowest state funding budgets for public schools I received a very good education. The teachers were always knowledgeable even in the rural area I was from and always from the time I was in middle school we were pushed towards colleges, trade schools, etc. The only thing was that we had outdated technology (we were still using Windows 3.1 in my 8th grade keyboarding class in 2000). So I'm actually proud of Tennessee in that regard but things now aren't so great because there is even less funding for schools but overall I have to commend them for what they have done.
Well sking, you could get me on one of my favorite soap boxes Spending for learning institutions is ludicrous Nationwide Athletes make more in a year than lots of school districts This in itself is a falling down of Society IMO
While Ohio doesn't have great schools, my school system was solid at least, and having a Mom who was a teacher certainly "helped."
"Bi-lingual Immersion Program" What part of "immersion" did you not understand when you signed her up? You're lucky all her classes aren't in Spanish.
IMO full immersion is a great opportunity for your kid. I have an 8 year old and if had the option he would have been put in that program. In kindergarten, its not really that much learning anyways. It's all done through play and projects. In the long run, your kid would be much better served acquiring the skill.
