Until someone in charge figures out that it’s not the schools that are the problem, test scores and school-based solutions will be meaningless.
Rick Green is right to emphasize wasted time and human potential, especially in terms of our region, but the question or premise flooring No Child Left Behind types of policy misses the wider system in which people operate as thinkers. Until the city works, nothing else will. We need radical thinking about urban space.
I’m gonna disagree with you here. Until we “fix” our schools (which are “broken” in so many ways that I can’t begin to discuss them here), we will continue to have “broken” cities.
Young people who feel stupid and believe that they have no potential will continue to be a destructive force in our society.
I’m not going to diagree with you, Deb, but reality will. By the way, you know my answer anyway: why do you believe that one thing must come before the other? Consider where the school is: does anybody talk about fixing the Farmington school system? Why?
We’re dealing with complicated systems here. If I fix the exhaust on my jeep and the radiator has a hole, did I really fix the exhaust system?
P.S. Schools aren’t the only place that can make people feel dumb. Remember my other dumb ideas: we really don’t need schools, but we do need people who are competent, creative, and wild.