Small schools and Common Core? Thank Bill Gates.
Quit screwing with other people's kids, Bill.
I'm probably doomed to get Alzheimer's. Both my grandmothers had it, and... So, I'm doomed.
I don't know if Bill's money would direct research into dead ends or if it would open up new roads, but I know that I'm probably going to get Alzheimer's either way.
So, after screwing up education, would Bill and his money be a benefit in Alzheimer's research, or a hindrance? I'm willing to give him a shot. After all, those with a predilection for Alzheimer's are already screwed, unlike the children on whom Common Core was thrust. They were only screwed after Common Core.
Bill Gates, who has never been a teacher and whose children either attend private schools or are homeschooled, has no idea how to educate the vast array of kids who show up in public schools. Like Ross Perot before him, Gates believes that STEM is the only way to success and that children are tiny automatons that can be programmed into learning those skills his industry desires. Nothing could be further from the truth. Kids are not empty slates-the tabula rasa concept should have died with the Victorian Age. Kids come packed with "software" that allows them to do a range of things. Some will have great physical strength, others will have mental and digital acuity. Some will sing beautifully and others will be human calculators. Gates and Common Core ignore that by teaching only one method is "right" and disallowing those solutions that skip or circumvent their stilted and time consuming methods. I know what this is called in math. I was a New Math victim in 1965. What my grandson comes home with is the same factoring that I did as a second grader in Metarie, LA. The key is that someone is getting rich off of the materials. And when we find that someone, we will find they paid administrators at the local, state and Federal levels to impose this nonsense just so they could get rich. I'm not against having some sort of unified standards, but the testing industry is making out like bandits.
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