Hollosi Information eXchange /HIX/
HIX KORNYESZ 336
Copyright (C) HIX
1997-03-07
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Megrendelés Lemondás
1 meadows-rovat (mind)  121 sor     (cikkei)
2 Atony+KHV+Liptak+Gare (mind)  44 sor     (cikkei)
3 Egy szuper ajanlat (mind)  44 sor     (cikkei)

+ - meadows-rovat (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE SCHOOLS?

Maybe it's just that I was a kid, but I remember my public school in a
middle-class Midwest town as the center of community life.  Everyone seemed to
show up for band concerts and basketball games and PTA meetings.  Teachers
were
decently paid and honored in the community.  Taxpayers, much poorer than the
average today, took pride in the local school and paid for it, as I recall,
without a lot of grumping.

I learned to multiply and divide in that school, to play the saxophone, to
love
books and learning.  Surely the way to express my gratitude is to support
great
schools for the next generation.

But for some reason we're not doing that any more.

According to John Taylor Gatto, once a New York Teacher of the Year, military
applicants in the 1930s tested 98 percent literate.  During World War II our
soldiers' literacy rate was 96 percent.  In 1950 only 81 percent of Korean war
enlistees passed literacy tests, and by the 1970s, during the Vietnam war, the
percent was down to 73.

Maybe that drop can be explained by an army recruited increasingly from the
unprivileged.  But Gatto points out that in 1940 the general white population
tested four percent illiterate and blacks 20 percent.  Now the numbers are 17
and 44 percent.  Black illiteracy has doubled, white has quadrupled.

Why?

Theories abound.

Gatto believes that the moneyed classes not only resent paying taxes for
anything, but especially resent mass education.  They want to produce
unquestioning, unthinking citizens, just skilled enough to work within the
industrial machine.

Then there are those who say the schools have been invaded by immigrants,
people with no respect for, and perhaps no genetic ability for schooling.  (To
counter this racist argument, Gatto points out that the black nation of
Jamaica
has a 98.5 percent literacy rate, far higher than the rate for U.S. whites.)

Some say it's the lazy, greedy unionized teachers who have ruined the schools.

It's the layers of administration and regulation.

It's way too little money.

Or way too little discipline.

It's the absence of prayer; the presence of television; the government
botching
this job as it botches all others.

Whatever our theories, we all know that the decline of education is real and
important.  A nation that does not develop the minds of its young people is in
a downward spiral.  Each generation is less educated, less willing to support
education, less capable of doing so.

At this point the columnist is supposed to sweep in with The Solution to the
problem, but I haven't got a Solution, and I'm not impressed with the ones I
hear promoted by others.

I don't see how it would help to federalize the schools, nor to localize them
totally, nor to privatize them.  Spending piles of money is no guarantee of
educational excellence, though learning is surely stifled when buildings leak,
textbooks have missing pages, and talented teachers leave for better jobs.
Computers in every classroom could be tools for learning or for mindless
Web-cruising.  Charter schools and vouchers look to me like just another way
to
favor rich kids, and Bill Clinton's standardized tests look like another way
to
label kids in inadequate schools as losers.  We once had, and in places still
have, perfectly good schools without any of these tricks.

The trouble with these and other bright ideas, I think, is that somehow
they're
at the wrong level.  They are details, specifics, content.  They might help,
if
the overarching context were right, but that context is wrong.  It's like
pouring hot jello into a leaky mold.  No matter what good things we put into
the mix, we're not going to end up with a salad.

In my childhood community the context -- the truth that everyone knew so well
that no one ever had to say it -- was that schools were a common
responsibility
and a top priority.  The commitment was not to "my kids" but to "our
children."
I grew up knowing that my education was of concern to everyone.  I had to take
it seriously because my parents, teachers, and neighbors did.  Education was a
sacred contract.  I knew my community would give up almost anything else
before
it would give up its good schools, and that in return we kids had to do our
very best.

That's how the Asians think now.

But we, richer than we were when I was a child, with fewer kids and fewer
immigrants, have listened too long to loud voices insisting upon individuality
at the expense of community.  To parents who think their kids can somehow
succeed in a nation where other kids fail.  To people who think money is more
real than minds.  To folks so full of fear that they would rather pay for
prisons than for schools.  These folks are a minority, but they gravitate
toward power and money and microphones.

The only way I know to restore a broken context is to affirm it loudly and
often, and to live it.  To pay willingly for schools and to pay enough
attention to be sure the money is spent wisely.  To stick up as fiercely for
other kids as we do for our own.  To support teachers instead of scapegoating
them.  To care at least as much about our schools as we do about our weapons.

If we need a soundbite (and we do, because microphones only permit
soundbites),
I like the one on the bumper sticker: "If you think education is expensive,
try
ignorance."

(Donella H. Meadows is an adjunct professor of environmental studies at
Dartmouth College.)
+ - Atony+KHV+Liptak+Gare (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

Par percem van csak, de a 335. sz. sok gondolatot keltett bennem, de 
csak feluletesen tudok reagalni:

elemes (az ertetlen): gondolatod marha jo otlet, tenyleg kivancsi 
lennek arra, mit kezdenenek a hulladekkal. Baj az, hogy egy 
kormanyzat nem lehet olyan felelotlen, mint a "zold" (idezojel 
jelentese: ejtsd kornyezetellenes) csopotok. Ma a nuklearis 
energiatermeles legnagyobb kockazati tenyezoje a "zold" 
tevekenyseg.

Deak G.:
Igazad van, a torveny nem old meg semmit. Pl.: KHV ugy kezdodik, 
hogy meg kell hatarozni a hatasteruletet. Azt viszont elfelejtettek 
definialni, mia a hatasterulet. Onkenyes definicio lehetseges csak, 
matematikai ertelemben az egesz vilag az (lasd OE kedves leveleit 
a Svajcot karosito afrikai DDT-rol), a tiz a minusz sokadikon is szam.
A reszleteket szabalyozo kormanyrendelet (legalabbis a levegos 
teruleten) kb. 4 eve 95%-os allapotban van, a hianyzo reszek (pl. 
hatasterulet, mert az abban sincs meghatarozva) azota sem hajlando 
a KTM par szazezer ft-ot aldozni. Marad a retesteszta effektus. A KHT 
keszitok (mert az mar reg kotelezo) nem tudjak, mihez tartsak 
magukat, a meg hatalyos, de senki altal el nem ismert, vagy az ilyen 
korokben kozismert, de nem hatalyos tervezett jogszabalyokhoz. 
Folytathatnam, de nem teszem.

Tisztelem Liptak L. megujult buzgalmat. (Nem  a tevekenyseget!) 
Kivancsi vagyok, megfogalmazta-e mar a nemzetkozi 
osszeeskuvesrol, a szlovakok sportszerutlensegerol stb. szolo 
irasait, amit majd akkor kozol, amikor a hagai birosag nem az 
altalunk vart dontest hozza. Mert ugye annyira naiv senki nem lehet, 
hogy azt higye, mindenben nekunk ad majd igazat es vissza a 
babaruhat. A nehany szazmilliard forintos babaruhat. Es a cehh csak 
egyre no, no ,no ... Es ha nem talalunk esszeru kompromisszumot, 
akkor kilotocsikban szamolhatunk! (Az emiatti tamadasok elott 
leszogezem: nem vagyok hazaarulo)

Piros levele jol peldazza, hogy Gare ugyben csak negativ 
velemenyek vannak, megoldasi javaslat nincs. A leirt
" kell egy kicsi egeto, ami szep lassan eleget ott mindent. "
szinten nem megoldas. Egy ilyen letesitmeny gazdasagi elettartama 
20-25 ev, tehat az utolso hordokat ugy 2017 es 2022 kozott egetne el, 
ha mar ma uzemelne. Ez a megoldas?

Udv         Gacs Ivan
+ - Egy szuper ajanlat (mind) VÁLASZ  Feladó: (cikkei)

Sziasztok!

Boldogtalan vagy, tul sok kudarc ert mostanaban, pechesnek tartod megad, 
elegedetlen vagy az eleteddel, valamilyen gyogyithatatlannak mondott 
betegseg gyotor, stressz es hajsza az eleted? Nem talalszt megoldast a 
problemaidra? Talan mi tudunk segiteni.

Ezuton ajanlunk fel Neked egy fantasztikusan jo konyvet: az "Egyszeru 
Valosag"-ot; valamint a "Tavoli Mentor" virtualis problemamegoldo 
treninget melyeket minden elkepzelesunket meghalado erdeklodes fogadta 
nehany napon belul. 

A konyvet es a treninget teljesen teritesmentesen mindenki reszere 
hozzaferhetove tesszuk. Dontesunk oka, hogy kinek-kinek a szandekara es 
dontesere bizzuk, hogy tamogatja-e munkankat. Mindenki - attol fuggoen, 
hogy erzesei szerint mennyit kapott, milyen merteku segitseget nyujtunk - 
belatasa szerint segitse mukodesunket anyagi tamogatasaval, mely NEM 
KOTELEZO. Nem kerul egy fityingedbe sem, de ha ugy erzed, felajanlanal 
valamennyit - akar 50 forintot szivesen fogadunk - akkor ne fogd vissza 
magad.
Tehat celunk tovabbra is segiteni mindenkin, aki raszorul es ezt 
armeghatarozas nelkul, SZABADON!
Tehat erre az email cimre barki egesz nyugodtan irhat es - teljes 
diszkrecioval kezelve problemajat - kozos erovel biztosan talalunk 
megoldast.
A konyvet, mely megismertet az alapokkal, azzal, amire mindent epitettunk 
a MAGYAR ELEKTRONIKUS KONYVTAR polcaira tettuk fel.

A MEK tehat elerheto a kovetkezo cimen: www.mek.iif.hu

A konyv iroja: Karsai Andras
A konyv cime: Egyszeru Valosag
Megtalalhato a mai magyar irodalom "polcan".

Bizunk benne, hogy nagyon sok ember segitsegere lehetunk ezzel a 
lehetoseggel. Szeretettel varunk minden levelet, hozzaszolast, kritikat, 
kerdest, problemat es biztos vagyok benne, hogy minden gondra talalunk 
megoldast.
Jelszavunk tovabbra is: DON'T WORRY, BE HAPPY!

Udvozlettel: Karsai Andras, Karsai Emese, Major Csaba, es Paal Sandor, es 
a P100-asunk :-)

"Nincs lehetetlen, csak tehetetlen..."

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