Saturday, June 6, 2015

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

19 Percent of high school Graduates are Functionally Illiterate


The following piece appears in full on Better Ed.

Were Americans Illiterate Before the Arrival of Public Schools?

Were most Americans illiterate before the creation of our public education system in the 1830s?

That seems to be a popular assumption, but is it true?

If you’re looking for statistics, they’re notoriously hard to get when it comes to literacy rates in past centuries. Most historians of early American history have gravitated toward signatures on documents—such as wills and deeds—as indicators of literacy. (Those who could not read simply used a mark.) Signatures are by no means fool proof evidence of literacy, but it’s the best we have.

The following chart from Kenneth Lockridge's Literacy in Colonial New England shows the estimated percentage of literacy from signatures on New England wills between 1650-1795:
As you can see, about 80% of men and 50% of women were literate in New England around the time of America's founding. Scholars have noted that the percentages were probably lower in the South at the time.

We also have the testimonies of widespread American literacy in the early nineteenth century. In 1800, The Columbian Phoenix and Boston Review magazine reported that “no country on the face of the earth can boast of a larger proportion of inhabitants, versed in the rudiments of science, or fewer, who are not able to read and write their names, than the United States of America.”

The factors behind the growth of America’s literacy rates are numerous. Johann Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press in 1439 dramatically increased popular access to books. The Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century placed salvific importance upon individual Christians being able to read the Bible. Additional motivation to spread literacy came with the Enlightenment’s emphasis on reason and equality—the latter of which contributed to the closing of the gap between male and female literacy during the course of the nineteenth century. All these historical movements and ideas created a culture in America that encouraged more widespread literacy.

Thus, the increase in American literacy cannot be solely chalked up to the creation of a public education system. Indeed, as statistics today show, an education system is no guarantee of literacy. According to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, 32 million of American adults are illiterate, 21 percent can’t read below a 5th grade level, and 19 percent of high school graduates are functionally illiterate, which means they can’t read well enough to manage daily living and perform tasks required by many jobs.

Improving literacy in America requires not simply having an education system. It also requires what Americans had in past centuries: a culture of literacy.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Teacher Threatened with Fine.

http://eagnews.org/wv-teacher-threatened-with-fine-for-violating-michelle-os-school-snack-rules/

I have to side with the teacher on this one.  The government is getting to involved in our daily lives.

Cathy

Homeschooling Increases 61%.....

We have seen an increase in homeschooling.  Perhaps this is one of the reasons why more people are homeschooling.  

Cathy

“I've noticed a fascinating phenomenon in my thirty years of teaching: schools and schooling are increasingly irrelevant to the great enterprises of the planet. No one believes anymore that scientists are trained in science classes or politicians in civics classes or poets in English classes. The truth is that schools don't really teach anything except how to obey orders. This is a great mystery to me because thousands of humane, caring people work in schools as teachers and aides and administrators, but the abstract logic of the institution overwhelms their individual contributions. Although teachers to care and do work very, very hard, the institution is psychopathic -- it has no conscience. It rings a bell and the young man in the middle of writing a poem must close his notebook and move to a different cell where he must memorize that humans and monkeys derive from a common ancestor.”
John Taylor Gatto, Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling

Sunday, May 31, 2015

The Next Generation Science Standards Are Not State-Driven Either

The Next Generation Science Standards Are Not State-Driven Either

Former Daniel Boone teaching intern pleads guilty to statutory r - WJHL.com

Former Daniel Boone teaching intern pleads guilty to statutory r - WJHL.com

Former Daniel Boone teaching intern pleads guilty to statutory rape

WASHINGTON COUNTY, TN (WJHL) -

A former Daniel Boone High School teaching intern
pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of statutory rape for what
authorities called an inappropriate relationship between a student
teacher and a teenage girl.

Krystal Paddock, 25, of Chuckey was arrested back in August after a grand jury said it found enough evidence to charge her with three counts of statutory rape by an authority figure.

In a Jonesborough courtroom, Paddock was sentenced to serve 180 days in
jail and must register as a sex offender on the state's registry once
she is released.

She has to report to jail in June 10.

Copyright 2014 WJHL. All rights reserved.

Why are so many teachers getting arrested?
Everyday I receive a report of teachers arrested.   The one above was just one of nine reports that I received in my mailbox yesterday.   It is a shame, the above women has appeared to thrown away her career as she was just an intern.   Google teacher arrested find out for yourself the extent of the problem in America.  We need to stop putting such blind faith in public education.

Cathy