Millions of families have lost homes, jobs, or both. The impact on children is enormous. But times are harsh in other ways, too. Work pressure puts parents on call 24/7 and eats away at family time. Children say the thing they most want is more time with their parents—not for homework help, but for talking and leisurely fun.
The anxiety parents feel about their children’s future is heightened by well-meaning but misguided education “reforms.” Even preschoolers and kindergartners have longer school hours. They are plunged into didactic lessons and testing before they are physically able to sit still or have the cognitive foundation to meet these inappropriate demands.
What is at stake is childhood itself—time for children to learn to discover their talents, regulate their impulses, and make sense of the world through play and exploration.
Someone has to yell STOP.
From Education For We, The People Or For Private Profit?
"Total student loan debt exceeds total credit card debt in this country, with $850 billion outstanding, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com, websites that provide information about student aid and scholarships.
Consumers owe about $828 billion in revolving credit, including credit card debt, according to seasonally adjusted numbers in a report on July credit from the Federal Reserve..."Far too many for-profit schools are saddling students with debt they cannot afford in exchange for degrees and certificates they cannot use."
..A Huffington Post report of their investigation of Kaplan University, At Kaplan University, 'Guerilla Registration' Leaves Students Deep In Debt, exposes Kaplan's practice of "guerilla registration" in which they register students and charge them tuition for classes they don't want or take, even in some cases after they have withdrawn from the school. And then they send the debt collectors after them for the money." ..Kaplan University, by the way, is owned by The Washington Post company."
Can Student Creativity Be Saved?
kids' scores on the commonly used Torrance creativity test dropped steadily from 1990 to 2008. The blame..lies both in and out of school:
Researchers believe growth in the time kids spend on computers and watching TV, plus a trend in schools toward rote learning and standardized testing, are crowding out the less structured activities that foster creativity
Self-directed H.S. Programs on the Rise in Ga.
In addition to conventional classes, several Georgia high schools will offer niche programs—described as a “school within a school”—that are geared toward students' strengths and interests.
Homework A or Homework B? Let Students Choose
The study, out of the University of Texas at Austin, found that, "When students were given choices, they reported feeling more interested in their homework, felt more confident about their homework and they scored higher on their unit tests,"
More Testing Seen for High School Students
High school is becoming a focus of increased testing, as more states tie diplomas to some type of assessment and require other exams that are not linked to graduation, according to a study released today...“The bottom line is that high schools tomorrow will face more testing, not less,”
