According to the report, 73 percent of employers and 81 percent of professors said public school graduates have fair or poor writing skills.Biggest problem seems to be lack of involvement with children by parents and children's attitudes, say the report. Read more here.
In the Texas Legislature, there is plenty of action going on about schools. In one move, a bill to allow universities and colleges to start charter schools, where all the students do so on a computer at home over the Internet passed the Senate. The House had already voted earlier to table the bill. Since the Senate passed the bill with a vote of 27-3, it might be possible that the House will reconsider the bill soon, but according to the Dallas Morning News story, some representatives opposed the bill, saying cash-strapped Texas could not afford it. Whatever happens, it looks like there may be a lot of changes in Texas schools.
In an unrelated story, a teacher in West Texas is in trouble for taping the mouths of some students that would not stop talking during class. Parents are upset about the ordeal and are asking to have the teacher fired.
One mother said, "My child can't breathe through his nose. Whenever he has his asthma attacks, he definitely can't."This episode backs up what the above survey was saying about the root of the problems in our school. While I cannot condone what the teacher did, if the kids had done what they were supposed to have done: shut their mouths and pay attention to what the teacher was trying to teach them; she would not had to take such action. I am still of the opinion that discipline in school was better before they stopped corporeal punishment for misbehavior. Posted by Tiger at April 23, 2003 10:25 PM | TrackBack