lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

Agree!!!

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

A dictatorship in a third world country is a miniature of what the world government these "progressives" think would be so great will turn into in a very short time.

The problem with the concentration of power is that those who end up with that power inevitably come to believe themselves to be God.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

Affirmation! How nice!

Did our mutual friend show up OK?

QuestGirl Loc: Jayhawk Country

Me too. I recently learned Common Core came as early as 1996. I think Bush just re-named it No Child Left Behind and a disaster too. Touch Point Math had my child adding 20+5 = 7. Zero has no "touch point". Also, no grades throughout grade school. This started under Bush in 2001 or 2002. My daughter graduated in 2012.

Morgan

I will say this again and again and again, common core is simply a bar, and a low one at that, it has nothing to do with teaching techniques, it is simply a standard guide line. Schools for the most part are academically, structured and controlled locally, how they are taught is a wide girth under the conjoint effort of the local school board, the school and individual teacher, this is one reason why there are such variances in schools. Why one in one neighborhood is so different and may not be maintaining a good level even though they are in the same county, while others are excelling.

Morgan

Again we've been declining for decades, possibly centuries, read the writings of our founders and this is plainly apparent. If you choose to make this a political stance we will never get to the real issues, maybe that's why we've been on a continued decline. The schools have always been under state control. The federal government has little to do with them or what they learn.

My opinion, the top countries success has nothing to do with the issues you speak of, it is about technique and what is being taught. I was brought up in a catholic school my father, mother and I went to, which expanded three different decades. Which also had 50, yes 50 kids to a class and we al received a good education. Techniques can be adjusted easily to size of class, especially in todays day and age with computers. We were also graded without a curve or A,B,C,D"s Strictly straight forward numerically. You got exactly what you got, whether 63,72,86 or 98. I personally like this way because it is so accurate.

We are failing our children, which in turns brings us down as a whole. My point... was to look at techniques that have been proven successful which can certainly be a multitude of them and begin to make these improvements... record what does work... and embrace it.

Morgan

When people are referring to common core it is referring to a standard, you don't learn common core unless you were taught with a curriculum course set called "Common Core", which is where this gets confusing. Were you taught with this set of books called Common Core(one book per grade level)? They were used often with home school students and possibly some private or charter schools.

QuestGirl Loc: Jayhawk Country

No, not me. I graduated from public school in 1975. My daughter however, entered public schools in 1999, graduating in 2012. She went to live with her dad in 2010, and entered a different school district in the same state, one county over. Had she stayed with me, I do not believe she would have graduated.

Example: Had the "system" been passing out grades in grade school, instead of passing with "participation" medals, my daughter was failing 5th grade math. Her teacher put an F on a paper of her's at the end of the year. I had anmunition now, to bitch at the district. Now, as I type this, I wonder if I got the teacher fired?

Her grade school was nothing more than a glorified babysitter. Thank God she loves to read and with high comprehension. I say that, for her accelerated reading (grade school) in passing 10 tests covering 10 books with only one answer wrong out of 100 total. I collected books, for a reason, and she was surrounded by them. I'm not an avid reader beyond "current events". The same as my mother read.

My father was (known to read more than one book at a time) and my two older brothers are (I can only assume they are both still alive), but I missed that era without a father in the home at the age of 13, due to death. Life changed for me exponentially upon his death. The parent who cared properly for the "well being" of another beyond the physical facade, had ceased to exist. My non-sociopathic parent had ceased to exist.

My daughter began to get into trouble in 2008, during her 8th grade year. (A new girl had moved to town, my daughter brought her home from school and she stayed for two weeks. For reasons blatantly obvious to me, she could stay with us at any time.) My daughter had made the Honor Roll in 7th grade, which I attribute to two of her teachers and that particular school's administration. I loved Mr W, while the kids all hated him. He did his job, properly, in my opinion. The only school worth its salt in the town we lived.

When my daughter entered high school, by Thanksgiving of her 9th grade year, I received a letter claiming "truancy". I, being the parent, knew this was not true. I had to point out to the school that she was in ISS, sitting in their office ISS 'space' on the days that they had counted her as "absent" without an excuse. Much to my dismay, she went to go live with her dad the following semester. I knew it was the only way she would graduate high school, and she did, from the same public school I had graduated, nearly 40 years prior.

Our public schools are in shambles, unless you are rich. We lived in a "rich" county, but we, and I still am poor. We are counted as insignificant in THEIR collective big picture, even though the county itself is very wealthy, with many districts.

I moved back to my 'hometown' in 2013, spending the following 4 years basically, homeless, with two stints in the local "homeless shelter" for approximately 7 months per stint. Frankly, I kinda liked it, being among my own kind, that being "of the poor". A community, if you will. A sort of FEMA camp prototype, as I called it. Given that, I got nothin' to worry about in my future, in the future of our world.

Also, one might be amazed to learn the "genius" level of humanity living amongst the homeless. Because no one cared, properly, while they were growing up. As sociopaths are bred among the wealthy and arise to run governments and the like, many are left behind. Is that understandable? How, or rather why, does that happen?

Generally, "sociopaths" are considered the "dregs of society" and belong in jail. "Children of delinquent parents", my father would call them. What does that say about all those wealthy sociopaths? And their offspring?

It is my belief we are "most" all born amoral. (I say most because of God's few.) Someone along the way neglected to teach morals, values and ethics to their offspring. Money buys choices. Morals, values and ethics have been tossed aside for the mighty $$$ and will never reverse, even in the Utopian world.

Only God can bring about Paradise. Utopia is a false sense to Paradise and will never be achieved, try as man might. Utopia vs Paradise? I choose Paradise. Regardless of man's concerted efforts to achieve Utopia.

Footnote: Concerning my daughter. At one point in time (I believe she was still in grade school) I applied (seen it on Oprah, but not her $$$) and received a 50% private scholarship to a private school of my choosing. I was unable to acquire the remaining balance (churches required of membership status to apply) and even if I had found the money, I still faced at least a 30 mile round trip commute twice a day, or else move. Both take $$$, of which I had little to none. It is a shame I had not the "wherewithal" to homeschool my daughter my own self. But, probably, could not have afforded to homeschool within my own home.

I realize the above is a bit mixed in subject matter as well as paragraph arrangement. That's just tough, I guess, for those reading. I work here, through a phone. I'm sending this now, before it disappears off my screen and lost forever into the bowels of technology.

To answer your question, no homeschooling in my family. None, couldn't afford it. Aren't ya' glad you asked?

Morgan

I am sorry to hear of your past strife and you've shown yourself to be a real fighter. I know the rules for home schooling has gotten stricter which makes me wonder about that too.

One thing we all agree on that the schools, for our children need a real make over, I'm for public schools, otherwise children...millions will fall through the cracks and we'll be moving backward toward child labor once again and only the privilege affording an education, this will only weaken our country, and we'll watch more foreigners come in and take our professional jobs.

With that said I also believe at retirement, seniors, should have a cut in taxes from school taxes. Maybe as early as 55. and if not having any children at home.

QuestGirl Loc: Jayhawk Country

We are in a mess, no doubt.

Thank you for your kind words.

Harpooner1

I think the thread has gone a bit off the rails......It happens. But, I thought we were talking about Cuba?

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

It always happens...and usually it's good.

Anyone who thinks Cuba is 100% literate to begin with took way too much acid in the 60s!

Harpooner1

Been there with my Cuban Girlfriend. A couple years ago. Yeah, it's nice if you like the nostalgic rundown scenes in past movies. Nice.
Castro spent all his money, the money he didn't keep, on Havana, and central Havana at that.
It still looks like something from the 50's.....because that is what it is. You go anywhere out side the city, with the exception of the tourist resorts, which Cubans can't go, it's a shithole! Mexico is better!
Foreigners who come can get pretty much whatever they want.....Cubans can't. It's not that they can't afford it...They are not allowed.
Seriously, a cab driver who ferries tourists makes more in a day than a doctor in a month. Everyone works for the government for 25 bucks a month. You get electricity most of the time, but, not every day of the week, same with water....Same with food. A person cannot even fish in the ocean without a penalty.
All this is true. I saw and heard it from the Cubans. But, they have gotten used to this.....Yeah....Because they saw the people that didn't get used to it disappear.
Yeah, that's the way they work.....No opposition.
yet, the liberals seem to love the Castro's because of free housing, free medical, free education........

It is a joke. When Castro got sick, he didn't stay in Cuba...No, he went to Spain.

Cuba is a beautiful country and has tremendous potential in tourism, agriculture, and other significant economic markets.
But, they have absolutely no infrastructure...None. The fertile Land yields little for the people. It's sad watching people scramble once a week in the markets for food that is no where near the quality of the average supermarket. Meat with flies on it, fish with no refrigeration or ice.......Disgusting...And that is in Havana.....

Literacy is one thing...Communist literacy is quite another.

BigMike Loc: yerington nv

I was an adult tutor while I was in the joint and I can tell you, 100% literacy is a crock. You can bet the dyslexics and tactile learners ain't doing well in Cuba.

Harpooner1

Oh!, You should see the gap between those who are educated there and those who are not. And they engage in segregation by racial makeup. If you are more black, you are doomed to poverty unless you can pitch a baseball or boxing.
Because no one is full black in Cuba.....they don't allow this.
I asked my girlfriend, " And you lived this way?"......She said, "No, it wasn't like this...."
Creeping ruin.
That is what the left offers.