Cheating Teachers

This is the era of high-stakes tests. No Child Left Behind (Bush) followed on the footsteps of Goals 2000 (Clinton) in trying to raise the bar for graduation standards. Maybe, one of the more unexpected roles that the teachers and school officials had to play as a result: Security Guard to those tests.

But the students are not the only ones under pressure. Sometimes the teachers and administrators have important contractual incentives to have their students do well. Sometimes the temptation for the teachers to cheat is too much. More here.

Suicide Teen had been Bullied

A news story has been capturing headlines recently about a 15-yr old girl who hung herself. Evidently, the girl had been tormented by some of her classmates. The school officials are justifying their actions or inactions. The picture is a response written by someone who had an opinion about the events.

It reminds me of a story I read more than 10 years ago - a short story - that still shapes my thoughts on raising my kids. It is called "The Playground". (You can read it free online from the link). In the story, the playground is the pit of bullying, where children go through some heinous and brutal initiation into socialization with other children. The 'hero', Charles Underhill, keeps his young boy from the playground as long as possible - despite the protests of friends and relatives who see this as a valuable and necessary experience. But he is sensitive, and so is his son, and Charles doesn't want his son to get hurt. In the end, Charles somehow saves his son from this tormet, but you'll have to read the book to find out how. (It's a mere 20 pages).

The way that people have been raised as children, and thus have raised their own children in similar ways . . . . Inasmuch as I have been raised, in some ways, in the playground, I want something different for my kids. Will this be helping them or hurting them in the long run? or the short run? Choosing to home-school my children is in no small way a response to my thoughts about these things. Whenever I talk to non-homeschooler adults about homeschooling my children, they inevitably ask about how they get socialized? Inside, I laugh and cringe at the same time.