Leadership's Future: Education For Performance
by Miki SaxonOn September 25, 1957, 300 United States Army troops escorted nine black children to Central High School in Little Rock after unruly white crowds had forced them to withdraw.
In 1976, the shooting of a 13-year-old sparked a children’s uprising against apartheid that spread across the country to Cape Town, where students from a mixed-race high school, Salt River, marched in solidarity with black schoolchildren.
September 15, 2009, Seattle schools plan to lower the passing grade from C to D, partly match the rest of the state’s districts and partly to keep their funding by keeping kids in school.
On September 24, 2009, thousands of South African children peacefully marched to City Hall demanding better schools, libraries and librarians.
September 2009 a debate at Answers.com is hosting a wiki debate on the value of homework. (Read it and weep at the language skills that dominate the anti-homework crowd who are your future employees.)
Finally, I just received an email (thanks Sunie!) with this picture and comments on the spelling of “bokay.” Many florists use this spelling in their marketing, but one of the comments made me cringe, “I thought is was spelled bowkay” and the writer seemed serious.
I wonder what would happen if
- school became a right that could only be earned by the child’s effort, not by the parent’s efforts or their money;
- student performance, not attendance, was the criterion for funding;
- being a ‘tough’ teacher by demanding performance was encouraged;
- kids had to work at whatever menial job they could find when they chose not to perform in school
None of this will ever happen, but it is interesting conjecture.
What do you think?
Your comments—priceless
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October 1st, 2009 at 7:50 am
Thank you for the post.
This really speaks to the importance why education shouldn’t be taken for granted. What’s considered a fundamental right for some is a privelege for others.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:50 am
Hi Audley, Sadly, it’s taken for granted in middle and upper-income families in the US, but only hoped for in lower levels.
Wouldn’t it be interesting if BOTH teachers and students were under a performance-based system? Parents, too, if that were possibly!