Sarge's Corner

Greetz everyone! I hope all is well in your respective neck of the woods. I don't have any real news to report for myself, and will endeavor in the future to avoid all out rants while i'm here. Today will not be one of those occasions. Although I hope to appeal to your sense of reason, and perhaps make one think a bit about the following topic, no promises.

We are facing innumerable challenges in our modern society, as least the portion in the US. One in particular that I see as very alarming and only recently making headlines is the poor state of education here. For a myriad of reasons our students typically do not perform well when compared to kids from other countries at most age levels. Nothing new there. Last week (I believe) there were several news items around about the President calling for improvements and increased $$$ for education, particularly in math and the sciences. I feel better thinking we are making progress. Then a couple of days ago i read an article, that really chaps my ass.

Here (and here) is a story about a group of students in CA (no surprise there) and their oblivious parents suing the State and others because their precious little kiddies aren't going to be allowed to graduate. Why you ask? They can't pass the GRADUATION EXAM!!! There are other articles out today from various sources (all with different slants) talking about this.

Now I realize that the idea of graduation exams for high school is somewhat new (currently 23 states have some type of this test) and not without flaws. Keep in mind the whole point to having a standardized test is to ensure that everyone meets some standard of performance. It is unbiased, in the sense that (in the above mentioned case) every student in the state of CA takes the same test. Just like taking the SAT's, where millions of bleary-eyed teens assemble in gyms and libraries across the nation early on a Saturday morning to take this test (at least that's how we did it back in the Stone Age, where we carved our answers into stone or drew them on cave walls), it puts everyone on a level playing field.

People will argue that some pupils are disadvantaged and need more help. Which I think is great and agree with. The point of the exam though it to verify that those students have gotten the help and have the academic prowess that the Diploma represents. Otherwise, its no different than just buying the damn thing. Or for that matter just give it to them. The real disservice here is to these whiny spoon-fed students, that only got to be that way from having whiny spoon-fed parents. Not only are they not prepared for other challenges, they won't be prepared to work for anything they really want.

In my own experience, I was always bad at math. Yup, it was one of my worst subjects. Through most of high school & early college, my math grades sucked (even failed a couple). Did I whine about it & sue anyone? NO, since i know the real world doesn't work that way. I WORKED at it. I studied and read and worked until it all finally clicked. Why? I knew it was necessary to get where I want to be. In engineering it is a necessary skill, and since i wanted it bad enough I made it happened. When i complete my MSE soon, I will have a minor in Mathematics. Didn't blame anyone, didn't sue anyone, didn't make excuses. Of course unlike way too many people these days, I'm not afraid to work. So now i have a skill set. I don't like it, but i can use it.

Getting back on subject, I couldn't help noticing as I read several articles, they were complaning that the non-native english speakers were at a disadvantage. Yet the same students have PASSED the English portion of the exam!!! WTF?!?! Its the Math they can't do!!! Is it important? Here's a simple experiment to try. Cruel, but try it: Next time you pay at a fast food joint, as soon as you hand them the money, use your other hand and cover up the register screen. Watching them trying to figure out how much change to give you without the register telling them looks a lot like a monkey trying to hump a football. But that's okay, they don't need math skills.

I guess this lawyer can't put 2 and 2 together. I reckon he never needed to when he took the Bar Exam. Which is a standarized test to see if he could be a lawyer. Without passing which he would've needed extra work & effectively not finished his education. (I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he went to Law school & didn't get his degree by sending Sally Struthers a bag of money and studying at home). Since this is about to become circular, I'll leave the topic.

Sorry for the rant; I'll try to balance things with good stuff in the near future. Hope everyone has a good weekend. Until we meet again...