"Products" of Education

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Amanda Gauthier-Parker" <[email protected]>
To: <TCS-0lvw86wZMd9gOVwcDb3/[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, October 24, 2004 6:50 AM
Subject: products of education

I think this awesome article applies well to last
week's thread. An excerpt follows the link...

http://sandradodd.com/joyce/products

"Products" of Education
By Joyce Fetteroll on Monday, October 18, 2004

"There's a myth going around that schools are a place
to get a great education.

But it's a lie.

Schools are factories. They take in raw materials
(children), apply a standard process (curriculum) and
turn out a product (children prepared for college).
And while many children do become grade A products (by
school standards), there are grade B, grade C, grade
D, grade F, kids sent to special education, kids sent
to trade schools, and drop outs.

Are schools turning out great products?

For some reason schools are judged by the grade A
products they turn out, not by all the products. For
some reason when a product is grade A, schools get the
credit. But when a product is of lower grade, the
product is blamed. "Lazy." "Not applying yourself."
"Learning disabled." "Stupid."

While it might make sense for a factory to toss aside
unusable raw materials, is that what we want for our
kids?
..."