Get yo learn on…
Now that spring has sprung and the academic school year is drawing to a close, one might stroll around this fair city and notice the changes that the sortie of the changing seasons can bring…People have a more pressing desire to be outside…birds are chirping…cars are cleaner…
You will notice that young people are coming out in clusters to partake of the city’s beautiful array of parks and zoos, gardens and benches. They are dawned in spring attire, combining the new season’s colorful looks with their own fashionable flair.
One might also notice, if one really takes a look at these young people, there’s something more than the exuberance of youth and the promise of the new in their hopeful eyes: the look of stupidity.
Yes, I said it. Stupidity.
Now that the state ELA and Math tests have been reconciled and most regents testing bound students have taken their regents’ tests, you might also notice that most of the stressing out is over, and the students have resigned themselves to YouTube, Facebook and french kissing.
The problem is (and I am writing from the voice of an educator now, not just a spectator) that most of these students really aren’t that smart to begin with. Most of them, if they attend many of the public high or intermediate schools in NYC read about 3 grade levels below where they should be. I am not even going to mention their math skills, because I know no one will believe me, I will posit this statement-if you multiplied their math IQ by 10 you would STILL have a single digit.
Young people in the educational system in NYC are being short changed left and right when it comes to their education, and the sad thing is, we can no longer blame that beaurocracy, or the man. I blame the young people. These children have no concept of hard work and truly believe that everything should be handed to them. They think that passing with a “65″ (the minimum grade for passing in NYC) is great work and a “D” is an excellent grade. Again I posit, if I owed you one dollar and gave you 65 cents would you be satisfied? But again, I digress, for math problems will only confuse them.
I would love to hold a forum with these young dullards, sweep them up off the park benches and pull them away from fellatio at the botanical gardens and ask them, when did their minds become such liabilities? When did 14-year-old girls start caring more about threading eyebrows than reading books? When did young men stop wanting to count past 11? When the hell did this happen? And why isn’t the educational system holding anyone accountable?
I know what you’re thinking…it’s the teachers’ fault, right? Not at all.
All teachers can do (and trust me, this is ALL they can do, as Joel Klein has completely emasculated them in his new crap system) and that is lead a horse to water. Most of the time, they walk away thirsty.
So what happens now? We sit back and watch the movie Idiocracy come to fruition? We move to Guam and start over? I wish I knew. I do know one thing, however. My children are going to private school.
