Comments on: No Child Left Behind?

By: Tammy H.

Tammy H. — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:54:04 +0000

Amazing, but totally true. I cannot believe how many kids never even learned to tie to their own shoes, tell time or make change.

By: Barbara Gavin

Barbara Gavin — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:58:53 +0000

I remember a Golden Book we had at home called Tommy Too Late, which had a clock with moveable hands on the cover. That is how I learned to tell time, when I was 4 or 5.

My personal pet peeve is folks who cannot make change without looking at the digital read-out on the register. These are the folks who are terminally flummoxed when you hand them two pennies with your payment when the total is $8.77.

I think I am getting crotchedy in my fifties.

By: laura

laura — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 21:06:16 +0000

Where as I feel the school system is part to blame, how is it that the parents didn’t teach the kids before they even started school. Both my parents are high school drop outs, yet, all three of their children knew how to tie shoes, tell time on a clock, spell our names (first and last), we even knew our addresses and phone numbers. After we started school, during the summer break, our mother bough those learning assignment books, and gave us assignments associated with the grade we were about to go into. In addition, our mother had flash card that she used, at least with me since I was the worse student out of the three and needed it the most.

I am very much against blaming parents for any of our short commings. But let’s face it, the parents must have known that their kid couldn’t tell the time. In 18 years didn’t it ever occur to them to take 5 minutes out of their day to teach the kid?

Maybe int he 60′s and 70′s when I was a kid things were different. I couldn’t wait to go to school. To this day, I remind my mother how much I wanted to go to nursery school, and she didn’t let me go and I’m in my forties now (by the way, Mom couldn’t do it due to financial reason and yes Maria, it’s me). Back them we wanted to learn.

Ouch, this is our future, and this is also very scary stuff.

By: TJF

TJF — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 23:44:48 +0000

It’s amazing, and not just in Wickenburg. Back east we hired innumerable part-time young folks who proved unable to make change, and did not know units of measure, or how to read a ruler. It was frightening to have to explain to a high school student what a “dozen”, or a “ton” is. Further proof, also, that more spending on education is not the answer, as that state had one of, if not the highest per-student tuition rates in the nation. Paying six times the taxes had no demonstrable benefit.