Oct. 29, 2004 - 20:59 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

To Be True

Sometimes I begin to think there is intelligent life on this planet that is being put to good use. An article in Thursday's Rocky Mountain News by Nancy Mitchell of that paper points to something like that. In part:

DPS pushing for consistency

School district moves toward requiring the same textbooks throughout the system

"Denver Public Schools is pushing toward common curricula in core academic subjects in an attempt to better educate the thousands of students who change schools each year."

"The aim: To have, within the next few years, most students learning literacy, math, social studies and science from the same textbooks, whether they attend classes in the core city or its near-suburban borders."

"The only way to provide consistency for students who move from school to school within an urban setting is to have a common core program," said Sally Mentor Hay, DPS' chief academic officer."

"The move, which follows a national trend for urban school districts, is a big shift for DPS. The 72,000-student district has typically allowed its 150 schools to select programs from a menu of options approved by school board members."

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Opinions ? Sure I have them. Some are . . . . It used to be that way when I was a kid, every public school here had the same textbooks for the same grade. It seems to me that it should go back to exactly that. In the Denver Metro Area all around (including suburbs). Of course the different school boards would have to get together and actually agree on something positive, which is hard even for our school board to do.

For the most part for a long time our progress in this country has depended on intelligent standardization of most everything. Otherwise there is no way to assess quality of output when so many variables are involved.

I also believe that enough text books should be bought to help teach special Ed pupils and bring them into the mainstream or continue to teach them at the level in which they can learn. Those same books for all schools. No sense I can see for area schools to be using textbooks from a MENU creating absolute confusion and requiring too much oversight to determine exactly what is being accomplished. I also believe grading should be standardized too. No creative grading for anyone.

Like MLK "I have a dream," that all the school boards of this country get together and rationally decide on the same textbooks for the same grades nationwide.

Which would certainly avoid the feral government trying to decide for us. As far as I am concerned there would be no "faith based" text books of any kind. That type of book as far as I can see should be kept to the parochial school boards to determine. That is, if they stay parochial schools without tax dollar support.

Then, let the people who put their kids in parochial school pay for their kids books as well as their tuition. In my time parents did pay tuition for kids who went to private schools of ANY kind, if they wanted some different kind of education, then they paid for it. I feel that absolutely no tax dollars should be applied to fund any type of private school. If parents want education other than what tax supported public schools provide, then they can pay the tuition and still pay their doggone taxes too. Vouchers be damned, they just steal tax dollars from our public schools. Which are sick of course because of insufficient funding (voters turning down tax funds for education), lazy, incompetent school boards and pressure groups not working for the common good but making sparks grinding their own axes, as well as disinterested parents who take no interest.

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Heather's surgery went well today, ganglion not too deeply entrenched and carpal tunnel surgery was okay too. Doctor said that there appeared to be no nerve damage from the pinched nerve. She is spending the night with our daughter who called a bit ago and said Heather is doing okay. I expect her home maybe around noon tomorrow. Of course we are deeply thankful there were no complications at all and for the best wishes and prayers that it should be so for her.

As far as the common school books or any other logical thing regarding education, these ideas that just came to light in our paper make too much sense and could fail To Be True . . . . . . . . . . .

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