What's wrong with America's high schools?

[THL]

What's wrong with America's high schools?
As number of dropouts climbs, schools struggle to reverse tide

Editor's note: The following is a summary of this week's Time magazine cover story.

(Time.com) -- It's lunchtime at Shelbyville High School, 30 miles southeast of Indianapolis, Indiana, and more than 100 teenagers are buzzing over trays in the cafeteria.

Like high schoolers everywhere, they have arranged themselves by type: jocks, preps, cheerleaders, dorks, punks and gamers, all with tables of their own.

Shawn Sturgill, 18, had a clique of his own at Shelbyville High, a dozen or so friends who sat at the same long bench in the hallway outside the cafeteria. They were, Shawn says, an average crowd.

These days the bench is mostly empty. Of his dozen friends, Shawn says just one or two are still at Shelbyville High.

If some cliques are defined by a common sport or a shared obsession with Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, Shawn's friends ended up being defined by their mutual destiny: nearly all of them became high school dropouts.

Shawn's friends are not alone in their exodus. Of the 315 Shelbyville students who showed up for the first day of high school four years ago, only 215 are expected to graduate.

In today's data-happy era of accountability, testing and No Child Left Behind, here is the most astonishing statistic in the whole field of education: an increasing number of researchers are saying that nearly one out of three public high school students won't graduate, not just in Shelbyville but around the nation.

For Latinos and African-Americans, the rate approaches an alarming 50 percent. Virtually no community, small or large, rural or urban, has escaped the problem.

There is a small but hardy band of researchers who insist the dropout rates don't quite approach those levels. They point to their pet surveys that suggest a rate of only 15 percent to 20 percent.

The dispute is difficult to referee, particularly in the wake of decades of lax accounting by states and schools. But the majority of analysts and lawmakers have come to this consensus: the numbers have remained unchecked at approximately 30 percent through two decades of intense educational reform, and the magnitude of the problem has been consistently, and often willfully, ignored.

That's starting to change.

During his most recent State of the Union address, President Bush promised more resources to help children stay in school, and Democrats promptly attacked him for lacking a specific plan.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has trained its moneyed eye on the problem, funding "The Silent Epidemic," a study issued in March that has gained widespread attention both in Washington and in statehouses around the country.

The attention comes against a backdrop of rising peril for dropouts.

If their grandparents' generation could find a blue-collar niche and prosper, the latest group is immediately relegated to the most punishing sector of the economy, where whatever low-wage jobs haven't yet moved overseas are increasingly filled by even lower-wage immigrants.

Dropping out of high school today is to your societal health what smoking is to your physical health, an indicator of a host of poor outcomes to follow, from low lifetime earnings to high incarceration rates to a high likelihood that your children will drop out of high school and start the cycle anew.

Identifying the problem is just the first step.

The next moves are being made by towns like Shelbyville, where a loose coalition of community leaders and school administrators have, for the first time, placed dropout prevention at the top of the agenda. Now they are gamely trying to identify why kids are leaving and looking for ways to reverse the tide.

"Ten years ago," says Shelbyville principal Tom Zobel, "if we had a problem student, the plan was, 'OK, let's figure out how to get rid of this kid.' Now we have to get them help."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/04/09/time.cover/index.html

[dalem]

Oh come on THL - that's an easy one. America's high schools have been wrecked by the pussified liberal lefty psychologists and teacher's unions.

-dale

[THL]

Oh come on THL - that's an easy one. America's high schools have been wrecked by the pussified liberal lefty psychologists and teacher's unions.

-dale

You are so right Dale (No pun intented). Just this afternoon John Kerry himself was on TV telling kids it is far better to drop out of school and live on welfare.

[Confed999]

Oh come on THL - that's an easy one. America's high schools have been wrecked by the pussified liberal lefty psychologists and teacher's unions.

-dale

I always add the Democrat protected ambulance chasing lawyers.

[agent6]

Hmmm, I have observed that most of the kids I watch drop out think that they can make their money without schooling while still being able to pay for all the drugs they do on weekends. Or they are to embaressed to stay in school because they got pummeled by the kid they thought would never fight back. So they go do drugs.
Or they are love struck and go run off with the love of their 18 year old lives, because love can conquer all....or so they think.

[Confed999]

Hmmm, I have observed that most of the kids I watch drop out think that they can make their money without schooling while still being able to pay for all the drugs they do on weekends.
....
Or they are love struck and go run off with the love of their 18 year old lives, because love can conquer all....or so they think.

That's about how my late teens went.

[bonehead]

The better questions are, "What the hell is happening with our younger generations?" and "Why are the parents letting this happen?"

[gunnut]

Hijacked from another board.

This is supposedly a legitimate test for an 8th grader in 1895.

What it took to get an 8th grade education in 1895...

Remember when grandparents and great-grandparents stated that they only had an 8th grade education? Well, check this out. Could any of us have passed the 8th grade in 1895?
This is the eighth-grade final exam from 1895 in Salina, Kansas, USA. It was taken from the original document on file at the Smokey Valley Genealogical Society and Library in Salina, KS, and reprinted by the Salina Journal.


8th Grade Final Exam: Salina, KS -1895


Grammar ! (Time, one hour)


1. Give nine rules for the use of capital letters.
2. Name the parts of speech and define those that have no modifications.
3. Define verse, stanza and paragraph
4. What are the principal parts of a verb? Give principal parts of"lie,""play," and "run."
5. Define case; Illustrate each case.
6 What is punctuation? Give rules for principal marks of punctuation.
7 - 10. Write a composition of about 150 words and show therein that you understand the practical use of the rules of grammar.


Arithmetic (Time, 1:25 hours)


1. Name and define the Fundamental Rules of Arithmetic.
2. A wagon box is 2 ft. deep, 10 feet long, and 3 ft! . wide. How many bushels of wheat will i! t hold?< BR>3. If a load of wheat weighs 3942 lbs., what is it worth at 50cts/bushel, deducting 1050 lbs. for tare?
4 District No 33 has a valuation of $35,000. What is the necessary levy to carry on a school seven months at $50 per month, and have $104 for incidentals?
5. Find the cost of 6720 lbs. coal at $6.00 per ton.
6. Find the interest of $512.60 for 8 months and 18 days at 7 percent.
7. What is the cost of 40 boards 12 inches wide and 16 ft. long at $20 per metre?
8. Find bank discount on $300 for 90 days (no grace) at 10 percent.
9. What is the cost of a square farm at $15 per acre, the distance of which is 640 rods?
10. Write a Bank Check, a! Promissory Note, and a Receipt


U.S. History (Time, 45 minutes)


1. Give the epochs into which U.S. History is divided
2. Give an account of the discovery of America by Columbus.
3. Relate the causes and results of the Revolutionary War.
4. Show the territorial growth of the United States.
5. Tell what you can of the history of Kansas.
6. Describe three of the most prominent battles of the Rebellion.
7. Who were the following: Morse, Whitney, Fulton, Bell, Lincoln, Penn, and Howe?
8. Name events connected with the following dates: 1607, 1620, 1800, 1849, 1865.


Orthography (Time, one hour) Do we even know what this is??


1. What is meant by the following: Alphabet, phonetic, orthography, etymology, syllabication
2. What are elementary sounds? How classified?
3. What are the following, and give examples of! each: Trigraph, subvocals, diphthong, cognate letters, linguals
4. Give four substitut! es for c aret 'u.' (HUH?)
5. Give two rules for spelling words with final? 'e.'? Name two exceptions under each rule.
6. Give two uses of silent letters in spelling. Illustrate each.
7. Define the following prefixes and use in connection with a word: bi, dis, mis, pre, semi, post, non, inter, mono, sup.
8. Mark diacritically and divide into syllables the following, and name the sign that indicates the sound: card, ball, mercy, sir, odd, cell, rise, blood, fare, last.
9. Use the following correctly in sentences: cite, site, sight, fane, fain, feign, vane, vain, vein, raze, raise, rays.

10. Write 10 words frequently mispronounced and indicate pronunciation by use of diacritical marks and by syllabication.


Geography (Time, one hour)


1 What is climate? Upon what does climate depend?
2. How do you account for the extremes of climate in Kansas?
3 Of what use are rivers? Of what use is the ocean?
4. Describe the mountains of North America
5. Name and describe the following: Monrovia, Odessa, Denver, Manitoba, Hecla, Yukon, St. Helena, Juan Fernandez, Aspinwall and Orinoco.
6. Name and locate the principal trade centers of the U.S.
7. Name all the republics of Europe and give the capital of each.
8. Why is the Atlantic Coast colder than the Pacific in the same latitude?
9. D! Describe the process by which the water of the ocean returns to the sources of rivers.
10. Describe the movements of the earth. Give the inclination of the earth.

[THL]

Hijacked from another board.

This is supposedly a legitimate test for an 8th grader in 1895.

I am not even sure I know what an epoch is! As for the climate in Kansas - it looked okay in the Wizard of Oz - except for that whole tornado thing.

[gunnut]

It just shows that our schools in the old days taught every day skills to survive. Nowadays our schools indoctrinate our kids on how and what to think, rather than teach tools for living.

[agent6]

So true.

[ChrisF202]

"Why are the parents letting this happen?"

The parents are often no better then the kids when it come to morals or law abiding. Many kids at my school have parents and older siblings on extended visits at the "Suffolk County Hilton".

"What the hell is happening with our younger generations?"

Drugs, beer, sex and crime have polluted them thanks to the rappers making it look cool to be a ghetto thug combined with the thinly spread law enforcement members. Also see the response to the first quote about the parents and siblings.

Ex. I see all the fake NYS drivers licenses in my schools (we have Junior and Senior licenses, senior is over 21, junior is under 21). Many kids have a fake/illegal obtained senior license even though they are only 14 or 15 and shouldent have a license at all. Yes, we have 14 year old girls in my school sneaking into clubs and bars with these licenses. What shocks me is the amount of kids that have them and are able to get away with it weekend after weekend.

It just shows that our schools in the old days taught every day skills to survive. Nowadays our schools indoctrinate our kids on how and what to think, rather than teach tools for living.

Couldent have said it better, I know in all of my classes its "this is the best way" and all other views are racist, immoral, etc all coming from the mouths of left wing "teachers". Its shocking how anti American and left wing many schools have gotten and even more so how they are able to spread their agenda.

[RustyBattleship]

Schools are so jam packed with social studies, football games, computer classes, basketball games, ancient history, cheerleader tryouts, more ancient history, etc. that they don't have time to teach the students WHO they are and WHY they are.

The history classes in elementary school start off with dinosaurs and/or possible apemen. By the time they get to the Revolutionary War it's time to graduate to Junior High (now called "Middle School"). Their history lessons start off with dinosaurs, ape men, ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, ancient Egyptians and a little bit about some Genoan sailor who borrowed some ships from a Spanish Queen manned by parolees to discover "America".

Then regular high school history classes start with dinosaurs, ape men, ancient Greeks, ancient Romans, ancient Egyptians, Medievil Europe, Discovery and settlement of the Western Hemisphere, The French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the War with Mexico, the Civil War and (if the teacher is a fast talker) the Spanish American War.

Then you get to college and they start off with dinosaurs, ape men --- well, you get the idea. They leave no room or time frame to teach our young people about the century that has had the MOST significant effect on OUR lives.

I don't care if Julius Ceaser had incest with his mother. I care why the assassination of a minor Archduke that his uncle/Emporer didn't even like started the First World War.

I don't care that Cleopatra was more prostitute than Queen, I care how the first computer in WW II analyzed artillery shell ballistics (artillery shells fired by women).

I don't care that Hannibal had to use a small breed of southern European Elephants to cross the Alps, I care how we improved Airplanes to fly non-stop from Los Angeles to Frankfurt.

It's the 20th century advancements, politics, political philosophies, religious philosophies, inventions (for peace and war), medical advantages (polio and smallpox now a thing of the past) affect OUR lives NOW.

What hit me between the eyes on that was one evening our daughter (then in college) and I were talking about history and I quoted, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country. President Kennedy during his innaugral address".

My daughter stared at me and said, "You know, Dad, I've heard that statement many times but until now I never knew who said it."

I asked, "Did you fall asleep in class when that was taught?"

She answered, "No. Either in Elementary School, High School or even Junior College we usually never got past the Civil War until the term ran out."

[TopHatter]

She answered, "No. Either in Elementary School, High School or even Junior College we usually never got past the Civil War until the term ran out."

How ironic. During American History in my Junior year of high school, I was so looking forward to getting to World War II so I could nap during class, then wake up and score perfect 100s on the quizs and tests....unfortunately, our compulsive-storytelling teacher couldnt quite make it past the Great Depression.

Imagine my fury.

[RustyBattleship]

How ironic. During American History in my Junior year of high school, I was so looking forward to getting to World War II so I could nap during class, then wake up and score perfect 100s on the quizs and tests....unfortunately, our compulsive-storytelling teacher couldnt quite make it past the Great Depression.

Imagine my fury.

Aha! You get my point. Anything that happened in the 20th century that has affected our lives, our ways of living, our ways of earning, our health, our technological advancements, etc. WE HAD TO LEARN OURSELVES AFTER GRADUATION.

Either that or be as old as me to have lived and experienced 64 years of that century.