My Students are Stupid

Standards of Learning that have been set by politicians have dummified our kids. It's such a mixed message, from day one. In one breath the kids are told to just be kids and have fun, and the end of the breath is breathing down their necks to be scholars. "Here kiddie kiddie, take this candy, celebrate Dr. Seuss's Birthday, paste this elbow noodle on the paper, don't do drugs, NO RECESS FOR YOU, YOU LITTLE BRAT! You have to be reading at a 1st Grade level before Christmas in Kindergarten. Aw heck, let's close school because a snowflake fell 20 miles to the west, and ask for more funding... because those computers are 2yrs old! Egads!" And when kids don't do well enough on their standardized tests, they breath down the teachers' necks. To heck with schools. Our kids learn how to be idiots there. My friend is a brilliant middle school English teacher at a new school. She has 20+ years experience. The district has her running all over cyber creation filling out online forms and diagrams and webpages and tests and assessments... she hardly has a chance to teach. And she says the kids are so handicapped educationally that they don't even know how to think. The directions say to circle all the nouns, and the kids freeze up.... "I don't know what to do, Mrs. ****! Please explain it to me!" Schools are so screwed up. And these kids are the ones who are going to run our country in 20 years. SCARY!