An old bromide states that "you cannot manage what you do not measure" but it is a palatable veneer over a deeper truth: "you willingly claim to manage that which you refuse to even attempt to measure." Yet the AJC's frenetic supporter of failed education wants to manage perceptions, daring to use the word "focus" in an opinion piece on education when every educator's first approach in dealing with a parent's concerns about their child's performance is obfuscation and deflection. But Mizz Downey has the answer, and yes, it involves deflection. Her plan is to stop obsessing with all that academic folderol and focus on family. Yep. Forget about that "learning" crap and think about family. This coming from the kind of folk who drone on and on about "it takes a village."
But the fact is (by any objective measure) your DeKalb County, Governor's Honors student is getting his ass handed to him by the rest of the developed world and much of the third world. And yet, we're told it is family income that makes the dream work, though we dare not discuss that an intact family might somehow have higher income than the average single parent family. Just. Don't. Go. There. But that's not your student, not your school. They're the best, right?
Well, let's go there.
Gather up some Dunwoody Cluster DCSD high school students and ask them to solve for a in the following: $$ -a = \frac{b}{c} $$ and make sure they first explain their thinking and then show the steps. Most, if not all, will explain that you must multiply both sides by minus one. Good on them. Then, in a frightening number of cases they will offer this solution: $$ -1 \times a = \frac{-1}{-1}\times \frac{b}{c} $$ et voila, everything gets a -1. Upon further simplification this yields: $$ a = \frac{b}{c} $$ which is pretty astounding, isn't it? You DO know this is not the right answer, don't you? And...you DO know how to do this correctly, right? Well, don't trust TOD, ask any college professor if they see these failures, and dozens more like them, in freshman Calc I.
Then, when you're thoroughly pissed, you cannot even consider going to a DCSD school because they're going to obfuscate, deflect and blame it on you. And they're right because you, as a parent and taxpayer have not demanded that they, the teachers and administrators, focus on education, develop meaningful metrics and manage towards a steady, deliberate return to competency in our schools. Bad on you.
But the fact is (by any objective measure) your DeKalb County, Governor's Honors student is getting his ass handed to him by the rest of the developed world and much of the third world. And yet, we're told it is family income that makes the dream work, though we dare not discuss that an intact family might somehow have higher income than the average single parent family. Just. Don't. Go. There. But that's not your student, not your school. They're the best, right?
Well, let's go there.
Gather up some Dunwoody Cluster DCSD high school students and ask them to solve for a in the following: $$ -a = \frac{b}{c} $$ and make sure they first explain their thinking and then show the steps. Most, if not all, will explain that you must multiply both sides by minus one. Good on them. Then, in a frightening number of cases they will offer this solution: $$ -1 \times a = \frac{-1}{-1}\times \frac{b}{c} $$ et voila, everything gets a -1. Upon further simplification this yields: $$ a = \frac{b}{c} $$ which is pretty astounding, isn't it? You DO know this is not the right answer, don't you? And...you DO know how to do this correctly, right? Well, don't trust TOD, ask any college professor if they see these failures, and dozens more like them, in freshman Calc I.
Then, when you're thoroughly pissed, you cannot even consider going to a DCSD school because they're going to obfuscate, deflect and blame it on you. And they're right because you, as a parent and taxpayer have not demanded that they, the teachers and administrators, focus on education, develop meaningful metrics and manage towards a steady, deliberate return to competency in our schools. Bad on you.
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