![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Observations of the day
12 Feb 2013 09:17 pmWe turned the tv off as soon as the state of the union address intros started. The newsy pre-brief summary of both the president's speech and the opposing response set my teeth on edge. We had just been discussing that the Democrats had been promising to get rid of the disaster they call "No Child Left Behind" which seems intent on putting all students behind where they could and should be, but all that the summary said was to push for preschool for all Americans, as if it matters what we teach tots when their later education is going to be a disaster.
I got a chance to review some high school history texts when I was in grad school, with high school teachers among my fellow students. Writing appropriate to he reading skills of upper elementary school at best and about as skillfully written as if by a high-schooler, with such a distorted focus on tiny pieces of history that a student reading it would know nothing of historical events or their cause and effect by the time they were done with the course, but they would have huge illusions about what could have been if the world were sweet and rosy and everyone had had equal opportunities for all of time. The wrong lesson no matter how I look at it.
Anyway, I wasn't going to be happy with anything either speaker said and even the topics were pushing up my blood pressure so I have a movie and my computer for the evening.
I got a chance to review some high school history texts when I was in grad school, with high school teachers among my fellow students. Writing appropriate to he reading skills of upper elementary school at best and about as skillfully written as if by a high-schooler, with such a distorted focus on tiny pieces of history that a student reading it would know nothing of historical events or their cause and effect by the time they were done with the course, but they would have huge illusions about what could have been if the world were sweet and rosy and everyone had had equal opportunities for all of time. The wrong lesson no matter how I look at it.
Anyway, I wasn't going to be happy with anything either speaker said and even the topics were pushing up my blood pressure so I have a movie and my computer for the evening.
