The answer is Georgia. No, not Georgia, USA. Georgia the country with a literacy rate of 100%. Followed by Canada, and Cuba.
So what happened to the good old USA?
Lawyers and parents who don't want the children's self-esteem to suffer. Do you remember the fear of report cards at the end of a term? I do. Teachers had discipline then. Teachers were empowered with respect, and the power to flunk a lazy student. Now, a teacher has to prove she offered the material to a student and if he or she didn't get it, oh well.
One of the worst policies in this country was George Bush's "No Child Left Behind." Why not? If they can't read or write, why give them a diploma they can't read?
This is truly sad.
So what is the literacy rate in the US?
The answer is Georgia. No, not Georgia, USA. Georgia the country with a literacy rate of 100%. Followed by Canada, and Cuba.
So what happened to the good old USA?
Lawyers and parents who don't want the children's self-esteem to suffer. Do you remember the fear of report cards at the end of a term? I do. Teachers had discipline then. Teachers were empowered with respect, and the power to flunk a lazy student. Now, a teacher has to prove she offered the material to a student and if he or she didn't get it, oh well.
One of the worst policies in this country was George Bush's "No Child Left Behind." Why not? If they can't read or write, why give them a diploma they can't read?
This is truly sad.
So what is the literacy rate in the US?
Depending on what your definition is of functional literacy, it's about 88% in the US. In a study performed in the US about 22% of American adults could not use a text to look up information. They are basically unemployable.
So, do we flunk them?
You bet!
All these percentages are estimates, but the outcome is clear. Americans are not doing as well as the rest of the world of our economic equals.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literacy_in_the_United_States
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Comments: 14
Anyhow back to what I was saying. What has happened due to Parents (a very loose usage here), then the Lawyers, and the Teacher's Unions, and some (could be many) School Boards. All have played their parts in this. It is one reason so many have gone to home schooling which the kids are surpassing what the Pubic Schools are doing. Now Comrad Obama and his handlers want to stop that, and keep the down turn in education going.
Dan R., Apr 20, 2009, 10:15pm EDT
My guess Dan is they would say the same if not worse of you.
Carol our school system is an embarassment.
I truely am sickened by the "No Child Left Behind" It ties up time that could be used to really teach.
I wonder how many people even live in Georgia.
I believe NCLB has merit IF conducted the way it was intended. But the fact that schools are operating way below the budget needed to fully implement that program (and many others!), it's unfair to blame the principals and teachers. Schools are "doing what they need to do" to get money... any money!
There are a lot of factors that feed illiteracy. For example, since all American adults did not even complete high school... it's difficult to blame a school they DIDN'T attend for the fact that the student is not functionally literate. Also, one needs to look into the stats on immigration's (legal or otherwise) impact on the literacy rate. Functional literacy is not required for immigration or naturalization.
Second, in Ontario at least, we also have the no student left behind thing. My sister is a teacher and she says it's very frustrating because kids just won't do their work because they know they can't be failed and when they get a bad mark the parents blame the teacher for not trying hard enough to stimulate the students.
Now I'm gonna to go back to my "we beat you dance"...(please just give it to me, we barely ever beat you guys at anything)