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| Bruce & Karin Newlin |
Once while watching a NFL playoff
game I quipped about my desire to see a return to student athletes, as in bygone eras. Pat Haden was
quarterbacking the L.A. Rams, and he’d been a Rhodes Scholar to Oxford (Rams
got clobbered by the Cowboys as I recall). Al Krueger, Karin’s dad, was
watching too. He’d been a USC Rose Bowl co-MVP in ’39, and went onto play in
the NFL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Krueger Even before I met him, I’d heard of him: what
Southland (SoCal) sports fan hadn‘t? I’d also played baseball for the Burbank Bullets, and was a teammate of Scott Nave, whose father (Doyle) had
thrown that famous touchdown pass to Al (Photo). So, I was all-ears: let’s just
say, he gave me “the rest of the story” about the heritage of collegiate
athletics, student-athletes and priorities. (Al’s theme was later corroborated
by Mike Greenfield [BHS ‘65/LBSU]:
he played a different sport, at another school, in a latter era.) Sure, there
are schools that put academics #1 for their scholar-athletes, but very few are
like Georgetown or Stanford. Most end up taking additional time to complete
their studies, and of course very few end up playing on a “Field of Dreams” as
a pro. Maybe more on that next time; what I really wanted to talk about today is
the overall educational system in the USA.
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| SFHS sisters |
We’re preparing to vote on school
bonds (not sure why they are NOT part of general elections that would be cost
effective and get a better voter turn out), and I just about always support
them with a “YES.” Many equate facilities and dollars spent with educational
success, but that isn’t always the case: per capita expenditures don’t uniformly
jive with achieving what is traditionally used as benchmarks: test scores,
graduation rates, higher education, etc. I know the District of Columbia often gets
used as a negative example for spending-to-results ratios, but that is probably
unfair- they might just be following the local model provided by Congress:
spend a lot, achieve little. OK, that was a “cheap shot” generalization, but
they make it so easy. Some interesting data can be found on-line, and I know
that stats are often manipulated into whatever you want them to say; I’ll let
you read and make your own conclusions:
I
see that my home state (NM) ranks well, below the national average of $55+K for
teacher salaries (and many other facets of the educational picture), and #2 per
capita in non-instructional personnel.
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| Outside Xian |
In supporting education I feel it is not only a
reflection of what we are, but also what we will be (priorities). Again, I feel
fortunate to have had my educational opportunities and what they’ve afforded.
I’ll bet many of us can, and would, say the same. I also will forever wish I’d
applied myself at an earlier stage (and wish I’d diagnosed Gilbert Syndrome sooner for some corrective actions that might have
helped in the classroom and with athletic endeavors).
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| Fiji |
For the complex issues of how-to-fix or meet our
challenges, I’ve recently heard that the hurdles range from: management not
listening to the teachers or their unions; that there is not enough fiscal
support (like every public institution in history; I read this morning that
State Monuments are under funded: “well
duh”), to school districts now “being run by attorneys”. I’ve long been a
proponent of the need for parental (and grandparent) support to be successful,
and know that when education is valued the next generation of students “get it”
and achieve at a higher lever. Yes, “no place like home” to learn the value of
an education.
Allison Morris read one of my previous posts and
brought the progress of Finland to my attention. Interesting; some of the
reasons that I’ve been told by professionals that this model won’t work here
are listed in those hurdles above; but I’ve also heard that “we’re too big”
(like Frodo’s journey), “too different” (ah, paradigm change), too
multi-cultural (acculturation is un-PC). Of course, the USA is not Finland, but
we’re not Norway either (yet, we share some educational similarities with the
latter). As I think about some of the school groups and classrooms I’ve visited
in China, Fiji & Jordan I realize we need to have and maintain hope for the
future…
OK, boys-n-girls, tonight’s homework includes
these readings
(Oops, Finland doesn’t have homework)
(THANK YOU to ALLISON MORRIS
for providing the above, and Ken Whiton for the following)
Why Finland?
Their outline:
A
recent article (New Republic)
And,
another point of view
...and here is to everyone trying to make a better future: glad it works for Finland...
