<p>Are they talking about just public K-12 schools or public colleges/universities as well?</p>
<p>Because I have family members who have a VERY low opinion of public universities:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-colleges/1352073-pet-peeve-umass-amherst-not-amherst.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/massachusetts-colleges/1352073-pet-peeve-umass-amherst-not-amherst.html</a></p>
<p>I personally think K-12 pushes kids WAY too hard, and I second the notion about NCLB. It’s such a misnomer – look at how many WERE left behind. It’s social Darwinism at its cruelest, and FWIW I think it’s downright abusive, something you might find in communist Russia or Red China but not here in America.</p>
<p>My mom taught kindergarten and she laments that “babies” (as she calls them) have to learn physics these days, and I think she’s right in saying that this country wants to punish the “little dreamers” who don’t sit down and do algebra before being toilet trained, and force them to make sneakers in sweat-shop factories like the ones who reach puberty without a Ph.D. have to do in Beijing. She believes the obesity crisis to be in part due to the removal of recess in favor of academics, and the so-called ADD “epidemic” due to harsh enforcement of academic standards far too young when play should be emphasized, not high-stakes SAT prep for god sakes.</p>
<p>She also told parents they should restrict if not avoid video games for their kids, and this is way back in the middle '80s when Nintendo (Mario Bros.) was all the rage. Now she still feels the same way about iPads and Internet in the classrooms. iPads are not teaching. Sitting down and reading a story to kids, a story with PAPER pages and not Kindle, is teaching. Give a mouse a cookie – don’t give a kindergartener a mouse.</p>
<p>I think a lot of these “■■■■■■■■” kids are so socially mute not because there’s anything inborn wrong with them but because socializing has been de-emphasized too. Recess isn’t just about physical activity; it teaches socialization, and solitary academics has been the focus of educators since the idiot savant Bushwhacker became king of the cowboy camp. They get punished for talking in class, for trying to make friends, well, eventually you’ve got an “epidemic” on your hands where silence, conformity and math aptitude (logic > emotion) are prized and creativity (= A.D.D.) considered a mental disorder. K-12 education is the Borg hivemind and it’s turning out a bunch of emotionless Trekkies. Just like China wants, right?</p>
<p>Why don’t we quit trying to keep up with F.U. Manchu already and let kids be kids? Not saying to let them run wild and swing from the light fixtures, but bring back recess and let them exercise their energies rather then drugging them up! Do away with the test requirements and get technology the hell out of classrooms. You don’t need an e-mail account at 5 years old. You need toys and playmates or coloring books and stories read to you. Photoshop is not a coloring book, and Siri is not a storyteller.</p>
<p>Oh, and no more political correctness about dodgeball and “participation trophies.” The angry, narcissistic parents who think losing at teeball is a personal affront need professional help, not their kids. The same was true for missing the rush at Filene’s for Cabbage Patch dolls when my mom had just begun teaching. I think a big problem with K-12 education besides NCLB and our China envy is the ego-driven parents themselves. Just look at the TV show about the JonBenet clones and tell me there’s not a psychological epidemic going on with parents that’s getting passed onto their kids.</p>