In the rise and fall of great nations, power tends to breed a sense of arrogance which sows the seeds of indifference and which inevitably leads to ignorance. Perhaps this is amply demonstrated in the visit of Dr Mahmoud Ahmadi Nejad, President of Iran, to the USA and to Columbia University.
Whether we agree with his policies or not, Dr Ahmadinejad is the elected president of a soverign nation. Added to this, he is an educated science academic. Inviting him to address the students at Columbia University was admirable. Lee Bollinger's insulting introduction was America at its worst. Freedom of speech does NOT mean introducing a guest speaker as being a "petty and cruel dictator", nor of tainting the water by claiming that "I doubt that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions". Freedom of speech does NOT mean taking up more time introducing the speaker (with your own views) than the time allocated to the speaker (to hear his views). Perhaps Lee Bollinger was concerned as to whether the Columbia students were smart enough to listen to Dr Ahmadinejad with critical ears and thus felt the need to vaccinate them with his own bias before they became exposed to Dr Ahmadinejad?
America sees itself as all-powerful - militarily, economically and politically. We have become arrogant. We have become indifferent to opposing views, we belittle our critics and insult those who disagree with us. And we have become ignorant about the world we profess to 'govern'. And we do this at our peril.
Sun-Tzu said "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer." Whether Dr Ahmadinejad is our friend or our enemy, insulting him and denegrating him will not make him go away nor silence his voice - all it will do is silence our own ears and add to our own ignorance.
Friday, October 5, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Education
When I was a kid, my father told me "Finish your food - there are thousands who are starving." Now that I'm a father, I tell my kids "Finish your homework - there are millions starving for your job."
Education in this country is in a poor state with too many students leaving school neither qualified for a career nor for life. Too many of our students are functionally illiterate, cannot write and have a general knowledge verging on the ridiculous. It's all very well to maintain a policy of "No Child Left Behind" IF none of the kids WANT to be left behind. But all too often we're faced with the deadbeats who couldn't give a damn about being educated. They're only at school because they're forced to be there - they're certainly not willing to make the effort to succeed and while the teacher is concerned about not leaving them behind, the smart, willing and enthusiastic kids are being forced to slow down.
Michael in Gr 7 is a math whizz who sleeps in math class because he is bored and still gets straight A's. Is there a fast-track class for kids like him? Yes! But this is the class he sleeps in! Can he do a placement test to enable him to attend Gr 8, 9 or 10 math classes? Not any more - if he finishes the CMS school math curriculum too soon, there won't be a curriculum for him to follow when he gets to high school and he won't be able to do the minimum 4 years high school math while at high school in order to graduate!! And when Sarah picked up all the reading awards at middle school, she was told to reduce her reading so that other kids would have a shot at winning some awards!!
It's time we viewed education as a privilege and not a right. And set a cracking pace which will require from students a solid level of dedication and commitment. It's time to concentrate on giving top-students every bit of support they need to become world-class. And it's time to let the hangers-on and the free-loaders know that their free time at the trough is at an end - either shape-up or ship out.
It's a tragedy for education when one is hard-pressed to think of a single popular icon in society who has achieved greatness through education - these days, the icons my kids know about have achieved success through sport, music, film and by dropping out of mainstream education.
It's time we empowered teachers to do the jobs they are paid to do - to give our children a world-class education and to kick their butts if necessary in order to achieve this objective. And it's time we mandate the schools to clear out the dead-beats - if kids don't perform and if they don't demonstrate dedication and commitment, they're out. I've yet to see a single student being expelled for carrying a gun to school, for raping another student or for assaulting a teacher. And yet at the same time, teachers are expected to teach these kids and are being evaluated against the NCLB criteria - with teaching bonuses being linked to NCLB, it's small wonder that teachers have to cheat test scores to keep the academic detritus moving through the system.
Education in this country is in a poor state with too many students leaving school neither qualified for a career nor for life. Too many of our students are functionally illiterate, cannot write and have a general knowledge verging on the ridiculous. It's all very well to maintain a policy of "No Child Left Behind" IF none of the kids WANT to be left behind. But all too often we're faced with the deadbeats who couldn't give a damn about being educated. They're only at school because they're forced to be there - they're certainly not willing to make the effort to succeed and while the teacher is concerned about not leaving them behind, the smart, willing and enthusiastic kids are being forced to slow down.
Michael in Gr 7 is a math whizz who sleeps in math class because he is bored and still gets straight A's. Is there a fast-track class for kids like him? Yes! But this is the class he sleeps in! Can he do a placement test to enable him to attend Gr 8, 9 or 10 math classes? Not any more - if he finishes the CMS school math curriculum too soon, there won't be a curriculum for him to follow when he gets to high school and he won't be able to do the minimum 4 years high school math while at high school in order to graduate!! And when Sarah picked up all the reading awards at middle school, she was told to reduce her reading so that other kids would have a shot at winning some awards!!
It's time we viewed education as a privilege and not a right. And set a cracking pace which will require from students a solid level of dedication and commitment. It's time to concentrate on giving top-students every bit of support they need to become world-class. And it's time to let the hangers-on and the free-loaders know that their free time at the trough is at an end - either shape-up or ship out.
It's a tragedy for education when one is hard-pressed to think of a single popular icon in society who has achieved greatness through education - these days, the icons my kids know about have achieved success through sport, music, film and by dropping out of mainstream education.
It's time we empowered teachers to do the jobs they are paid to do - to give our children a world-class education and to kick their butts if necessary in order to achieve this objective. And it's time we mandate the schools to clear out the dead-beats - if kids don't perform and if they don't demonstrate dedication and commitment, they're out. I've yet to see a single student being expelled for carrying a gun to school, for raping another student or for assaulting a teacher. And yet at the same time, teachers are expected to teach these kids and are being evaluated against the NCLB criteria - with teaching bonuses being linked to NCLB, it's small wonder that teachers have to cheat test scores to keep the academic detritus moving through the system.
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