Your Tax Dollars at Work
Yeah, that is a quiz from East Side Middle School in New York City. Rather than ensure the children can read and write, a group of teachers (Evan Klein, Michael Feder and Melissa Nathan) would rather push some kind of agenda on them. The questions, while seemingly straight forward are akin to a political “Push Poll” where the object is to get the desired answers, not an honest survey. Living in California and having my son in sixth grade, I am somewhat surprised I haven’t seen more of this kind of thing. NYPost story
Wow, get your facts straight. This is one of the top schools in NYC, receiving an “A” on its school report card. Obviously these teachers DO teach these kids about reading and writing, and they do it very well! Their students score in the top 10% of students in NYC! Also, none of those survey questions “push” an agenda. Since when does asking students to have opinions and defend their point of views with evidence become the antithesis of education? Who wants our students to become little robots without their own opinions? Oh, yes, I remember — that’s what the Nazis did. They taught reading, writing, and arithmetic but didn’t let students think for themselves. I think you seriously need to reconsider your critique. That survey asks them to express their OPINIONS — it does not tell them what to think. That is part of what schools in this country should do – they prepare people for living in a democracy. We all have the right to our own opinions. These teachers did not tell the students what to believe, they simply asked the kids to express their own beliefs and think about them in the context of the election. Besides, when a school is clearly such a high achieving place such as this one, should we be asking why do their students do so well in a system that fails so many kids? Isn’t that more important?
Jonn wrote: Obviously, you’re a teacher. I guess that’s why you don’t see the bias in the questions. And your reference to “…that’s what the Nazis did…” shows your own political bias and ignorance. Students don’t need opinions – they need an education. See, that’s the problem with teaching today – too many people are too concerned about what the children think. Just stick to the facts, they’ll arrive at their own opinions when they need to – but that’s probably what you and your ilk fear.