Race To The Top (of the money pile)...
I've been trying to dissect this new "initiative" that follows in the flotsam-strewn wake of the No Child Left Behind debacle, and have yet to find any quantitative support as to WHY we really need this.
Granted, we DO need more students performing at a much better pace, and we also need more students graduating and fewer students dropping out, never to realize the true potential they can attain.
What I am seeing is school systems "racing to the bank" to cash whatever check they will be receiving from the FEDS.

(somehow, a song from CABARET comes to mind..."Money makes the world go around")
I'm seeing changes to the administrative staff to beat the band, in an (otherwise) futile attempt to "correct" whatever problem the SCHOOL suffers from, be it low performance, low graduation rates, or general apathy (not to be confused with General Patton, who DID know how to kick ass, take names, and get the job DONE) among the student population.
In today's paper was an opinion expressed by one person as to "HOW BEST" to achieve success in our school system here in Fort Wayne (and perhaps across the nation).
Here's the link to the guest editorial:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100126/EDIT/301269964/1021/EDIT
Now, while I think it's great to hear from those who honestly believe they "have a plan", it bothers me greatly to see much of the REAL REASON we have the problems in schools today summarily ignored.
I've never been an "educator" in the PUREST sense...but I did teach Sunday School for a few years, so that does give me a "leg up" on those with absolutely no background in teaching.
Plus, I was one of those societal throwbacks who PAID ATTENTION in my classes (for the most part, anyway...lol) and also paid attention to my teachers and what they expected OF ME.
And having two parents that gave a damn helped out to NO small end...didn't know if I have 8 parents or 8 teachers most days...they all seemed to care to the same degree, and let me know in no certain terms when I was screwing the hell up.
But, as stated in the editorial, this is NOT the JUNE CLEAVER society we once had, and "we" have to change.
Therein lies my main point of contention...
Sure, maybe we don't have June Cleaver households anymore, but when EXACTLY did we also decide that the VALUES found in such a home were "obsolete" and no longer worthy of our emulation?
THAT, to me seems to be the main problem...the lack of VALUES, or the dismissal of same from our homes and our childrens' lives.

I say if you want some REAL innovation in our schools...get BACK TO BASICS aka reinvent the damn wheel!
You can create programs out the a$$, toss tons of money at every one of them, and you will STILL have those students that will not wish to achieve. How does any society address that issue? And whose fault is it, PRECISELY?
I certainly can't blame the school system here, in as far as the teachers go. They are tasked with trying to undo 128 hours of vocational "indoctrination" in a mere FORTY (or so) hours...not an easy feat to pull off, is it?
But I can blame the school system when it comes to all the promoting more "hand-out" programs than "hand-up" programs.
This "Race to the Top" is designed to promote student excellence...after a fashion.
It is MAINLY about getting money into school systems that are suffering the rigors of an economic downturn, loss of jobs, and a society more hell-bent on being ENTERTAINED than being ENLIGHTENED...or EDUCATED.
It's about shoring up schools that have seen decreased enrollments in the inner cities, thanks to a government that has fostered a ghettoistic mentality, and held no one in such environs accountable, but rather has created an entitlement-driven sector of our population...with the predictable results.
Now, forgive me for being a tad "slow" here, but anything that pertains to a "RACE" means there is some competition involved...and that will eventually result in someone being a WINNER...while anyone else will be resigned to the ALSO-RAN category, right? We used to call them LOSERS, but it IS a "PC" world, isn't it?
Funny thing about all this, is that our society (along with a massive amount of assistance from the federal government) has PRODUCED these "losers"...for most of the last 40 or so years. And a lot of us must have been okie-dokie with that going on.
Well, we DID have other things on our minds....like raising a family, paying the mortgage and utilities, credit cards, trying to keep our jobs from going overseas, maintaining our houses, our vehicles, and our sanity, so we've been a bit "distracted".
And it's that distraction that is the crux of the matter. We stopped watching "both hands" of the government.
We've allowed families to devolve into single-parent venues, placing added stress on those left involved, and even rewarding it We've permitted our kids every amenity on the planet in the hope of "buying their love". We've allowed entertainment to supplant REAL education. And we've stroked the self-esteem of our children until our hands were raw, only to find it hasn't worked one damn bit.
And the really amazing part is that we took those "raw" hands of ours and patted ourselves on our backs for the ingenuity we've displayed, thinking we were doing the right thing...for the right reasons.
Well, we may have dropped the scholastic ball on that one.
So, we create all these programs in order to "right the ship" of education, when we should have been bailing out the damn bilge and shifting the ballast around.
Now all this doesn't mean a damn to the kids that come to school with no intent of succeeding. They'll still nod off in class, not do the homework assigned, and still get their free breakfast and lunch, when should have been learning about such things as personal responsibility...integrity..ethics...and morality AT HOME. But their baby-mamas are cut from the exact same cloth, and therefore aren't worth a damn either, because the "system" got them through school (sort of) and got them on the freebie gravy-train to "prosperity"(?) where they can languish until the kids start having kids...beginning this "circle of life" (support) anew.
What we NEED to do is in fact, get BACK to those JUNE CLEAVER days...as far as the VALUES (that were in place back then) are concerned.
And I will say it here first...there WILL come a time when those traditions return, and the school systems around the nation will get with THAT program...the way they used to.
In the meantime, we're pretty much stuck in LOW GEAR as it were...and going UPHILL to boot.
It's going to be a LONG drive, and the scenery won't be all that nice to look at.
But sooner or later, education WILL get back on the road to success.
Let's just hope the journey doesn't include a prolonged stop at the town of APATHY, or that the road doesn't lead to the city of A BRAVE NEW WORLD.
Do well, make a difference today...and, as always:
Stay safe out there, America.