[EricH]

Originally Posted by wireties

The real deal is that we are blaming teachers while expecting them to replace parents in some areas. The greater crisis is with parents, teachers do their job pretty well in my opinion.

My parents did the opposite. Can you say "homeschooled"? (As I got further along, I ran into more subjects I couldn't learn as well at home. Homeschoolers tend to run into that, and groups have classes in that sort of thing.)

However, I did have to do a standardized test each year. It's a way to track progress. If used just as a way to track progress, standardized tests are all well and good. If used as a tool to judge performance on the other hand... Well, then you start getting the "teaching to the test" and the reports of test-rigging by teachers. Guess what the politicians and upper-level school administrations are doing these days? Yep, judging performance based on standardized tests.

I think the main thing, though, is not to let academics get in the way of a good education (more than necessary, that is--if you're failing classes, you may need the good education from the academics!)