best and worst...

These are two articles about the best and worst performing high schools in the US, offered for comparison and to make a point.

Minnesota's #1 High School Failed NCLB Seven Years in a Row
The 10 Poorest High Schools in the US

The first is about Minnesota High Schools and tells that if these schools, some of the very best in the nation, had not been wealthy enough to not qualify for title one funds, they would have been shut down for failure to meet NCLB test requirements.

The second article about some of the poorest high schools tells another story, but essentially the same one from another side. Poverty takes a heavy toll on our nation's future. Where communities invest heavily in their children's educations, we all are brought to better conditions, but this story is where schools in some of the most economically depressed areas of our nation are fighting a losing battle in the education of our youth.

You will find in comparing these two articles that our nation's obsession with standardized test scores continues to make things much worse.

Misguided "conservative" politics have made teachers the whipping boys for our nation's educational failure. But one of the greatest real determinants of educational success is poverty. Shame on all those budget cutting tea party nincompoops whose malicious personal agendas prevent real solutions for the problems facing our nation's schools! The idea that cutting budgets, lowering taxes for the rich, and failing to lift a hand for the poor is the ultimate long-term public policy disaster. The idea of using standardized test scores to "hold teachers accountable" and thus improve schools is asinine.

Today the 1st through 6th grade CSS students leave for their 2 day camping trip. Our CSS carving knives will travel along and be used around the campfire. Those who have not camped with a group of children and observed how they grow and mature through years of such carefully planned activities, should use their imaginations to tag along, at least in spirit and see what real education is like.

This morning I posted an article (part one) about how to make a crematory urn box on the Fine Woodworking website.

Make, fix and create...