Nicole’s fabulous opinions!

The state legislature is about to start banning books if House Bill 2200 goes through.  In some counties there are parent groups to get certain books banned and then there are others that think that it is up to the school district to decide what books to ban. 

The state board of education thinks that it should be up to the school districts to decide what books their students should and should not read.  But then there is a committee member that thinks that the state should prosecute English teachers for having their students read the wrong types of books.

But State Board of Education Chairman Bill Wagnon, D-Topeka, whose district includes Lawrence, opposed the bill, saying local school districts — not the Legislature — should handle any conflict about literature.

“We need to protect the classroom from those kind of intrusions,” Wagnon said.

Committee member Rep. Ann Mah, D-Topeka, said the bill was a setup for legal action.

“This bill is not about stopping nefarious teachers. This bill is about giving nefarious district attorneys a tool to bring charges against English teachers,” Mah said.

Some of the books that the schools want to ban are from minority authors, which poses a question about what the parental groups are really protesting.  The odd thing is that there are some people that think that taking action against the teachers is going to do any good.  The school is allowing the teachers to teach these b00ks, and all the parents want to do is get rid of the teachers.

Some fear that teachers will censor their classes to avoid legal problems if such a bill becomes law.

“It probably would not deter me from teaching the things I see that are valuable,” she said.

Hopefully we won’t have to worry about something like this happening in Michigan.  I don’t think that the future teachers that are coming out of GVSU’s English program would stand for something like this and I sure would not take a bunch of parents harping on me because I am teaching something I think is useful.

Bill could put limits on book choices

House proposal targets ‘obscene’ material in schools

J-W Staff and Wire Reports

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In Connecticut, the education officials created an informal report card about the No Child Left Behind Act that is up for re-issue September 30.  They were hoping that this would get the attention of the senate and hopefully they would change certain aspects of NCLB.  Among the concerns:

An emphasis on constant testing, inadequate funds to meet mandates, the lack of consistent methods to track and compare progress, and a perception that some states get more latitude than Connecticut to excuse large numbers of special-education students from testing.

Although this is based in another state they education leaders are still voicing their opinions on what should change in the act.  Should there be less testing?  Why are other states excluding special education students from formal testing?  Why do some states get more funding than others?  These are all valuable questions that a lot of people are wondering about.  All the states are having problems with NCLB, and hopefully the re-issue will be a little better and it will help a lot more students.

One of the main problems that the United States has is standardized testing and how much is required under the NCLB Act.  Compared to Conneticuit at 1 %, for example, Texas gets to exclude at least 5% of their students from standardized tests. 

  The sheer volume of testing required also frustrates many educators, who believe those exams do not reflect much of the progress in classrooms, some officials said.

That seems to be the main consensus throughout the United States and it is a hot button topic among teachers and soon-to-be teachers.  We think that although these tests can help support some with scholarship money, there are way to many tests that don’t actually measure how the students are doing in the regular classroom.  It would be a lot of work, but it would bebetter if teachers could test their own students with their own tests that the teachers created just for their kids.  Knowing that something like that won’t happen, we may just have to stick with the tests that states are forcing on our students and hope that we can prepare our kids enough so that they all have a fighting chance for the scholarship money they all deserve for having to take these tests in the first place.

Testing, funding questioned as No Child law faces re-authorization

By:??

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I know there is great debate over some literature and what it should and shouldn’t entail.  Now a children’s book has reached new heights by talking about genitalia.  Is there really a need for that?  Should students be exposed to certain words before they are meant to hear them.  This children’s book called “The Higher Power of Lucky”, a Newbery Award Winning book, has been banned in a lot of southern states and in many other libraries around the country for using the word scrotum. 

The book’s heroine, a scrappy 10-year-old orphan named Lucky Trimble, hears the word through a hole in a wall when another character says he saw a rattlesnake bite his dog, Roy, on the scrotum.

The Ledger Online had an interesting story on this book and how it won the more prestigious award for children’s literature.  But what most upsets the librarians is that they think it is just a test to see how far they can go before making children’s literature porn.

“This book included what I call a Howard Stern-type shock treatment just to see how far they could push the envelope, but they didn’t have the children in mind,” Dana Nilsson, a teacher and librarian in Durango, Colo., wrote on LM_Net, a mailing list that reaches more than 16,000 school librarians. “How very sad.”

Librarians around the country have felt that they have the right not to order the books that are stocked in their libraries because they don’t want to field questions from angry parents and they don’t think a word like that should be added to a fifth grade spelling test. 

The author wrote that one passage about a true story that happened to a friends dog.  She didn’t think that it was harsh and she told the Ledger that the book was meant for 11 and 12 year-olds. 

My question is to the literary community.  Has literature become so boring where they have to add words like that to children’s literature to bring more press to a book release?  Should we be banning books because there is one bad word in it?  Would you want to be an elementary school teacher and have to answer the question of the meaning of the word?  I wouldn’t, and I am not one for censorship, but children’s lit is pushing it a little to far.

Published Sunday, February 18, 2007

With One Word, Children’s Book Sets Off Uproar

JULIE BOSMAN
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Some wonder how this country got to such an outrageous state in its obesity.  One movie shows how that can happen in just thirty days, that movie is Super Size Me.  This film shows the problems that America faces with fast food and how these types of living and eating affect the world we live in. 

One of the questions that was raised in the film was ‘Is McDonald’s responsible for the obesity of America?’  Morgan goes on the quest to find out how bad fast food really is for us.  He eats McDonald’s 3 times a day for 30 days and from what I saw, it doesn’t go very well.  After only twelve days, he gains seventeen pounds.  This occurs at an unhealthy rate and becomes a matter of health for him because of the immense amount of fats he is taking in.  I have found that it is not just Americans that are overwieght.  There are plenty more countries that have obiesity problems.  The sad thing is that there are more obese people that people that need the food.

Globally, the statistics are mind-boggling: there are more obese people in the world than those who do not have enough food to eat.

Although America has more obese people than any other counrty in the world, but what other countries have this problem?  It seems that the U.S. is the only country talked about when it comes to weit problems.

In Britain, doctors warn that we are facing an obesity timebomb. We are the fattest people in Europe, with a quarter of women and a fifth of men so overweight that their health is at serious risk.

Is McDonald’s really to blame for America’s obiesity problem?  I think that that in some ways, they are because, although they aren’t forcing us to eat, their food isn’t healthy to eat in the first place.  I think that we can regulate how much fast food we actually take in, but it would be very nice if their food was a little bit better for us.  But then would it be as good?  There is the dilemma.  The reason we eat that food is because it tastes good, but if they changed it to be a little bit more healthy, then would it be as good, and would we eat it as much?  If McDonald’s did all this, they may loose money and they just won’t have that and we know that.  If they wanted to help the overweight people they would lower the calories and reduce the fat intake of their food.  Maybe this way they wouldn’t have little girls suing them because they got to fat from eating their food.

Hopefully people will learn from a movie like this that fast food cannot be a daily thing and it has to be eaten in smaller quantities.  We shall see how America reacts when McDonald’s goes bankrupt from people suing from being to fat from their food.  Where will we go for lunch?  Looks like Burger King or KFC today!

Obesity: the big Issue

The Daily Mail

Written by: Michael Hanlon

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I think there are people in this world that think censorship is for the greater good.  Well good for you.  I disagree.  I think that banning and burning books has a numbing effect.  After it happens a frew dozen times, no one will notice or care anymore. There is one parish that is taking censorship and throwing it out the window.   They are trying to get a ton of people reading the same book at the same time.  The best part about this is, what book it is.

It is among the greatest books of the 20th century, “To Kill a Mockingbird” by Harper Lee.

But this book also received a more dubious honor. It currently sits at No. 41 on the American Library Association’s list of the top 100 most challenged or banned books of the 20th century. The very existence of such a list offers insight into an absurd mindset that ought not endure in America nor should it have endured as long as it has. There are those who believe some books are so dangerous they should be restricted by some arbitrary body or banned entirely. They wish to enforce a policy whose only outcome is ignorance because some ideas make them uncomfortable.

This parish has picked a book that they know has shown conroversy in the past and they want to show that although there may be some bad parts throughout, they are not going to let a couple of swear words and talk of rape make them not read one of the best books written.  I think my favorite part about this entire article is what the parish and the writer think about people rebeling about this text:

Reading and studying the written word is an inherently beautiful process. It exposes a person to a broad spectrum of ideas that would otherwise remain hidden and allows for the development of analytical reasoning. A child who reads, even when tackling books that may be difficult or contain harsh ideas, will inevitably become a more intelligent and more well-rounded person than one who does not. And books containing harsh or idiotic ideas can be used as a tangible teaching tool through which a child can learn which thoughts are proper and which are not. They can then learn if a book offends them, they may simply put it down and walk away.

Put it down and walk away.  If you don’t like it, don’t read it.  It is as simple as that.  If you think that this book is to mature for your children to read, put it away and let them read it when they are a little older.  But still, there are some books that cannot be skipped over when reading American Literature.  To Kill A Mockingbird is one of those books and I hope people realize this, but if they don’t…

DON’T READ THIS BLOG!

Written by Jeff Jeffrey

Louisiana State University

The Daily Reveille Online Edition 1/24/2007

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I have always been brought up to believe that learning was supposed to be fun.  For most subjects, it is fun, well for me at least.  But then there are those ones that you can’t hardly sit through because your leg is shaking so bad and all you want to do is take a nap.  I thought about my educational experience in elementary and middle school not remembering being taught the crap for the MEAP test, but after thinking about it, I vaguely remember….                      

  I remember getting up early for school and having breakfast already made for me, which was uncommon at my house.  Having my parents tell me to do my best no matter what and to focus in school today because we were learning some really important stuff.  (Does any of this sound familiar?  It is exactly what the parents were taught to do in Massachusetts for their kids…)   I would get to school and we would get donuts and orange juice in class and we would sit there and be bored all day.  We didn’t get art class or gym because we had to prepare for the MEAP.  Frankly I didn’t care, I hated both and we got food!  But this is the part I think I blocked out, taking that test all day, and filling in answers without reading the questions because all I wanted to do was lay my head down and shut my eyes.    

This situation is very similar for one girl in Massachusetts.  She is 17 and the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System.  (This goes into what I talked about in my last blog.)  She is a sophomore (she was held back when she moved) and is working really hard to take this test because her graduation depends on it.  She gets to school early, goes right to class and pays attention because she may need to know what her teacher is talking about for the test she will soon be taking.  She eats her lunch in the library and is glad when her math teacher says lets have two minutes of quiet.    If I were her I would want that too.  I think I would be a little bit frustrated if the only things I was learning were about some test that determines whether I get to graduate or not.  But the test that she is taking is doing a lot of good things for the
Massachusetts school systems. 

“When the state Legislature passed the Massachusetts Education Reform Act of 1993, it created the MCAS test, established the 10th-grade exam as a graduation requirement beginning with the class of 2003 and demanded the creation of high standards for teachers and students.”    

“In exchange, the Legislature promised more funding; it has pumped more than $19 billion in additional money over the past decade-plus into education.”

It seems as though Massachusetts wanted to get their education program up again, so by starting these tests, outside of NCLB, they have gotten so much money.  Is that good for the students though?  Are these tests helping or hurting the students?  Are there more children not graduating because of this test, because all the state cares about is money and not whether their students get to graduate?

What do you think?  I have yet to decide my opinions because they did post any statistics, but I am curious about what others think about the MCAS.

One teen’s struggles preparing for standardized test POSTED: 11:30 a.m. EST, January 29, 2007 Full Article

Some may think that we are a pretty lucky culture to have computers, Internet at our fingertips and so many books that one could read, it would take 5 lifetimes.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not, by any means complaining about the life that I have gotten to life thus far, but does Big Brother have a stronger grasp on us than we think?  I didn’t think so until I read this certain article about Big Brother, the Thought Police and The Ministry of Truth.  (All from the George Orwell book, 1984, for those of you who have never graced the pages of that amazing read.)  The article, justly titled, “Has 1894 finally arrived?”, is about how, although we think that we have free speech and all that great stuff, we actually are a tad bit mistaken. 

This editorial has some interesting points about censorship in our schools.  Have the parents, afraid of what their children might dream about after reading a book like 1984, considered that they are creating their own little Ministry of Truth, or their own little brigade of the Thought Police?  By getting books like 1984, Huck Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird from the schools, they are advocating what they don’t want their kids to read.  Of course, how would their kids know about that if they can’t actually read the books, right?

“About 200 years ago, a man named Thomas Bowdler decided to undertake the editing of Shakespeare and Edward Gibbons’ “Decline of the Roman Empire.” His intention was, given the time, wholly honorable. In his introduction to his version of Shakespeare’s plays, he wrote “… words and expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read …”

Basically, Bowdler took out, or changed, anything he felt was blasphemous or lewd. His efforts were not appreciated, and his name became synonymous with prudish censorship. “Bowdlerizing” became a term of derision.

Today’s Ministry of Truth, however, is engaged in its own bowdlerizing. The use of certain words has become so unacceptable that those words are either being edited out of books, or the books themselves are banned. Mark Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn,” generally considered one of the greatest American novels, and Harper Lee’s “To Kill A Mockingbird,” one of the classics of 20th century American literature, face an uncertain future in high school English classes. “Gone With The Wind,” one of the best movies ever made, has been surreptitiously edited to remove some phraseology, although the phrase which most stunned the country when the movie was released, Clark Gable’s parting retort when he walked out on Vivian Leigh (“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.”), remains intact and now seems positively quaint.”

What parents and school administrators don’t realize is that, they may think they are helping their students in shielding them from talk of rape and sex and swear words, but they are depriving the youth of America of these amazing, interesting books that can open minds to whole new worlds.

That last comment reminded me of something I read in the newspaper when Harry Potter came out.  Apparently everything is about sex in this country, because there were like eight phallic symbols just in that book, but honestly, what 12 year old is going to think of something like that???

Anyways, my reasoning behind this rant on 1984 is the fact that students are missing out on a great book, and that their parents are just like the Thought Police by trying to get all these books banned from schools.  I hope someday they will realize the disservice they have done the students in those schools.

And there is another thrilling episode of MY wonderful, yet wordy opinions!

Full Article

January 18, 2007

Has 1984 finally arrived?

Dan Sernoffsky

Opinioneditorials.com 

Continuing my rant on standardized testing… I started reading this article from the Sun Chronicle in Mass.  The title of the article is “Attleboro parents get a taste of MCAS testing”.  I was hoping that all the parents of the third and fourth graders would get a dose of what their children went through when that had to sit for hours at a time taking these pointless tests.  Except the catch is, these tests are far from pointless in good ol’ Massachusetts.  The students have to get a 240 OR BETTER to qualify for a high school diploma!  If I went to this school I would still be in the third grade taking these test at 21. 

Anyways, what the article was really about was parents taking a MCAS 101 class so they could see how they could better prepare their young ones for success on these tests.  The principal showed the parents sample questions and gave them ideas on how to make their child less stressed out when coming to school on a test day.  Here are those wonderful ideas:

“In a handout to students and parents, Porter included several tips to help students get ready to take the MCAS:

Get a good night’s sleep.

Get up early enough on test days to have a relaxed morning.

Eat a good breakfast.

Arrive at school on time.

Come to class with a positive attitude.

A word of praise from parents always helps.

Parents should advise their children to listen to directions and read instructions carefully before answering questions. Tests are not timed, so extra care can easily yield better scores.

Students should be encouraged not to be the first to complete their work and should always check it over to see that it is correct.”

I remember that is what they told me and my classmates when we took the MEAP test and GUESS WHAT!  I never got a dime of scholarship money because I was so sick of taking tests that I did not even care how I did.  Good thing my graduating wasn’t based on those tests!

I just don’t think it is fair to tell parents: this is how to handle these situations with the standardized tests that are going to be the basis of your child’s future.  I think, if they have to give the test at all, the standards should not be so high as to stop someone from graduating because of a test they took in the third grade.  I just think that some school and state officials don’t take into effect the things that could be going on in a students life, but we’ll leave that subject for my next rant!  Good day all!

The Sun Chronicle

Attleboro parents get a taste of MCAS testing

BY RICK FOSTER SUN CHRONICLE STAFF
Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:22 AM EST

Full Article

I have found out that some things in life just are not fair.  One thing that I totally disagree with, but know I can’t change is standardized testing.  I don’t think that they actually help anyone and it takes away from the learning going on when classes are supposed to be in session. 

I have never been able to take tests well.  Just ask some of my teachers from last semester… The whole multiple chioce thing doesn’t help.  I always seem to choose the wrong answer.  The sad thing is that I have found that I am not the only person that found out that tests are hard no matter what.  I think that states are making it harder and more stressful for students by giving those tests.  I always got so nervous when we had to take the MEAP and the ACT.  I was so stressed out, it made taking those tests worse and hurt my scores.  I think the pressure to do well on the MEAP came when the scores came and I didn’t get that scholarship money. 

I think the pressure to do well on these tests hurts how students do, which makes the schools look bad because if the students don’t do well then something must be wrong with the school system and the teachers.  I don’t think that is the problem, but those are the first things people think of when schools don’t get good reviews when the scores come out.

I hope that the state will take the scores a little less seriously and think of what is best for the students and I just don’t think that these tests are helping.

And that’s the opinion according to me…

I have decided to make my 310 blog about Standardized Testing and how it affects students and schools.  I am truly passionate about getting rid of those stupid tests because they have been the downfall of my getting into Grand Valley the first time and the reason I didn’t get that wonderful MEAP money that everyone else got. 

I seriously don’t think students should be tested on things that they sometimes never learn and I don’t think that their getting into certain schools should be based on a 4 hour test that takes place at 8am on a Saturday.  Here is the thing, when I was a senior in high school, I applied to Ferris, CMU, GVSU, WMU and MSU.  I got into all but GVSU.  I got into MSU over Grand Valley because of the score I got on the ACT….  Yeah, I thought it was a little odd too, but I accepted it and made my way to Kalamazoo.

Anyways….I could have started my education at GVSU 4 years ago if it weren’t for the ACT and I would have had $2000 extra dollars because of the MEAP.  I found that test very hard and boring and tests and I don ‘t mix.  These are the reasons I have decided to blog on testing because I know I am not the only one who feels this way about standardized tests.  I will be using many different sources so I will make sure to post which ones I do use. 

P.S.  Sorry if I offend anyone with my blunt words, I tend to say what is on my mind.