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The kids are bored!

July 10, 2012 @ 8:21 am (Updated: 10:44 am - 7/10/12 )

kids classroomIt's official! America's school children want to work harder!

"You might think that the nation's teenagers are drowning in school work, but our report found the opposite," said Ulrich Boser, at the Center for American Progress, who analyzed federal surveys of students.

"We found 37 percent of 4th graders say that their math work is often or always too easy. More than a third of high school seniors report that they hardly ever write about what they read in class," said Boser.

Here's my theory, based solely on casual observation, and stuff I've heard teachers say.

The bell curve is a fact of life. In any human endeavor, most people are in the middle -- with a few who always excel, and a few who never get it.

So if you want everyone to meet a certain standard, you have a choice. You can move the standard to the left, or shift the whole curve to the right.

If you have the money, you AMP up the education so you can keep a high standard and bring everybody up to it.

But the curve will persist regardless!

Which means some will ALWAYS get it faster than others.

So the former low achievers are now high achievers, but the former high achievers -- are bored.

When I went to school, in the crazy sixties, kids were divided into academic tracks. The idea was to bump you up a track until you were no longer bored, or bump you down until you were no longer overwhelmed.

But that began to look elitist, and so we replaced it with the well-intentioned concept of No Child Left Behind, only to come face to face with its insidious doppelganger: No Child Sprints Ahead.

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Comments (17)


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  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Speaking of education, check the transcription of the quote from Boser
    July 10, 2012 7:54 am
    (Note: Install sense of humor before proceeding past this point).

    The error is only too obvious. Would it be too arduous to devote two seconds to a consideration of grammar? :-)

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  • Troll Hunter wrote...
    Huh?
    July 10, 2012 11:32 am
    Are you saying Boser used the word 'too' incorrectly? If so, you fail. Time to go back to school for you?
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  • kata wrote...
    @Hunter
    July 10, 2012 11:35 am
    The article was updated an hr and 38 minutes ago as of this post. Since Chuck posted more than 3 hrs ago, it's possible the grammatical error was corrected.
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  • ron prevost wrote...
    Well, Dave, MY 4th grade days were in the 50s.
    July 10, 2012 8:08 am
    And we hadn't started those honors programs (as we called them)as yet. At least for math, I think the concept of 'zero' had just been discovered, so there wasn't much math in the first place. But IF it was easy, well that just meant homework was done quicker. More time to play outside or be forever corrupted by violence watching Wyett Earp on TV.

    Later all was replaced by that 'new math' stuff in the 70s or 80s which was, I think, 'if you add two and two, how much do you WANT it to be?' Different corruption.

    But, if math really IS too easy these days, then why do so many grocery checkers get confused when you give them a $10 and 2 pennies for a $9.77 purchase? Believe it or not, I recently had a clerk tell me 'not to worry' about a penny on a $9.01 purchase - then proceeded to return 99 cents in change from a $10. Because that's what the register said. And have no clue.

    Hey, Kids. If math seems too easy for you. Try doing it WITHOUT the calculator.

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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    And who do we "thank" for this?
    July 10, 2012 8:41 am
    PUBLIC EDUCATION...favorite of the left.
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  • Pete in Seattle wrote...
    Left?
    July 10, 2012 8:48 am
    Last time I checked, "No Child Left Behind" was a pet Bush project. That's Bush Jr. who tried to move so far right as to get out of his daddy's shadow.
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  • HPD 5-0 wrote...
    Pete...if any smart children in public school even try to advance...
    July 10, 2012 10:50 am
    ...they would be told that it's not "fair" to be smarter than anyone else. They must be part of the "collective" for the "good of all". No one is special. One of the left's favorite mantras.
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  • Troll Hunter wrote...
    Bush Jr
    July 10, 2012 11:35 am
    Was a moron and wanted education dumbed down to his level for all. Has he achieved his goal?
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  • Cbrew wrote...
    HPD 5-0 ....... holy crap what is wrong with you?
    July 10, 2012 11:43 am
    If you don't know that the No Child Left Behind act was brought to us by your right wing Brain Child Mr. Bush... i honestly don't even know what to tell you...
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  • kata wrote...
    !!!!
    July 10, 2012 11:50 am
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dan-brown/senator-kennedy-no-child-_b_81354.html
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  • kata wrote...
    !!!!
    July 10, 2012 11:51 am
    http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video?id=4231573
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  • SeattleNative wrote...
    Teachers
    July 10, 2012 9:25 am
    I had an excellent teacher in fifth grade who set up modules so that those who excelled in school could work as far ahead as they wanted, and I don't think there was a single kid in that classroom who was bored or lost interest. And I've had others who put in the minimal amount of effort and lose the interest of a majority of their students.

    If unions allowed performance-based pay structures, it would encourage teachers to be better at their chosen profession. And that would benefit our entire society.

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  • kata wrote...
    when I was in grade school
    July 10, 2012 11:11 am
    they gave me as many workbooks as I could finish in a day. As I moved into Jr High I was given secondary and extra projects to keep me busy - it cost the school nothing since I was essentially creating my own curriculum. When I was in High School the brakes started to be applied, even before NCLB. I became frustrated, restless and bored. It's a wonder I graduated with the GPA I did.

    As an adult I think I am better at my work because of my experiences the in first 9 yrs of school. I was able to taste real academic achievement - not this "achievement lite" they are spreading around these days.

    I also think that public schools, in their rush to be more inclusive to girls and the ever present drive for "diversity" that they have forgotten how to teach boys, specifically.

    Public schools are creating generations of students who think that by their sheer existence they should continue in a forward moving pace. So, in turn they are entering college because they can, rather than because it's what works for them personally.

    So now we are seeing the effects in the workforce. Need only look to the PTSD article where people are blanching at "being graded on a curve" to understand what they have wrought.

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  • Cbrew wrote...
    Republicans view Education as another entitlement for the poor right?
    July 10, 2012 11:46 am
    Seriously, Anybody that follows the Republican Ideology needs to take a look in the mirror, what kind of a person are you if you subscribe to the Republican Ideology that Helping the poor is Communism and helping the Rich is Patriotism? ...... pretty Fracked up point of view if you ask me... Repubs are sad and they're going down... Not only will Obama be re-elected but the Repubs are going to lose seats in congress.
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  • kata wrote...
    I agree
    July 10, 2012 11:57 am
    "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the majority discovers it can vote itself largess out of the public treasury. After that, the majority always votes for the candidate promising the most benefits with the result the democracy collapses because of the loose fiscal policy ensuing, always to be followed by a dictatorship, then a monarchy."

    It's terrible that people can both recognize that there is a problem but because they cannot agree on the solution they deem each other as ignorant to it.

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  • rational wrote...
    Republicans view Education as another entitlement for the poor right?
    July 10, 2012 6:06 pm
    Then that should make you happy because the democrat's ideology is to make everyone poor and they love entitlements...as long as someone else pays for them.

    Turning all Americans into modern day serfs is the democrat plan...pretty fracked up point of view if you ask me.

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  • roomtemp wrote...
    I've heard it said...
    July 10, 2012 12:53 pm
    That the definition of insanity is repeating the same action again and again while expecting a different result.

    At what point does voting for republican and democrat 'party men' meet this criterion?

    "A republic, if you can keep it." Sorry Ben, It was a good try...

    I guess we could always outsource our education to Singapore. -As long as they have some classes in Mandarin.

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