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Well, the workers showed up today after all. I wound up getting out of the house early so I could get some work done on a paper for World Lit, since I couldn't work with all the noise here. However, it did give me time to get a long-needed haircut.
This is really pissing me off, though. No Child Left Behind is an abomination. Note that the article goes on and on about the schools using loopholes to keep their numbers up, but it doesn't say anything at all about the reasons why they're using those loopholes. It leaves out the fact that the minority students that schools are leaving out of the records are being left out because they're held to a higher standard than the regular students. In a number of districts, the school is considered to fail if less than 95% of a minority 'sub-group' (which doesn't just cover ethnicities, but also non-English speakers and kids with learning disorders, all of whom are given the same test) passes.
Sorry, it's just that I could go on and on about the deficiency that is No Child Left Behind. In fact, I have. I researched and wrote a paper on it back in Fall 2004 if anyone's curious to read it.
Edit: Okay, since someone asked, here it is. Complete with sources cited and everything. Despite an attendance record that would require giving me a 'C' for the semester, this paper got me an 'A' in the class.
Speaking of more things that should be causing riots and burnings... Check the first item on that page. Apparently Philips is designing a cable box that can keep you from changing the channel when commercials come up. Not to start skiing down the slippery slope, but how long until we're forced to watch certain television shows all the way through without being able to flip to something else? I dunno about you guys, but I'm one of those folks who'll turn on a half-crappy movie or TV show while I wait for something decent to begin.
*sigh* I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow/today/whenever. We've got exterminators coming to take a look at an ant nest that was found in the wall of the bathroom (I knew that the occasional ant turns up in the bathroom, I'd just figured they were just coming in from the outside).
I've been going nuts over this whole thing with the bathroom lately... the only thing that's kept me sane have been my recent discovery of God of War (sex, violence, Greek gods, and human sacrifice-- the game's got everything) and the latest episode of House.
This is really pissing me off, though. No Child Left Behind is an abomination. Note that the article goes on and on about the schools using loopholes to keep their numbers up, but it doesn't say anything at all about the reasons why they're using those loopholes. It leaves out the fact that the minority students that schools are leaving out of the records are being left out because they're held to a higher standard than the regular students. In a number of districts, the school is considered to fail if less than 95% of a minority 'sub-group' (which doesn't just cover ethnicities, but also non-English speakers and kids with learning disorders, all of whom are given the same test) passes.
Sorry, it's just that I could go on and on about the deficiency that is No Child Left Behind. In fact, I have. I researched and wrote a paper on it back in Fall 2004 if anyone's curious to read it.
Edit: Okay, since someone asked, here it is. Complete with sources cited and everything. Despite an attendance record that would require giving me a 'C' for the semester, this paper got me an 'A' in the class.
Speaking of more things that should be causing riots and burnings... Check the first item on that page. Apparently Philips is designing a cable box that can keep you from changing the channel when commercials come up. Not to start skiing down the slippery slope, but how long until we're forced to watch certain television shows all the way through without being able to flip to something else? I dunno about you guys, but I'm one of those folks who'll turn on a half-crappy movie or TV show while I wait for something decent to begin.
*sigh* I'm really not looking forward to tomorrow/today/whenever. We've got exterminators coming to take a look at an ant nest that was found in the wall of the bathroom (I knew that the occasional ant turns up in the bathroom, I'd just figured they were just coming in from the outside).
I've been going nuts over this whole thing with the bathroom lately... the only thing that's kept me sane have been my recent discovery of God of War (sex, violence, Greek gods, and human sacrifice-- the game's got everything) and the latest episode of House.
