Report Card

In response to the article “Hard Lessons” from the December 8th Time Magazine (P. 22 – United States: Education)

At about 2:25, on Friday, December 5, 2008, almost all CDNIS grade twelve students were filled with adrenaline. It was the day the brown envelope of fate would be handed out. Within a few minutes, sighs, exhilaration and different kinds of extreme emotions, some of which are not even named yet, filled the hallways. The moment that is greater than Obama’s historical victory day has come. In the midst of chaos, I stared at my own envelope and began imagining my life as a Washington, D.C. high school student.

While we begin preparations to get more As and Bs, the United States is struggling with students earning Cs and Ds in their public education report card.

U.S Public Education: A Report Card

Accountability
D
-Only 1 state uses teacher-effectiveness data in teacher evaluation
-The No Child law emphasizes accountability but not necessarily in a productive way

Teacher Quality
C
-34 states don’t test basic skills before teacher-prep programs
-Better compensation and improved training could attract and retain more effective teachers

Standards
D
-34% college students enrolled in remedial courses in 2004
-States set their own academic standards, and they don’t appear to be nearly high enough

School Choice
B-
-15% students enrolled in public schools of choice in 2003*
-Charter schools have grown, and the No Child law allows students from bad schools to transfer

Infrastructure
C
-3.8 students per instructional computer in 2006
-The federal government has spent more than $18 billion on educational technology since 1998


While we worry about not getting into our top university choices, in Washington, D.C. the Anacostia High School is wondering what to do with its 24% graduation rate. More than 76% cannot graduate from that school. While we worry about our math mark not looking impressive because of the extraordinarily high 89% course median, in Washington, D.C. only 36% of high school students are proficient in math. While we are complaining to teachers not having enough free time because we chose to commit ourselves to a variety of activities, Allante Rhodes, a senior at Anacostia high school in Washington, D.C. is in his Microsoft Word class staring at an antiquated computer that works only six out of fourteen times.

On November 19, Rhodes had to evacuate his school when brutal fights broke out and three students were stabbed. Rhodes is still reluctant to use the school’s bathrooms because they are filthy and unsafe.

This is the public education in the capital of the world’s leading country.

So what then, is the difference between our education and theirs? Why is there such a wide gap between them and us? Why are we so much better than them? And why do we need to?

According Ms. Safaya, it is because of over-population. I agree, but I want to take a step further by saying it is because of elitism. The world’s population expands at an uncontrollable rate everyday, and it is impossible for everyone to have a good education, good work and a good life. To have a good life, we must prove ourselves worthy.

The U.S. public education fails because of its No Child law. This law states that every child should receive education, no matter what. This certainly is a praiseworthy ambition, but it is unrealistic and does not motivate a student to excel. There is not enough human resource, good teachers, capital resources, and technology to educate everyone in Washington, D.C. The No Child law conflicts with the global phenomenon of elitism.

Elitism is unstoppable, and we can see this in our own school. We, CDNIS, are among the elites, even though many cynics within the school simply do not recognize how privileged we are. We struggle with the ever-rising standards, one of which is the notorious IB. We do not seem to have a choice to fall back, because if we fall back, then it will be even harder. In this light, we can only follow the flow.

It is scary to think that just stopping and taking a break will result in our falling out of the global race to elitism. As I am struggling, I wonder how much more will the future generations struggle?

I stare at the brown envelope again. Words that people said to me because of my marks rang in my head once again. “Here comes the lucky guy!” “Here comes the math master!”…I wonder what has this brown envelope become. And what have we become.

The Power – The New Thailand

In response to the article “Crisis Fever” from the December 8th Time Magazine (P. 38 – Asia: Thailand)

For a long time, Thailand has been a welcoming country. Its golden spires and white-sand beaches have lured many tourists to contribute huge amounts to Thailand’s economy growth, until now. The recent conflict between Somchai’s government and the PAD (People’s Alliance for Democracy) has risen from a national crisis to an international crisis. Recently, the PAD has takeover its country’s airport, forcing tourists to stay.

The PAD, which is formed mostly by urban middle class citizens, has firmly stood against the government since the last PM, Thaksin, was elected. In fact, the PAD’s mission was neither to serve the majority of Thai or to pursue the values of democracy, it is simply to eliminate all the influence Thaksin has to government. The PAD has succeeded in deposing Thaksin during his term with the military’s coup, but this time the military is remaining still. Although the military can overthrow Thaksin, he returned in the form of Somchai, his former bother-in-law. The post coup elections happened under the military’s control, so it is embarrassing to admit it has supervised a corrupted election. In effect, the military only urged Somchai to return power to the people.

This is an interesting situation. Although Thaksin, a billionaire who is accused to be a dictator, obviously is hiding something, he is after all elected by the people. The majority of poor Thai like Thaksin so much that they gave him a record electoral mandate. Thaksin has won fair and peaceful, although he might have bought a certain amount of votes. In contrast, the PAD is violent and irrational. Not so long ago, they besieged Somchai’s office, causing turmoil in the Thai’s politics. If the PAD succeeded in overthrowing Somchai, they promised to avoid corrupted vote buying by appointing a parliament. This is very ironic. Thaksin has at least bought votes. The PAD are saying WE will appoint, which certainly is no different than buying votes, except there is no cost at all. The PAD accused Thaksin of willing to destroy the country for his personal gain, but on every day’s news I can only see the PAD messing around.

In the end, the question revolves around this: Who is Thaksin? He certainly is a person willing to devote his time in Thai politics. But is he trustworthy? Is he a good man? I can go to wikipedia and search about him, but I am not that interested in Thai politic, so I will end my blog with this question. Perhaps, my intelligent blog viewers and classmates can answer my question in the comments!