Who needs to know to read anyway?

[VinceZeb]

source: http://www.boortz.com

WHAT THE HELL? WHO NEEDS TO KNOW HOW TO READ ANYWAY?

My initial thought is that you won’t believe what I’m about to tell you. But, then, you are Boortz listeners, and I spend no small amount of time relating stories to you that detail the incredible failures of government education. So … you probably WILL believe this. Good thing … ‘cause it’s true.

We take you to Petersburg, Virginia. The Petersburg School Board is preparing to make some changes to its promotion policy. Evidently they feel that too much is being demanded of Petersburg government school students.

The Petersburg schools have five academic core subjects. They are language arts, math, social studies, science and reading. The school board has decided that students in grades one through five will only need to pass four of these subjects to be promoted to the next grade. One academic core subject will be removed from the requirement list for grade promotion.

The four subjects that will be required? They are language arts, math, social studies and science.

The subject that will NOT be required? Reading.

Can you believe this? Reading is the path to knowledge .. and this school board in Petersburg, Virginia wants to drop reading as a requirement for promotion in grades one through five?

School board vice chairwoman Dr. Florence Farley says that holding a child back because they fail a [reading] class is “penalizing” a student. Oh my gosh, we can’t do that, can we? Why, we might damage this precious child’s self esteem! After all, a good health self-esteem is much more valuable in our society than the ability to read.

You should know that teachers and parents in Petersburg are in open revolt against this school board, and the school board is running for cover. My guess is that the school board will lose on this one.

The truly amazing story here is that so many parents still think that government --- the same government that does virtually nothing well – somehow is capable of educating their children.

Find a private school, folks … and get your children away from these incompetent government schools.

[mburbank]

QUICK, VINTH! RELEASE THE SPLIT VALVE!

If that story is factual reporting, IF it is not some gussied up half true tid bit utterly devoid of context, then it is of course agregious. I would certainly agree that basic English reading, WRITING and COMPREHENSION are absolutey neccesary and fundemental.

But... where the Bush administration yesterday said that all 50 states have reached acceptable accountability standards for public education... I'm thinking this story may have important omissions. I'll check it out later today.

I mean, you can put a turd in a prom dress, you can give it a cargsage and drive it to the auditorium in a rentd limo, but it still won't dance. Right, Vinth?

[Bennett]

"Who needs to know to read anyway?"

Who needs to know HOW to write anyway?

[FS]

How are you going to pass language arts, math, social studies and science if you can't read? Perhaps it's not necessary to specify it as required because someone who can't read will fail eitherway.

The quote from Dr. Farley does sound outrageous, though.

[ranxer]

the republicans are amazing, especially the fundamentalist republicans.. this privatize everything deal is completing a full circle of insanity.. back when corporations first started losing to the people reigning them in we had government via the people to thank for it.. so the corporations got smart .. with massive lobbying and pr and the use of the fundamentalist right we've had something like 30 years of painting government as a problem.. well, as many of you know and i keep repeating ad nauseum its not government that is the problem, its corporate government.

this is truly amazing for the republican right first helps corporations wreck the government then says 'look, look, the government is corrupt!!' etc. so now we come to the last few years of massive support for privatization.. cutting out as much government as possible.. this will be disaster!

i for one will never invest in the stock market
i will never believe in corporate solutions

ill stick with constitutional democracy thanks anyway boortz and vince. yall can take yer corporate logos and shove it!

and really vinze you think corporations have a heart? or care for anything besides profits? sorry but a pr campaign isnt about doing what's 'right' its about making money.

[VinceZeb]

Ranxer, if you only could put some funk-metal behind your posts.... you would make a great RATM tribute band.


You keep screaming about republicans when Boortz is a libertarian. Please, before you go screaming about something... FIND OUT ABOUT THE SUBJECTS AT HAND! Also, I know coorporations are only out for a profit. Big fucking deal. Some corporations are not out for just pure profit, such as Ben and Jerry's. But a corporation will like if if I can make them money, and I will like them if they can give me money for my services or i will give them money if they have a product or service I want.

And, I know this is a cliche, but if you hate the way this country is... why don't you move elsewhere?

[Protoclown]

Petersburg is just south of Richmond, and I happen to know for a fact that there are lots of black people there.

Obviously, that explains everything.

[ranxer]

but if you hate the way this country is... why don't you move elsewhere?

hey that's pretty polite for you vince, im shocked.

sorry, i'll never leave, ive got generations of blood and sweat in this country and will continue with a tradition of working on exposing corporate criminals for what they are and continue supporting putting them where they belong.. in prison.

i for one would never resort to that kind of tactic.. America needs diversity. those who support monoculturing everything are pretty darn shortsighted. i wish there was a twilight zone episode where you privatization nuts could see what happens when its all corporate.. oh yea, 1984, logans run, um, farenheight 451 are some examples.

libertarian eh? ok, so they are against big gov'ment too..
still the repubs share in the slamming of anything that has to do with government, including using it as a scapegoat.

i still say the only thing wrong with our government is the corporate slime and profit that has infiltrated almost every niche possible.

oh and those folks that boortz are talking about are people in government, not 'government' how come you turn so quickly to the privatization mantra instead of talking about getting better representation?