This is one of the most compelling letters I’ve read so far. It’s sickening how these little children are being forced to perform at levels above their comprehension and emotional growth. It’s abuse, plain and simple. Bill Gates is a child abuser…why isn’t he held accountable??
Kids had to solve 8+6 when the answer choices were 0-9 and had to DRAG AND DROP first a 1 then a 4 to form a 14. There were questions where it was only necessary to click an answer but the objects were movable (for no reason). There were kids tapping on their neighbor’s computers in frustration. To go to the next question, one clicks “next” in lower right-hand corner…..which is also where the pop-up menu comes up to take you to other programs or shut down, so there were many instances of shut-downs and kids winding up in a completely different program.
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Some of the links in the letter:
Gates dining with 80 Senators. Eighty. Unfortunately, it stops short of naming names. So, I went looking for other reports to try to find out the senators’ names…no such luck. All that I could find were quoting Politico.
On Politico’s site, I found this little tidbit:
SPOTTED: Political odd-couple Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas) having dinner last night at Bistro Bis just off Capitol Hill. Sen. Joe Donnelly later strolled over with a big group to say hi. (h/ts: @ZStoller and @dsamuelsohn) Pic here: http://bit.ly/1qyM4dx
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Wanna bet Joe Donnelly was one of those senators that dined with Gates?
And from this link:
There is a growing body of evidence that the Common Standards are not the solution to make America more competitive, to make kids smarter in math, reading and science, and any of the other ills that have been cast upon the education system. I’ve reported on this blog that independent research questions the efficacy of a standard-based approach to education as it is now conceived. The standards-based system is a top-down authoritarian system that disregards the professional decision-making ability of classroom teachers. I’ve reported research by Wallace that shows that this authoritarian accountability system is a barrier to teaching and learning.
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….the Gates Foundation has invested about $2.3 billion into the Common Standards and related efforts.
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Bill and Melinda Gates are not educators. Why does their $$$ opinion $$$ matter more than those who are educators and don’t wish to abuse children?!