re: Spinoff - re: Paying teachers to teach at bad schools........Soapbox #3

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That's pretty much my point 1.
It starts before they even arrive at kindergarten

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Dead on. I've taught kids from pre-k though 12 and have found that many of the kids who drop out and are discipline problems simply cannot read to learn. For many of them, when they show up at school, it's the first time they have had some one read them a book. They are behind before they even begin.

This is why it is important to have local level curriculums. The kids who are reading, push them farther. The kids who are not should be reading all day. Furthermore, we need to continue the JumpStart program which teaches kids skills for trade instead of the everyone goes to college approach. However, this needs to be expanded down to the middle school level. We can identify these kids in about the 4th/5th grade. We know who our college bound kids are. At that age, we should begin the process of training them for trades instead of trying to get them to read on an 8th grade level.

Last, I'm very proud of the actual discussion in here today instead of the usual teacher bashing that goes on.