Ridiculous Articles

Foreign exchange students:
Articles like this one, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12649257/, bring out the problem with today’s society. Basically the article says that in order to host foreign exchange students, host families will have to have a background check. My question is why hasn’t this been implemented before? The article says that exchange student abuse happens and that the checks will help weed out the bad hosts…well, yeah.

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The arguments against the checks are that people will get offended and not offer to host students and that the hosts are already sharing their home and their lives and, basically, shouldn’t have to do anymore because it will keep people from offering to host kids. Well, yeah. It will keep people with questionable backgrounds away because they are embarrassed. People with good backgrounds won’t have a problem and if they do, then that alone is enough to not allow students to stay with them.

Let’s face it; there are freaks out there that prey on kids. How better to do that than host a child who doesn’t speak English very well and doesn’t have family or anyone they know around to help out. Background checks are a no-brainer and if that means that fewer students will be able to study abroad then so be it. It’s better to not be able to study abroad than it is to be abused when you do.

Education:

President Bush demands that schools are held to some type of standards in this article. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12707995 and some schools can’t meet those standards. What to do?

The article states that some schools are barely getting by and the 1,700 schools failing right now will soon swell to 10,000 or more.

Setting standards is what education is all about. Raising the bar is tough. So, get to work. Standards shouldn’t be lowered just because some schools can’t meet them. The article really doesn’t address this but this is an easy call. We fall way behind in international polls yet we accepted how the schools were being run. That is unacceptable.

The article states that some students are suing because they can’t pass the test. The test states that you have the skills necessary to pass the test. You either do or do not have those skills. If you do not have the skills then you do not get the diploma stating that you do have the skills. The test also proves that you can read and write in English. If you can not read and write in English then you do not get the diploma saying that you can. If we allow students who do not pass the test to sue and get their diploma anyway, it completely invalidates the purpose of the test in the first place and renders the results useless.

Some states are making adjustments that need to be made for handi-caps and other issues students struggle with and that is a great idea. It should be noted on the diploma and the student accepting the diploma should be very proud they were able to meet the requirements.

The article quotes a guy saying that the result of not getting a diploma is detrimental to the student but barely fazes the public as a whole. One kid peeing in the pool probably isn’t going to cause a problem that is measurable, but if one kid is doing it then the question is how many other kids are too. A little dirt doesn’t hurt your food either but do you really want dirt on your food? Why put unqualified citizens on the street when you can test for their qualifications and make the adjustments to help them be qualified.

Standards shouldn’t be lowered, they should be raised. Schools not passing need to get in shape or ship out. I didn’t study the article in depth but I sensed that if a school has too many students that do not speak English fail then the entire school fails. I say cut out the ones that can’t speak English and treat them separately, making sure they learn the national language by having them pass an English test before they take the tests to get their diploma.