State Inspection

I sat for 2.5 hours on Tuesday for my state inspection on my car; it isn't the inspection that takes up all the time (according to the manager)--it is the time it takes for the car to be hooked into the "state computer."  I had plenty of time to read! Maybe this should be a "problem-based, authentic learning" for our students "how to increase the efficiency of the state computer system when performing state inspections."  According to Friedman anyway, we have a long way to go in improving the quality of education.  This was my favorite section of the book, beginning on page 100, "Homework X 2 = the American Dream.  I think it is challenging to read and then communicate in the blog about what stood out for me--there was so much in this chapter. I underlined, starred, and wrote comments in the book while waiting in TiresPlus (they really should provide more comfortable chairs) -- looking over these "notes" I had to chuckle this morning at the first one I underlined, "To prosper, America has to educate its young people up to and beyond the new levels of technology" maybe we should  start with state inspections!  Here are a few more:

• "the longer American children are in school, the worse they perform compared to their international peers" page 103
• "The teachers' unions have, since the advent of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, conducted a campaign to convince people that these scores do not really matter very much.  Here they are flatly contradicted by the evidence." page 110
• "We are not focusing on teachers because teachers are the problem," said Johnson, "It's because they are the solution." page 114

Since I have taken the above quotes "out of context" I will be curious to hear your thoughts after reading this part of the book. 

Happy Reading!