And yet segregation in our school's is still alive and well in America.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/16/MNGL46MGP71.DTL
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/16/MNGL46MGP71.DTL
Quote from waggie945:
And yet segregation in our school's is still alive and well in America.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/05/16/MNGL46MGP71.DTL
Quote from waggie945:
Pabst . . .
Amador Valley High in the posh surroundings of Pleasanton ( can you say PeopleSoft? ) offers and fills 21 AP classes while Pittsburg High offers 9 and rarely fills them.
Volunteers spend 250 hours per week in Walnut Acres Elementary School classrooms in Walnut Creek, while Sun Terrace Elementary of neighboring Concord averages only 42 hours per week of volunteer time.
Many sports facilities at once proud Richmond High are dilapidated. The dirt track and dusty bleachers are empty. The tennis courts are chained and locked, and grass has pushed thru cracks in the courts. There is no track or tennis program at Richmond High, where 85% of the students are black or latino. Imagine that, no track team at a school that is practically all black and latino. Amazing! Richmond High also lacks swimming, water polo, lacrosse and golf teams, common at schools in more affluent areas.
Richmond High received ZERO BOOSTER CLUB MONEY last year. Meanwhile, Acalanes High in Lafayette, with pristine facilities, drew $100,000 in sports donations alone.
There is no doubt that disparities in Education follow racial and economic lines. That is today's reality. And it is sad.
What happened to that "Education President" that we had a couple years ago? Is he still around? Oh, my bad. He's sending another $75 billion to Iraq to help put in post offices, zip codes, and a $1 billion dollar embassy!
Quote from waggie945:
It's all about discipline.
We are becoming a Nation of "hamburger-flippers" because we have set the bar way too low at our schools. The poor math and science test scores that you speak of are sad, but very much true. I read recently that only about 6% of our college grads now graduate with engineering degrees, whereas Japan sees 60% of their grads with engineering degrees.
I, as well as Joseph Schumpeter ( Father of the theory: "Creative Destruction" ) have no problem with today's outsourcing. Neither does Alan Greenspan for that matter. But whenever you hear Alan speak at Humphrey-Hawkins, he tries and tries to pound home the fact that we are losing our competitive "edge" in the world because our Educational System is falling apart.
We need to raise the bar for our schools, with better teachers, more funding to get those accredited teachers and programs, better financial accountability for the taxpaying public, and an all-around emphasis on education in our communities.
After-school sports programs are an ideal environment to create and foster those concepts of "discipline and competition". Kids love to compete if given the chance. They need to have that opportunity.
Quote from waggie945:
There aren't too many sports that I can think of that command one to be in the strongest physical shape that water polo does. Ever watch a college game or Olympic team play live?
It's like wrestling, swimming, soccer, football, and basketball all rolled into one, albeit treading water the entire time.
"Yugoslav Ratko Rudic had four Olympic gold medals to back up his grand plan as USA's Olympic Team coach. Tony Azevedo, the much heralded star from Stanford and the "Michael Jordan" of water polo wanted one of his own. So when Rudic suggested his U.S. national men's water polo players practically turn their lives over to the sport, Azevedo went along with the plan. What followed was eight hours of daily practice, and not of the drills and scrimmage variety. No, Rudic's plan called for lifting and swimming: 13,000 yards one day, 6,000-yard sets at maximum sprint the next."
Yeah, it's just a sport for pussys.
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http://gostanford.collegesports.com/sports/m-wpolo/spec-rel/050704aaa.html
