Here’s the problem: All across America, school districts have been working furiously to bring up their test scores, running like desperate hamsters trapped in endlessly rotating wheels. Because we are running so fast, not nearly enough teachers and administrators on America’s school-improvement teams — or regular folk across the nation, for that matter — are asking critical questions: To what extent are the tests themselves and the scores themselves creating our problems? To what extent are the test-associated curricula themselves and increasingly difficult standards that create these curricula themselves creating our problems? To what extent are the tests and curricula themselves forcing the purchase of inappropriate materials? To what extent are those Common Core-adapted books themselves adding to our problems?

No one asks whether raising test scores is the best or right strategy. We are told higher test scores are necessary to prepare students for college. We are told all students must be made college-ready.

What if we are wrong?

Let me help here. Homework is a good thing. Extra practice helps people remember new concepts. Extra practice helps people store information in long-term memory. Reading books for school is better than texting about life at the mall.

Why do some studies show only marginal benefits from homework? Here’s my take: In order to get ready for state standardized tests that are years above many students academic operating levels, we force a curriculum at students that matches the test. We then teach them material — well, try to teach them material — that remains years above what they are ready to do. We provide minimal remediation.

If someone gave me differential equations homework at this point in my life, I’d be lost. I probably would not even try. If I did try, the poor teacher grading that mess would have a rough night. My lack of progress in differential equations would not be due to my lack of homework, however. My homework in this scenario is virtually irrelevant because I cannot do that homework.

On the other hand, practicing Spanish comparative structures and vocabulary would improve my Spanish without question. I know enough Spanish to work on my own. Even if I am familiar with material on comparisons, creating my own comparisons will provide reinforcement and probably enable me to rattle off those Spanish words with greater ease and fluidity.

Eduhonesty: Some of these studies and factoids drive me nuts. Studies don’t show benefits from homework? My immediate reaction is, “Then it’s the wrong homework!” That lack of benefit will occur either because the work is too easy or too hard. Once I have mastered all the forms of a certain Spanish verb, more homework will provide marginal, if any, benefit. If I have not yet studied Spanish preterit verb forms, giving me homework on those forms will probably just confuse me.

My larger concern relates to testing and curriculum. If the curriculum selected to match the annual state exam is too far over most of our students’ heads, then the homework can be expected to be too demanding for those students. Like my differential equations assignment above, if I can’t do the expected work without cheating, that homework will provide me with no benefit. I’ll get worse than no benefit if I decide to cheat.

But the fault here does not lie with homework itself. Reinforcement benefits students. I believe most of the fault lies with wacky, curricular leaps of faith in the guise of homework.

To quote a candidate who stands far to the left of my own personal political viewpoint:

“One of the things that I have always believed is that, in terms of education, we have to break our dependency on the property tax, because what happens is the wealthiest suburbs can in fact have great schools but poor, inner-city schools cannot. So I think we need equality in terms of how we fund education, and to make sure the federal government plays an active role to make sure that those schools we need it the most get the funds that they deserve.”

Eduhonesty: After No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, I hesitate to let the federal government run anything, even state rest areas along the highway. I also know that equalizing funding would be a huge loser for households were I live. One year, my local district actually asked the middle school PTO to stop fundraising because the district was having trouble figuring out what to do with the money. They did not need extra funds. Seventeen miles north, where I worked, we would have loved that money. Paper? Paper for the copy machine? Art supplies? Books for the kids? Winter clothing for the kids? We could have found so many uses for that money.

Bernie’s right on this one.

The financial inequities between school districts mattered much less 25 years ago. In the past, those differences meant that financially-disadvantaged students had battered books, uglier cafeterias, and fewer enrichment opportunities. But shabbier materials in uglier buildings could still prepare a student for college.

Now, funding differences mean the difference between learning keyboarding in the third grade or the seventh or even ninth grade. Children in wealthy districts prepare PowerPoints and learn Google Docs in elementary school, sometimes years ahead of less financially-fortunate counterparts. Coding may be an elective in financially comfortable districts. In poor districts, computer-based electives are frequently nonexistent, and even the woodworking and French electives are sometimes cut due to lack of funds.

As much as I shudder at the thought of handing the federal government increased responsibility, I do believe that school funding is inherently inequitable as it stands — something we have all known forever — and that those inequities impact our students far more than they did before technology exploded across the U.S. landscape.

Let’s back Bernie on this one.

“Well, maybe it will work.” That’s what I expect counselors and teachers are thinking when they advise marginal students to go to college. “If he just works hard enough…” or “If she gets enough tutoring…” We hope for the best. For one thing, teachers and counselors want the world to offer equality of opportunity to their students, and discrimination screams from between the lines of any college application.

These posts I have been writing? They don’t apply to my own children. Both are debt-light. We paid for those undergraduate college educations. We are not paying for graduate school, but the younger one has a teaching assistantship and tuition waiver, while the older one will end up owing maybe $20,000 for a Harvard Master’s degree. Because she had been on her own and working as a teacher in a low-income district for a few years, the university blessedly looked at her income, not ours, in calculating financial aid. My daughters’ friends have mostly all gone to college on the family dime and those kids are starting adult life free and clear.

So we look at some of our challenges, our kids who qualify for free and reduced-price lunches, kids with dreams but limited academic prowess, and we say, “Here are materials for the college fair.” We talk to kids with frighteningly poor study skills, kids with bloodshot eyes who are squeaking by on the basis of adequate test scores that might have been excellent if they could or would have read their textbook, and we say, “I expect to see you at the college fair next week.” We push. We push because we want to rescue these kids, to somehow set them on the track to the middle-class life we want for them.

If college were free, that attitude would work fine. But college costs buckets of money. More importantly, college calls for a commitment of time and energy, and many high school graduates are  unready for college. Those students who love to listen to Snoop Dogg and Wiz Khalifa may not be ready to sign on too many dotted lines. The Young, Wild & Free should not be going into debt until they have lived on their own for awhile and tried to survive on minimum wage or a few dollars more. Their odds of success will skyrocket once they have been rescued from losing their apartment by a refund check, lost a job because the car died, or simply realized that the money they are earning will never buy the lifestyle they desire.

Let’s think about what this eminently listenable song means for a kid’s college prospects: “Young, Wild & Free” (with Wiz Khalifa) (feat. Bruno Mars)

“So what we get drunk? So what we smoke weed? We’re just having fun. We don’t care who sees. So what we go out? That’s how its supposed to be. Living young and wild and free.”

Obviously, getting drunk and high does not prevent students from going to college. I’ve been down in Champaign-Urbana during Unofficial Day, listening to the beer bottles shattering on the sidewalk throughout the night. But a modicum of maturity is needed to get through college. Students who cannot balance the party lifestyle with academics tend to flunk out, regardless of who is paying their tuition. Students who come from disadvantaged backgrounds usually have to work harder and longer to stay afloat, and may struggle more to balance fun and work once they are on their own.

A modicum of reality should be offered up to our students before we get them to fill out their application papers and loan forms. We need to tell our students the truth. Counselors and teachers share fun stories about college and statistics about the financial advantages of a college education. But too often, we only share the upside. Too few of us risk discouraging students, even when those students should be discouraged. No one wants to rain on a dream.

At the very least, though, we should sketch out a realistic picture of costs and benefits for students so that they understand what they are getting themselves into. A kid can only live so young and wild and free and still manage to graduate. Financially, that first, big adult adventure can carry a long shadow. Student loan debt represents years of financial indentured servitude. The graduation numbers are truly daunting, too.

Sometimes grown-ups have to take the helm. “Well, maybe it will work,” should not lead to a pep talk or another offer to help with applications. Instead, that doubt should begin a serious discussion about the future, one filled with details, cautionary notes and mathematics. A quick internet trip to the Sallie Mae loan debt calculator might be a good place to start.

What we want to be true should not be confused with the truth. The truth is that our middle class and upper class students go off to college with academic advantages, and often with the possibility of graduating debt-free. Middle class and upper class students are more likely to get their degrees. These financially-advantaged students with fewer or no loan dollars to pay back are more likely to get the benefits that come with college graduation. They are also more likely to be ready to tackle the majors that pay big money, such as engineering or computer science. (That’s another post. Lack of STEM teachers and computers in poorer districts create part of this inequity.)

Eduhonesty: I offer free tutoring to students who try to make the college leap, extra hours of math or English remediation and support. If we want to help, I think tutoring students who find themselves in over their heads may give these kids their best chance of succeeding at higher education. If we are going to push marginal students to sign on those Perkins dotted-lines, we should be prepared to stay in touch and help them as they navigate the unfamiliar waters of college.

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I’m sick out here. I’m missing potlucks, scrabble games and banquets as I try to protect other people. My husband is beginning to sound concerned for his own health, and he’s no worrier. I’ll see the doctor this morning.

I have had a couple of posts that hit the blog before they were done due to optimistic  scheduling. My sincere apologies for that.

Taken from an article at http://finance.yahoo.com/news/debt-collectors-went-student-loan-113015195.html.
“Debt Collectors Went After a Student Loan Debt… 50 Years Later” by Christine DiGangi.

Young people aren’t the only ones plagued with student loan debt problems. Recently, an Arizona man found a debt collection notice in his mailbox, which said he owed more than $1,900 on student loans he took out in the 1960s, reports 3TV in Phoenix.

About 50 years ago, after serving in the Navy, Ralph Caswell borrowed three loans totaling about $2,500. Caswell told 3TV he repaid the student loans decades ago, and while the collection agency shows his principal balance as zero, it claims Caswell owes about $1,400 in interest, $87 for a penalty and $362 in fees. Caswell said the agency asked him to provide proof he paid off the loans, but he doesn’t have those records. That’s not too surprising, considering how long ago he said he paid off the debt.

This situation suggests you should keep that type of documentation forever: alongside your birth certificate, Social Security card and passport, there’s your student loan statement. While that may sound a little overboard, it’s important to note that student loan debt is treated differently than other debts in many respects. These loans can generally not be written off in bankruptcy, and the consequences of failing to repay student loan debt can follow you for years. If you don’t repay federal student loans, the government can take some of your wages, seize your tax refunds or garnish Social Security payments.

Eduhonesty: I suspect many of my readers have outstanding student loans. This is a public courtesy post. We have had to deal with my daughter’s student loans in the last few years and I cannot think how many times we had to send duplicate copies of the same forms to the same fax number because no one could locate the previous fax.

KEEP ALL THOSE FORMS! This post was inspired by the nice young woman at the dermatologist who spent over 10 minutes trying to find me an appointment time. Given the current state of technology, the world ought to work more seamlessly than it does. I strongly recommend putting your proof of student loan payments in a safe-deposit box or similar place.

I don’t want to see the student debt crisis turn into the next version of The Big Short. But if we do nothing, I don’t see how these gargantuan, trillion dollar numbers do not eventually bite us. What can we do?

I’d like to see the inspiring film where we establish rational vocational and technical options for kids, along with tutoring centers to help kids who discover late that perhaps they should have been listening all along. I am available to help with casting.

Brad Pitt can have any role he likes.

http://www.businessinsider.com/student-loan-debt-state-of-the-union-2016-1 is one of a number of sources on this fact, first spied on Yahoo.

Despite trying to degloomify the blog a bit, I can’t let this factoid slip past us. Forbes reported we were at $1.2 billion awhile back. I do trust Forbes. Whether we are talking $1.1 trillion or $1.296 trillion, though, we are talking real money. My husband has an MBA from the University of Chicago and he thinks student loan debt is the next whammy that’s going to hit the economy up the side of the head.

I suspect he may be right. Debt per se will not be the problem. We are a nation in debt and as long as we can pay our debts, or at least our interest, the economy will not be on the ropes simply because we keep using other people’s money. But many households operating with this philosophy have finally hit the day when disposable income no longer covers minimum payments. Student loan debt is particularly tricky because you cannot discharge this debt in bankruptcy.

Loans are not evil. Loans make it possible to own homes. They allow students to attend colleges and universities that would otherwise be outside of their reach. When loans are assumed with understanding and purpose, loan debt opens up opportunities.

That said, student loans can also be the boggart hiding in the closet. College is not some magic spell we can cast to create buckets of gold galleons. A fair number of anthropology, sociology and art history graduates now living in their parents’ basements and attics can attest to this fact. A greater number of non-graduates can back up those would-be anthropologists, sociologists and art historians.

Our non-graduates are the real victims here. Anthropology and gender studies graduates can go to law school or pursue other advanced degrees. I know an anthropology grad who is currently studying for an advanced degree in publishing at Oxford College in England. How exciting is that?! Doors open for college graduates. Those same doors remain closed to the student who never quite got that sheepskin, however.

We push and push college at kids. We tell them they all have to attend a college or university. I have watched as high school counselors commandeered my bilingual, high school social studies classes to tell students about the necessity of college. Everyone got the message, but not everyone should have gotten that message. A number of those kids were destined to succeed, such as one mathematically gifted new arrival from Eastern Europe. But others were years from ready for college. I knew that. Anyone who read their papers should have known that. I am not saying these students will not eventually succeed, but they are not ready to take on any boggarts yet.

The downside of fluffy, pie-in-the-sky dreams? Let’s look at a real, concrete example, a friend of a former student who came to me for help I could not provide. That young, Hispanic man had taken out $26,000 in loans to study criminal justice, but he was unable to handle the work. He did not finish. He’s not a cop. But he still owes that loan. Assuming a 10 year term and 3.9% interest, he owes around $262 each month.

According to the Huff Post Business section of January 13, 2016 (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/24/minimum-wage-increase-numbers_n_5868848.html), the “weekly take-home pay for a 40-hour-a-week minimum-wage employee, after Social Security and Medicare taxes, amounts to $267.80. That adds up to $13,926.38 per year, or just over $1,150 per month. The commonly cited minimum wage annual salary for a 40-hour-a-week worker is $15,080 — before taxes.”

At minimum wage, that man is working one week each month just to pay off student loan debt.

I recognize I just quantified the dilemma that leads high school counselors to wander the halls of their schools, saying, “College? College? Can I help you get into college. Would you like help with that application? Would you like to learn more about colleges? How can I get you into college? Can I help you with your loan form?” I support increasing the minimum wage because I’m damned if I can figure out how people live on $1,150 per month — especially since they rarely get that full amount unless they have two jobs. Employers don’t customarily give 40-hour weeks to minimum wage employees because at forty hours employers are often obliged to provide benefits.

But that non-cop has not profited from college — quite the opposite so far. And lots of people are failing out of college. Here’s a little-known and definitely scary statistic from CNN Money: “More than half of middle class kids who start college fail to earn a bachelor’s degree within six to eight years.” The graduation rate for lower-income students is only 20%. If we throw in associate’s degrees earned along the way, those graduation rates rise, and some students will finish later, but we are still left with many students who simply do not or cannot finish their degrees.

Eduhonesty: The do-nots I will leave alone. I want to talk about the cannots. Many of these failures are predictable! The ACT has estimated the ACT test score that indicates college readiness to be around 21 points. A kid who has attended U.S. schools for his or her entire life who gets a 16 on the ACT has no business going to college — and we have zero business encouraging this kid to go. Frankly, that advice constitutes educational malpractice.

We should provide realistic advice. I tell students who are academically unready for college or the university to start at a community college part-time and add on more classes when they see what they can manage on top of other life responsibilities. I try to steer them away from for-profits and some trade schools, in favor of more-affordable, community colleges.

We need to have honest conversations with our students. A dream is a wish your heart makes, but loans last long after the dreams are gone.

I have my choice of shows at the moment. Various versions of murder are everywhere, only some committed by zombies, ghosts and other supernatural creatures. In the mundane world, I can watch CSI fighting off the Russian mafia. On another channel, some poor fellow is embarrassed about how badly he performed in bed, but never fear. He and his disappointed lady are going to try again. Dear Abby would be challenged to help that Trojan prince who stole another man’s wife, setting off a famous war of epic proportions. I am sure the prince would have behaved better if he could have seen the future, but Trojan princes had no time machines. I happen to know how this one ends, but I might surf by; Brad Pitt never looked better than he did in the Trojan War. Moving down the crawl, a mobster is demanding a retired car thief get him 50 cars or else he will kill the guy’s brother, a man who failed 50-Car-Theft 101 apparently.

I could try pseudo-reality TV, of course, flipping on WWW Monday Night Raw, two hours of fighting that stems from some Royal Rumble Match, or perhaps Cops. I always enjoy hearing “Bad Boys.” I keep stumbling on a show titled, Losing your Memory. It comes after a show touting the Amazing Shark Vacuum and before, How to Avoid a Facelift. If I stay up until ten, Losing Your Memory plays again. The producers must figure they need to keep rerunning the same show every few hours to help out the viewers who forgot what they saw last time. At eleven, Losing Your Memory is followed by Sexy Adult Toy Shopping. I guarantee America that adolescent kids of today know exponentially more about sex than my peers and I did when we were the same age, despite the fact that I had a friend who worked at Elmo’s Book Store. We’ve come a long way since the prickly, plastic objects on Elmo’s shelves, strange shapes probably designed by extraterrestrial creatures who obviously, to quote a favorite Star Trek line, had “never seen a human before.” I am not sure I even want to know the plot of Bulging Brides.

I like the idea of the medical student with the special blood who is embroiled in a battle between vampires and werewolves. The unlucky daughter of a mob boss who had her decapitated head mailed to a publisher does not appeal to me, but I am stopped briefly by a detective’s observation that cross-dressing goes hand in hand with masochism. Where is his evidence? America believes these fictions, so I hope someone did not just make up that surprising tidbit. On Family Guy, Meg convinced Brian to take her SATs for her, but he did not do well. Peter then decided to share the pleasures of being stupid, whatever those are. The second Family Guy episode in the crawl has Meg getting a modeling job in the foot-fetish industry while Stewie and Brian hit the open road. And that’s just a slice of cable. I haven’t checked “On Demand” yet. If I put Netflix on, I can watch a comedy called Danger 5, where Adolph Hitler regularly … (does something, but I don’t want to print a spoiler). I recommend Danger 5, an Australian action comedy television series. If you like tasteless, absurdist comedies set in implausible, alternative universes, I suggest you check this show out.

I don’t even want to start with Netflix, On Demand and YouTube. It’s not yet 8:00 PM. All across America, kids who are not gaming are hitting the OK button as they pick their favorites. If I were a mom of young kids today, I’d push cooking and fashion shows. Bring on the Kids Baking Championship, Chopped and Cupcake Wars, along with Project Junior Runway. I’d rather my kids were watching Bar Rescue or even the Amazing Shark Vacuum than abductions of young children, murdered women, and high school shooting reunions. One of my old infomercial favs was that liquid nitrogen freezing device, the one where the guy climbed a ladder and dropped a frozen roast that shattered into jagged pieces all over the floor. I haven’t seen that one in awhile, maybe because liquid nitrogen can explode violently in the right (or wrong) circumstances. Like Puffer Fish sushi, I avoid liquid nitrogen devices. I recommend readers do the same.

Having studied the crawl, I recommend Dr. Who and Star Trek, along with METV. Science fiction and golden oldies provide a kinder, gentler universe — once we manage to avoid the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones anyway. Ummm… and a bunch of other apocalypse shows, I guess. Nobody ever had happier dreams because they watched 12 Monkeys or The Colony, that’s for sure.

Eduhonesty: No comment, I suppose. I’ve watched and read too much apocalyptic fiction to be self-righteous. I have Chiller on my favorites list.

Maybe I have one comment. Educators and parents need to keep in mind the media stew that our children live in today. With media-streaming devices everywhere today, kids can always find another viewing outlet. Parents and teachers should be having conversations about media content with kids.

We can at least try to ride the bull.

BTW: I am glad so many readers seem to have enjoyed the post following this one.

If I knew where this photo originated, I’d give credit.

I can’t even guess how many times I have looked at rosy-cheeked kids in a classroom, put my hand on their foreheads and thought or even said, “Whoaa!” I’d promptly send those kids to the nurse, but by that time much of a morning or day might have gone by. If a kid sits quietly and the only obvious sign of the flu is rosy cheeks, possibly attributable to gym, teachers can miss the tell-tale signs.

Now I do support sending some “sick” kids to school. If we let all of the “I”m just not feeling very good” crowd stay home, a small, but persistent, group of kids would miss weeks of instruction while playing on their PlayStations. After a few days of “just not feeling well,” a kid should be at the doctor’s office or at school.

But real symptoms? Those kids should be kept home from school. I am home sick today and should be, although I wanted to go to a potluck this weekend. While I was making up my mind, though, the thought of an old man who appears to suffer from severe emphysema or another form of COPD came to mind. I’ve never intruded so far as to ask his medical history, but I know he struggles to breathe. He often goes to potlucks. I stayed home.

That bit on the bottom of the cartoon about the medically fragile? We have many fragile students. A few years ago, one boy in our hallways had to drag an oxygen tank with him everywhere. Students may have compromised immune systems or weak hearts. Inhalers are common. These kids need to be protected from communicable illnesses.

Eduhonesty: I fully understand that keeping kids home can be challenging. Many service workers lose wages if they stay home and risk getting in trouble at work for missing shifts. Those workers frequently don’t get paid for work they miss. (That’s one reason why so many of us get sick during this season, I believe. That rosy-cheeked girl at the McDonald’s drive thru or the drycleaners? She may be popping Advil and the odds are that she would love to be in bed, but she has to pay for Christmas somehow.) Communicable, sick kids should not be in school.

I recommend preventative strikes. If Danny seems to be getting sick, you might call home to tell his mom to watch him, and then remind her that feverish kids will be sent home from school. If Maria has been complaining about her ear, contacting mom to suggest a possible doctor appointment can save time and misery for Maria and others. When you are stuck for the day with that sick student who has no fever, I’d put the hand sanitizer near that kid and encourage good hygiene. Depending on the weather and situation, I also recommend opening the windows if you can do so without freezing your classroom.

P.S. For parents, I should add that some of the happiest days in a kid’s childhood may be sick days. Laying on the couch, watching TV with mom or dad, and eating cookies while some adult takes your temperature every so often and makes you special cocoa to go with your soup … days like that create lifetime memories of love.