I love the Colbert Report. I know that fake news reports are not the only way to get the news, and I certainly don't rely on them to tell me what is going on in the world, but they do make me laugh and I do agree with the point that Colbert is usually trying to make.
On the January 15th he pointed out a use of statistics that the Bush administration is using. He stated that the armed forced exceeded their recruitment quotas this month by reducing the quota to 700 from 7000. Changing the quota meant that instead of falling 87%below the quota, the quota was exceeded by 23%. All you need to do to meet expectations is to change your expectations.
Colbert also mentioned a dog he used to have that peed all over the living room rug. Instead of trying to stop the dogs peeing, he told the dog to do whatever he wished. His expectations were now met and he had a good dog.
What Colbert says in jest is sadly the truth. We increase the graduation rates by making the passing grade so low that a good 5th or 6th grader could pass. We let kids who do no work make up courses in afternoon and summer school classes, where breathing is the only requirement to pass.
The rantings of a teacher who retired from the classroom but not from education.
1 comment:
Yeah, some of my sixth-graders are like that dog peeing all over the carpet! Thanks for a good laugh this morning (although our lowering of expectations is sad, sad, sad).
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