"The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the primary backer for the inBloom educational grading and service (which also acts as a platform for third-party applications), is catching flak for its role in encouraging the outsourcing of US Education. The article (cited by RMS today) argues that though the Common Core is a scary new concept that takes power away from state and local school governance, the real danger is allowing corporate enterprises to have so much control over our classrooms. The Washington Post also reports a case where Pearson included corporate logos and promotional materials inside its test booklets."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Tuesday February 18 2014, @10:32PM
Would you care to enlighten us about when these Good Old Days were?
Bear in mind that throughout most of human history the majority of children have received no formal education whatsoever, and large swaths of the population were completely illiterate and innumerate (sometimes intentionally so, since smart people can be dangerous).
Even if you limit yourself to non-slaves in the US, the history remains atrocious: In the 1800's, kids regularly dropped out of school as soon as they could be useful on the farm. In the early 1900's, kids dropped out of school as soon as they could be put to work in factories. By the 1950's, schools had become propaganda outlets for the military, anti-Communists in government, and major corporations. And by the 1980's, they were seen as a marketing platform, culminating with Channel 1 News forcing kids to watch commercials.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by eravnrekaree on Wednesday February 19 2014, @05:56AM
Today there is concern that Communist propoganda is found in the curriculum, just not stated as such but worked in a subtle manner. Do not underestimate the evil of communism nor the influence of it in the US, which instead of being overt has moved into more of a covert program. They work in a gradual manner under the title Liberal, to advocate an ever expanding role of government in the lives of the people and how wonderful and great the government is and how we must have it control more and more of our lives to protect us and so on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday February 19 2014, @04:12PM
thanks for the laugh McCarthy