No public official is allowed to do anything that might be fun until everything is perfect.

Wow, I totally did not expect her to win. Go Kathy!

I guess even a fifth grader would wonder what Representative Tielhet is doing making expensive and EARLY campaign commercials when class sizes need to be reduced and our public schools are in such shambles. I guess he probably had egg on his face when she won. What harm was there in Kathy Cox going on this game show? At least she showed she was smarter than a fifth grader. That is more than I can say for some of the Democrats who have been running our public schools since God was a boy.

What harm was there in Kathy Cox going on this game show?

No harm. She is entitled to seek national attention - for game show trivia. It's not that 40% of eighth graders failed the CRCT because of her curriculum. Or, that the lower grades' social studies grades were thrown out all together.

The reality check is revealed in students' mid-term grade reports. A failing student is met with two responses: Teachers are willing to meet before or after school for tutoring. But the same teacher said that peer tutoring is not an option because the "other students don't understand it either."

This is one parent who will also praise the teachers now saddled with a no-win situation. Already the classroom instruction has been modified from the state mandated methodology. The October achievement tests will be used by the state to determine how well students are grasping the new curriculum. Teaching to that test, it appears, will better allow students to show sufficient progress. It is a no-win for teachers and students!

At least she showed she was smarter than a fifth grader.

Barely! Folks, the "new and improved curriculum ain't working. And it will not work before our kids are ready to apply for college entrance. Kathy Cox is making excuses and saying that over time the teachers and students will work it out. Parents are not fooled. Students, our kids, are the ones in jeopardy.

You are correct Mr. Stanley, it is our children who are in jeopardy from the new rules set forth by our school systems.
The Doctor

Larry, I have spent the better part of the last two decades in the classroom from teaching sixth graders all the way up to college students, which I teach now. I know that Kathy Cox is not perfect, and her administration is certainly not either. But noone in this debate really wants to lay the blame where it might be best laid, at parents feet. I taught in a private school and was on a public school board, and I can tell you this, parents have to put their foot down and demand more from their kids. I can't tell you how many times I had parents make excuses to me why their children were not doing well in school, specifically in my classes. From I expected too much to they were having a hard time just being kids and trying to balance athletics and classes, I heard it all. I really want parents to get on board here too. I want them to demand more from teachers, but especially I want them to demand more from their children. As parents, we need to tell our kids that they need to stop whining about math and science because it is hard. We need to look them and say, "Tough!" Asian students are embracing technology and science and their school days are full of math, science, and technology. I think our parents need to tell their kids that they need to stop whining about writing essays because without knowing how to read, write, and speak effectively, they will never be taken seriously in an increasingly competitive world. What we really need to do is stop expecting government pencil pushers to do what we as private citizens and parents should have always and already been doing. As a teacher, I can tell you that the biggest battles I faced were not necessarily with the kids, but with many parents who felt like I should lower my expectations to line up with what they heard that other teachers in my subject area were in other schools. Just the other day, I ran in to a former co-worker who told me she left a math teaching position at one of the most prestigous private schools in the Macon area because of the parents, many of whom did not support her attempt to up the bar in her math class. So, Kathy Cox on a game show or Sarah Palin and lipstick on a pig, I just wonder when we will start looking at some of the real problems and formulating real solutions. I would also like to point out that the million dollars Mrs. Cox won was donated to Georgia schools. She split it three ways between the academies for the blind and deaf. I do blame anyone who says we have to teach the test or to the test in order to be successful. That cretainly is not the answer. But to be honest with you, there are a lot of people out there who secretly want that done so that students can pass and get in to the colleges and schools of choice.

Prof. Wells, you are correct in that the parents need to put their foot down with the children and make them see that they have to work harder if they are going to get ahead. The problem we are seeing is from a previous generation where the parents were slack and it has carried into this generation.
The parents need to learn to be parents first.