Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Confusion

Hey the Good News..... or is it Bad News is that
in some ways New Zealand is as confused as we are.

http://artichoke.typepad.com/artichoke/2009/07/what-can-recommendation-systems-in-museums-teach-us-about-underachievement-in-school.html

1 comment:

  1. New Zealand is 14% Maori. So in that respect there is a lot of interest in reforming education to meet the needs of those students better, just as there is here (e.g. Washington's Hispanics 13%).

    Eastern Washington is an entirely separate issue. Where you have teenage Hispanics who don't speak English (at all) being enrolled in English-only classes. A flavor of racism that seems to abound in rural communities.

    It is perhaps surprising for some that Hispanics educated in California who find themselves transplanted in Washington find themselves transported back in time and thought. There is a significant difference in culture between these two groups and they are treated quite differently by their respective state agencies.

    I would say there was far more 'deep poverty' in Washington and the 'official cure' is something more akin to scientology's advice for treating headaches - like abstaining from all sex. I've seen people who were quite literally starving themselves to death just to live in Washington.

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