Friday, May 30, 2008

Bill Gates- a man that can see the future. Is it really what we want?

High school, not necessarily the best times for most, but always a period of development. This is where our next generations' ideals, ethics, and most importantly knowledge is shaped and molded.

Well, it turns out that Bush's No Child Left Behind law isn't picking up all the children that are, literally, left behind. For the poor areas of New York, a large, underfunded Bronx high school, Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies (MACS), at one point had more than the average 30% adolescent dropout rate! Bill and Melinda Gates are helping put a stop to this, according to a Newsweek article. They are supporting the idea that smaller schools would help not let young adults slip through the cracks.

The idea is that the majority of the large, dysfunctional high schools in New York would be replaced by smaller ones. Morris would be replaced by five brand new schools: the School for Excellence, the High School for Violin and Dance, Bronx Leadership Academy, Bronx International High School and the Morris Academy for Collaborative Studies. Bill Gates commented on this, "For too long we have relied on an outdated model to educate our young people. New York City is demonstrating how we can bring our schools into the 21st century to make sure that all students, not just a select few, are prepared for college and the working world."

Finally, a man that understands the people, rather than our well-to-do, Yale graduate, George W. Bush, Jr. This man puts his money where it ought to be! I remember my graduating class, from a small town in Texas. Although, the school was a 5A school, if I remember correctly. My, unmistakably large, freshman classmates dwindled from over 900 students to a graduating class just under 500 students. I will not even begin start to talk about the lack of funding education in the science area.

So, I ask Americans, when are our children going to get the education that they deserve? And actually get no child left behind? Our children are our future. Is this what we really want?

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