Comments on: Just because they go to a competitive doesn’t mean they have been taught to think http://www.texasedspectator.com/2007/09/23/just-because-they-go-to-a-competitive-doesnt-mean-they-have-been-taught-to-think/ Comments on the state of education in Texas Mon, 04 Jan 2010 22:53:04 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 By: kodyd http://www.texasedspectator.com/2007/09/23/just-because-they-go-to-a-competitive-doesnt-mean-they-have-been-taught-to-think/comment-page-1/#comment-465 kodyd Sat, 24 Nov 2007 02:13:10 +0000 http://www.texasedspectator.com/2007/09/23/just-because-they-go-to-a-competitive-doesnt-mean-they-have-been-taught-to-think/#comment-465 In response: i will start off by agreeing with you that cheating is at an all time high but that you are making very biased and wrong assumptions about me as well as this legislation. I very much agree with your sentences "Why is there only one state school that everyone wants to get into? Why haven’t we created a system of top tier schools to meet the obvious demand in Texas?". i completely agree that the real problem is not being addressed. This legislation is there strictly to avoid spending the money needed to deal with the desparity that exists between Texas schools. When i talk about working hard i am not talking about how long one does their homework or how hard they try but what they accomplish. i went to two highschools, both for two years. At my first school i was in the top 7%, and i didnt have to try hard or accomplish anything, without trying i could have easliy made the top ten percent. i then moved to an extremely competitive school. i measure how competitive a school is by how hard it is to make the top ten percent. If you take all advanced classes and make more then 2 B's you are out of the top 5%. I went from top 7% to top 32%. I havent got a B since the move but that only got me to top 14%. Kids at those rural schools who don't always have the opportunity need to be given the chance, but you can not ignore the fact that some of the Texas schools are so horrrible many very undeserving kids get in, and many (both from competitive and non-competitive schools) our shut out. You talk about the SAT. i agree that should play very little if any roll in colleges admissions but regardless it does. And i had no tutoring for the SAT, the class costed 400$ and i dont have that money. You imply that im rich as well with that comment, I am not. I've seen the desparity in texas highschools because ive been on both sides. To say that i am un-biased would be insincere, because i obviously am, but diversity represents more then the color of ones skin (im african american so dont call me some racist white girl)but where they come from. Because only 5% of UT is from out of the state true diversity is actually decreasing. So dont play me off as a typical rich city girl. Also- every class that was available at my rich school now was available at the poor rural school i went to. The majority of those kids just strictly chose not to take them, so the availablity was there. In response:
i will start off by agreeing with you that cheating is at an all time high but that you are making very biased and wrong assumptions about me as well as this legislation. I very much agree with your sentences “Why is there only one state school that everyone wants to get into? Why haven’t we created a system of top tier schools to meet the obvious demand in Texas?”. i completely agree that the real problem is not being addressed. This legislation is there strictly to avoid spending the money needed to deal with the desparity that exists between Texas schools.

When i talk about working hard i am not talking about how long one does their homework or how hard they try but what they accomplish. i went to two highschools, both for two years. At my first school i was in the top 7%, and i didnt have to try hard or accomplish anything, without trying i could have easliy made the top ten percent. i then moved to an extremely competitive school. i measure how competitive a school is by how hard it is to make the top ten percent. If you take all advanced classes and make more then 2 B’s you are out of the top 5%. I went from top 7% to top 32%. I havent got a B since the move but that only got me to top 14%. Kids at those rural schools who don’t always have the opportunity need to be given the chance, but you can not ignore the fact that some of the Texas schools are so horrrible many very undeserving kids get in, and many (both from competitive and non-competitive schools) our shut out.

You talk about the SAT. i agree that should play very little if any roll in colleges admissions but regardless it does. And i had no tutoring for the SAT, the class costed 400$ and i dont have that money. You imply that im rich as well with that comment, I am not. I’ve seen the desparity in texas highschools because ive been on both sides. To say that i am un-biased would be insincere, because i obviously am, but diversity represents more then the color of ones skin (im african american so dont call me some racist white girl)but where they come from. Because only 5% of UT is from out of the state true diversity is actually decreasing. So dont play me off as a typical rich city girl.

Also- every class that was available at my rich school now was available at the poor rural school i went to. The majority of those kids just strictly chose not to take them, so the availablity was there.

]]> By: Kimberly http://www.texasedspectator.com/2007/09/23/just-because-they-go-to-a-competitive-doesnt-mean-they-have-been-taught-to-think/comment-page-1/#comment-466 Kimberly Wed, 26 Sep 2007 03:01:40 +0000 http://www.texasedspectator.com/2007/09/23/just-because-they-go-to-a-competitive-doesnt-mean-they-have-been-taught-to-think/#comment-466 How does the commenter know the other schools are less competitive? I didn't even consider going to a large state university - I knew it would be the wrong fit. I went to a smaller liberal arts university. I had graduated from one of the most competitive HS in the greater Houston area. I found many of the classmates that had come from smaller "less competitive" HS's, were better prepared than I was for university. How does the commenter know the other schools are less competitive? I didn’t even consider going to a large state university – I knew it would be the wrong fit. I went to a smaller liberal arts university. I had graduated from one of the most competitive HS in the greater Houston area. I found many of the classmates that had come from smaller “less competitive” HS’s, were better prepared than I was for university.

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