UNICEF Report: USA and Britain the Industrialized World's the Worst Places for Kids!
Our children are our future.
So, is our future looking pretty break?
Aren't we spending more on education than any other country, even though we derive little to show for our "generosity?"
What the UNICEF Report Reveals…
National Public Radio (NPR) reported that the United States and (maybe "not so Great") Britain scored "dead last" among industrialized nations on "the best countries to live in if you were a child" report.
This rating for the US and GB was so bad that the NPR writers dubbed this study "The Worst Places to Live" if you are a child.
Link to the NPR Article
UNICEF measured 40 factors…
"UNICEF says an examination of 40 factors, such as poverty, deprivation, happiness, relationships, and risky or bad behavior puts the United States and Britain at the bottom of a list of 21 economically developed nations.
The UNICEF report sought to assess children's well-being in developed countries by measuring a number of factors, including health, education, poverty, family relationships, and bad or risky behavior. Children were also asked to say whether they were happy."
Source: U.S. on List of UNICEF's Worst Countries for Kids: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7407245
More results…
"The United States fared worst of all 21 countries in health and safety, measured by rates of infant mortality and accidents and injuries.
The United States and Britain were lowest overall in the category of behavior and risks, meaning that American and British children are more likely to use drugs, drink alcohol and be sexually active than children elsewhere."
Source: U.S. on List of UNICEF's Worst Countries for Kids: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7407245
Other, poorer countries, such as Poland and the Czech Republic were rated better than "rich countries" like the United States and Great Britain.
"Professor Jonathan Bradshaw from the University of York in England led the research into the project. He was scathing about the failures of successive British governments.
"We've failed to invest in child health, in child education, in child care," Bradshaw says. "It's the result of neglect, which other countries have not done… they've just spent more on their children, despite the fact they're not as rich as we are."
Source: U.S. on List of UNICEF's Worst Countries for Kids: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7407245
The Testing Craze: The "Smoke Screen" that Obfuscates Our Lack of Investment In our Children
We care about our children and their future, and we have plenty of laws, and bills, and the bills from our testing programs to prove it.
But tests fail to create a happy life for a child. And tests fail to create working-world skills that make happy employers delighted to hire our high school graduates. (See our January 2007 article Workforce Readiness: The Tripe Behind the Hype
The problem with this investment in testing not only is that we measure the wrong things, in the wrong way (See our article on The Flaws, Fallacies and Foolishness of Benchmark Testing, but that test taking skills don't win jobs or make employers any money.
But, testing to show that we are making sound investments in education is a "smoke screen" for spending minimal amounts of money, and for spending money on the wrong things.
Testing to learn if we are making progress seems as though we are traveling on a rational course. But, does spending money on investments that will never pay off, pan out or bring in a reasonable return seem rational?
But, if wasting money on testing were the real issue, then we could overcome this obstacle by just "Saying No! to Tests".
The Conspiracy to Commit "Stingyness"
People who enjoy the highest standard of living in the world…people who consume more per capita of the worlds resources than anyone else…people who pride themselves on giving their children the "best things in life"…seldom face the fact that, while we are generous (to the extreme) with our own children, we are "tightwad, penurious misers when it comes to supporting the collective good of our children.
Why else have we not broken the shackles of our tradition of "providing education on the cheap", a process that has changed little since the days of the "unmarried school Marm" and the "one room schoolhouse?"
Why else do we allow bankers, real estate brokers, lawyers, physicians, mechanics, truck drivers, house wives, business leaders, even sanitation workers…instead of teachers…to run our schools?
A farmer, rancher, butcher, baker, candlestick maker, Native American Chief…can all be school board members; but a teacher cannot.
Why?
Teacher know what it takes to run schools
and
Teachers love children
Therefore,
Teachers will run up costs and "break the budget" by managing schools the way that schools need to be managed
What the "Testing Smoke Screen" is Hiding
The testing model scientific, psychological, valid; but the rendition perpetrated against children in our schools is actually a "quality control model that is borrowed from the manufacturing industry."
Ask yourself these questions:
Do we want every toaster, computer, automobile, light bulb, TV, VCR or DVD Player to…
- Live up to its own unique potential?
- Be all that it can be?
- Make its own space and shine for all to see?
- Actualize itself?
- Live longer, glow brighter, run faster, dance higher, play louder, be stronger, excel in a unique, special area?
Or, do we want all products in the same cohort to:
- Work, act and operate the same?
- Be like all the other members of the lot?
- Meet standards, fit in uniform packaging, and contribute to "brand" recognition?
- Distinguish itself with uniform quality?
- Last at least as long as the warranty period, glow to specifications, run uniformly, play the same, be the same, excel in providing a uniform user experience?
Marching children in lockstep to the cost-effective production drum, holding them to production standards (i.e., high-stakes test controls), and griping that non-standard products (such as Special Education students) cost to much…exemplify the lack of investment that the UNICEF Report identifies.
Here is a novel idea: "Let's spend just as much on our children as we do for defense, i.e., about 12% of our Gross National Product (GDP).
This would increase our investment in our children by three or four hundred percent. This would "cost a lot."
But, our children are worth the investment.
