I actually had to go away for a few days before responding to this, it made me so angry! This absolutely terrifies me as a mother. What will schools be like by the time my son starts high school? I shudder to think! What happened to preparing kids for life outside of school? What happened to teaching them skills they need to survive? Five bucks says that this girl will end up flipping burgers for a living, if she's lucky! Now, it's obviously not just the system that's the problem here. Her mother ought to be smacked until she develops some sense too. If parents won't take an interest in learning, why would the kids? And the schools just want to get rid of them, so there's no way these kids are going to give a damn about learning anything. This problem is much bigger than simply getting funding through standardized testing (which, I'm sorry, is a joke at this point.) When I took my diploma exams (provincial finals in Gr.12) they were so easy it was frightening. I got a 75% on my Bio exam, and I barely showed up for that class, let alone did any of the work. Granted, yes, I am one of the lucky kids that tests well, but I also learned on my own, I read, I wrote, I studied things that interested me. And that's what's missing here; the motivation to find things out for yourself. If your teachers aren't teaching, find it out for yourself! Don't blame anyone but yourself and your lack of interest in learning!
There are of course, exceptions to this rule. If one has some form of learning disablility, fine, they need the help to push themselves as far as they can. But, if one is not in that catagory, there is absolutely no excuse.
Alright, now I'm angry again.