Shakopee Valley News - Schools - Comments

This is great news! I hope

allell — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:24:10 -0500

This is great news! I hope they pass these new sports.

We never had a Grand March

Ruth Anne Maddox — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:56:46 -0500

We never had a Grand March at my high school in Indiana, either. Prom usually was held at a country club in the next town over and ticket-holding couples just showed up there for dinner, dancing and photos.

A Grand March must be a

Justmeagain — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:37:04 -0500

A Grand March must be a regional thing..back East I never heard of one. We went to the gym and used the cafeteria for refreshments. Our entry way was in the lower level and the committee transformed it into a waterfall. Pictures for a small fee were taken at site.

With the increase in numbers

allell — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 07:49:30 -0500

With the increase in numbers of students over the years, it is wise to consider these additions. My daughter has been in dance for 8 years and would love to participate in competitive dance. There are three dance studios in Shakopee now. I would guess that there are a lot of girls that would love the opportunity to show their skills.

Well said Shannon. You will

chuck.berg — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 22:00:32 -0500

Well said Shannon. You will see no tears of regret from school leaders around the state.

And lets not forget the

kidjon — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 19:30:41 -0500

And lets not forget the Clinton's "Goals 2000". All States would do well by opting out of NCLB, Goals 2000, Outcome Based Education or whatever education plan that comes out of DC. The Federal government does not belong in education, it is a State issue. I believe the Dept of Education should be abolished just like Ronald Reagan wanted to do. The Federal government being involved in education goes like this; "Residents of Minnesota, give politicians and bureaucrats in Washington DC $10 for education, and we will give you $6 back". Not to mention all the strings that come attached to that $6 you are getting back.

No matter their political

sfiecke — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 12:51:28 -0500

No matter their political stripe, no one I know likes NCLB. Educators hate it because they have to teach to the test and schools can be flagged (and later punished) for matters out of their control- like how many students decide to skip the day of the test. And if you happen to have a bunch of kids new to the country who are still learning English and they fail the test, it fails the whole school. That doesn't make sense.

The tests don't seem to measure progress of individual students; instead they just seem to take snapshots of a particular group at a particular time. The federal government has had to contantly fix the program to try to make it work. Why would Minnesota let itself be kept hostage to a program no one believes is actually helping children?? (And if you think it is helping, please speak up, because I haven't heard an argument for the program).

The only argument I've heard for keeping NCLB is that Minnesota would lose federal dollars. Crazy how the federal government can bribe a state to actually do harm to its students.

If Minnesota is really about improving the education of our students, dumping NCLB should be worth the financial penalty (which some argue would be neglible because of the dollars wasted on implementing NCLB). If enough states say NO, maybe the federal government will finally scrap NCLB.

An even bigger question is why we let the federal gov. dictate at all how Minnesota educates its children. The state seems to do a much better job at this than other states. The federal programs (remember Outcome Based Education) only end up being scrapped later b/c they prove to be ineffective and too much of a one size fits all solution.

Wouldn't it be better to experiment with such concepts on a per state basis before mandating the whole nation follow them? I'm no educator, but that seems like a pretty common sense approach.

Sounds like a good plan.

Tom Schardin — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:53:21 -0500

Sounds like a good plan.

It should be noted that

Pat Minelli — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 14:15:26 -0500

It should be noted that McBroom did not take salary hikes for quite some time when the district was in a money pinch.

Doesn't the Shakopee school

goldengopher — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:50:39 -0500

Doesn't the Shakopee school district typically pay school district employees generally lower than other districts of similar size? With the exception of teachers and now most administrators, who do receive salaries equal to districts in the metro area, does this pay increase have a ripple effect for custodians, secretaries, and other school staff? When it comes to negotiation time McBroom has always suggested he get the same increase as everyone else in the district. I'm sure negotiations for other groups just became more difficult for the district. For the record, I do think McBroom earns the salary increase and should receive more. I question the timing.

Doesn't the Shakopee school

goldengopher — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:32:45 -0500

Stereotyping allowed at

kidjon — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 05:38:31 -0600

Stereotyping allowed at Shako High? Look at this picture, it is all stereotyping. You have someone with a big afro hair due giving the "black power" hand signal. What would happen if a white student gave a 'Heil Hitler" hand signal. Then, you have a student dressed as a "gang bangin" street thug flashing gang signs. Then, there is an Asian. Blacks and Asians are notorious for not getting along in inner cities. What the hell is going on in alma mater?

(another opinion)well i used

basketballstar213 — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:41:53 -0600

(another opinion)well i used to go to shakopee high school and i don't agree with katrine. i believe that it is not just shakopee high school that has that kind of dancing.that is how kids dance these days whether they are at school or hanging out. if someone does not like the way we are dancing they should go to an authority at the school and talk to them about it, and if you are truly affended by it then don't go there. that sounds very rude but people don't always get what they want. and if you are going to make a comment about it that people are going to read then don't make mean about it because you can still voice your opinion without being mean.that has offended some of the kids who attend shakopee high school, some of which do not dance like that but now have a label because of a few kids. it wasnt the nicest thing to say about us kids that go there so people need to learn how to be kind.that does not allow some of the kids to do what they are doing but maybe that is their way of expressing their opinion. and how do you expect them to react when they are called names? i am not trying to be mean about this but i think people just need to cheer up because its not hurting anybody. if that did hurt somebody then it is a different case.

Even though I minored in

Ruth Anne Maddox — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 08:06:37 -0600

Even though I minored in English -- and had been speaking, reading and writing the language for years -- I feel like I learned more about English and verb conjugation during German classes.

My English classes seemed to be boring and repetitive (memorizing isn't necessarily learning) and I wish I'd been exposed to learning a foreign language earlier.

I agree English is our main

sfiecke — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:24:15 -0600

I agree English is our main language and everyone should learn to speak it. HOWEVER, there are so many benefits of being dual-lingual. There is no point, really, waiting to learn a second language until high school. By then, it is so much harder for our brains to soak it in. The ideal time to learn it is in the younger grades. Plenty of other countries do it this way and those students have no problem with fluency and proficiency in their home tongue. Being multi-lingual actually makes you smarter because of the effect on the brain and it can help you learn your own language better because you understand how languages work (when I was in high school, no one really understood what a direct object or indirect object was until they had to understand what those were when learning German).

My foreign friends who learned two (or more) languages growing up are better at English than a lot of Americans I know. I really doubt learning a second language is going to make Americans less English proficient. That's a separate problem schools need to address.

The other benefit of a program like this is it might reinforce Spanish for Hispanic students. The children of foreigners (including my grandparents) often lose the language, or their parents don't allow them speak it in the home for fear their kid won't learn English. I think that's a travesty and a waste.

So, I think we need to think bigger than this is just some program of non-assimiliation. These kids (foreign and not) will learn English. But they may not be proficient in a secondary language without programs like these. If we are going to compete on a world basis we should do what other countries do. And that will mean more than teaching kids just Spanish, German and French. We need a diversity of languages taught, especially like Chinese, Japanese, Hindi and Arabic. And we should be offering them sooner than high school.