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.........follow the Yellow Brick road........

Well, the hokey pokey is a little... childish...  The Macarana, now, yes, you can definately count, as well as the chicken dance "Dadadada da, dadadada dada, da da dadda dad da da da da..."  I'm in my office right now flapping my arms and trying to count the da's in the chicken dance.  I hope no one walfs in....

Yours or hers?

"WERE"S MY WALLET!"

Since my dad is not on this thread, I will answer for him.  It's right where you left it, now be quiet and do the chicken dance.

DA DA DA DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA DA DA DA, DA DA DA DA DA DA DA DA A A A A....

Hello?  I'm still here, Lara!!!!!!!  What a blow....

And I wasn't refering to angry at the kids, but angry at the system they have to deal with!

Mine just started 1st and, at 6, hell, in kindergarten, was in "talent pool."  While I'm glad she is smart, I'm wondering about what that will instill in her.... However, that is better than the other option of not being taught to you level, so, what is a person to do?  The problem I have with it, and actually with some of the educators I have spoken with, is that we are now soley focused on teaching how to pass achievement tests - My father has designed them for 40 years, so I know how completely arbitrary they can be. 

Instead of teaching reasoning skills, we are actually teaching how to beat standardized tests and not the material and concepts the test is supposed to be looking for.  I know 8th graders who actually have classes on how to take SAT's.  The sad thing is, I think most of the people involved, particularly the educators, know how messed up it is, but most of the parents, who vote and get involved, don't, so the polititians do what the outspoken constituants want them to do... A mess in my mind, at least.

Just my 2 cents.