NationStates Jolt Archive

Education Standards Act

Education and Creativity - Educational
Mild

BELIEVING that every person should have a grasp of fundamental skills.

BEMOANING the failure of many, including ambassadors, to write a simple paragraph, work out budgets and read whatever is placed in front of them.

ALARMED at the formation of an underground terror group called 'The Grammar Nazis' (GN) whose attacks on the unlearned is merciless.

NOTING that the easiest method of purging the GN is by educating and therefore eradicating their target.

BELIEVING it will also prevent health problems such as headaches, depression, wall-induced head injuries and eye-strain.

HEREBY MANDATES that:
A. Every 5 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Recite their nation's alphabet.
Write their name.
Count to 100 and do simple addition and subtraction.
Write a simple sentence.
Read a 10 page book with pictures.
B. Every 10 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Do simple multiplication and division.
Understand percentages and simple fractions.
Understand the use and misuse of punctuation such as the comma, apostraphe, conjunctions, capital letters etc.
Use a dictionary and thesaurus.
Differenciate between words with the same sounds but different spellings.
Read a short story.
Understand different methods and styles of storytelling such as similes, poetry, rhetoric, sarcasm and formal letter writing.

HEREBY MANDATES that:
A. Every 5 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Recite their nation's alphabet.
Write their name.
Count to 100 and do simple addition and subtraction.
Write a simple sentence.
Read a 10 page book with pictures.

What about 5-year-olds from cultures that use non-alphabetic scripts?
Was the requirement "Count to 100" meant to implicity imply "in base 10", or is that detail meant to be flexible?

HEREBY MANDATES that:
A. Every 5 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Recite their nation's alphabet.
Write their name.
Count to 100 and do simple addition and subtraction.
Write a simple sentence.
Read a 10 page book with pictures.
B. Every 10 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Do simple multiplication and division.
Understand percentages and simple fractions.
Understand the use and misuse of punctuation such as the comma, apostraphe, conjunctions, capital letters etc.
Use a dictionary and thesaurus.
Differenciate between words with the same sounds but different spellings.
Read a short story.
Understand different methods and styles of storytelling such as similes, poetry, rhetoric, sarcasm and formal letter writing.

So what are the consequences of failing to meet the mandate? Are the 5 and 10 year olds facing fines, or jail time? Whipping perhaps?

Education Standards

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Education Standards Act

Education and Creativity - Educational
Mild

BELIEVING that every person should have a grasp of fundamental skills.

BEMOANING the failure of many, including ambassadors, to write a simple paragraph, work out budgets and read whatever is placed in front of them.

Yes, quite. We should all hang our heads in shame :(

ALARMED at the formation of an underground terror group called 'The Grammar Nazis' (GN) whose attacks on the unlearned is merciless.

<blushes sheepishly> Well, we all get our kicks in different ways...

NOTING that the easiest method of purging the GN is by educating and therefore eradicating their target.

"eradicating"?

OOC: Reminds me of Prezza's gaffe when he referred to "eliminating the homeless". ;)

BELIEVING it will also prevent health problems such as headaches, depression, wall-induced head injuries and eye-strain.

Problems? I think you fail to understand the therapeutic value of head-banging, especially when confronted with the kinds of half-baked proposals set before us learned delegates every day.

HEREBY MANDATES that:
A. Every 5 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Recite their nation's alphabet.
Write their name.
Count to 100 and do simple addition and subtraction.
Write a simple sentence.
Read a 10 page book with pictures.
B. Every 10 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Do simple multiplication and division.
Understand percentages and simple fractions.
Understand the use and misuse of punctuation such as the comma, apostraphe, conjunctions, capital letters etc.
Use a dictionary and thesaurus.
Differenciate between words with the same sounds but different spellings.
Read a short story.
Understand different methods and styles of storytelling such as similes, poetry, rhetoric, sarcasm and formal letter writing.

Agreed.

So what are the consequences of failing to meet the mandate? Are the 5 and 10 year olds facing fines, or jail time? Whipping perhaps?

Well, like the old saying goes: "Spare the rod and spoil the child".

May the blessings of our otters be upon you.

Leonard Otterby
Ambassador for the Republic of Compadria to the U.N.

I have been working on a similar idea and have not yet gotten to the point of the standard required on the student. I also have not made it formaly correct yet but this is the current state.

Article 1: All citizens from the ages of 5-18 have the right to an education including people with mental disabilities. Mandatory education is a decision for the nation to decide and is not necessary under UN law.
Article 2: School busing or another method of free public transportation must be allowed for people outside 500m of the school designated to them. Public provided transportation should not take any more then 15 minutes from the Childs house.
Article 3: School is not to be categorized as girl or boy’s school or any other racial group.
Article 4: Time in class should be about 5 hours or more. This does not include breaks of any type.
Article 5: Children should have regular examinations to test there skill and the Childs parents/guardians should be informed of there marks.
Article 6: Any children who do not speak the same language as most should be either given another school to go to or taught that language.
Article 7: Class sizes must not exceed 34 people at any time.
Article 8: There should be breaks for the students in these classes every 2 hours at the minimum. These breaks do not count toward class time and cannot be shorter then 10 minutes.
Article 9: washrooms should be in 40m of the classroom.
Article 10: All students must get a place to sit and a place to write.

So what are the consequences of failing to meet the mandate? Are the 5 and 10 year olds facing fines, or jail time? Whipping perhaps?


Nope. Nail the teachers or parents. Literally. ;)

In general, I would love to laugh at some of the wording (OOC: seriously, good stuff. made me smile), but it is somewhat apparent that something like this is almost a necessity for our continued existence. I think that it might be better to generalize the age somehow, instead of simply setting the benchmarks at 5 and 10. I may reconsider that if someone can justify those ages, though.

From a different point of view, I think we'll be hit with a massive influx of dyslexics and people with clinical mental disabilities shortly after this hits the floor.

I'm in favor of education for the CEOs or the Legal Department. But it's unneccesary for the common factory workers. Why should everyone get such education when so many people won't need it?

I agree education should not be mandatory in all countrys. Lets just look at what would happen if you did this in the real world. I know i don't like child labour but in the end alot of people are only not starving because of it.

I was actually trying to make a point with the humor; I apologize if it wasn't clear.

This proposal Mandates results, not actions. How does one enforce results?

Within the NS system, perhaps this is not such a bad thing. Since all UN proposals are automtically complied with by member states, we'll have smart 5 and 10 year olds, without actually having to increase funding to education, encouraging parental involvement with their children's education, provide economic justice to the children of the poor (who are most likely to do poorly in school) or any of a range of other possible ways to increase education.

We would like to support this, but it effectively imposes literacy upon societies with an oral culture. For this reason we cannot support it. But the general intent is highly laudable.


Christelle Zyryanov,
Ambassador to the United Nations,
PDSRA

I'm in favor of education for the CEOs or the Legal Department. But it's unneccesary for the common factory workers. Why should everyone get such education when so many people won't need it?We feel that the common person is the one who needs an education to protect them from lawyers, politicians, and CEOs who would simply abuse them.

As for the items of this proposal we feel that those with certain physical disabilities need to be exclude from certain sections of this as many may not be able to count to 100 without the right appendages to help them that others have, thus they need to be considered if your are going to have equal treatment of all who might not be able to meet the requiments set here.

Also we have seen some pretty naughty books that have only ten pages in them and some fresh photos. So one might consider some limits to the subjects of those books and contents of the photos.

We do like the ages set here but feel that they should be a base age not required age. As many nations might find these don't work for them. Here it falls in that our kids start basic education at 5 and go until age 10 then enter National Service until 16. Basic education teaches them to reed, rite, kount, and yakk in a tongue others kan understand them in. National Service trains them to be productive citizens with a skill that helps build our society as well as defend it should they be called on to do so.

Newfoundcanada said:
I have been working on a similar idea and have not yet gotten to the point of the standard required on the student. I also have not made it formaly correct yet but this is the current state.

*snip*


Hasn't there already been a resolution to tis effect?

P.S. Welcom to the UN man! (OOC: why is it always the Canadians?...)

I see section (B.7) has already been enforced in many countries.

Perhaps I can draft a more serious version later.

Do you know how traumatic section B.4 can be? A dictionary is a royal pain in the bottom if you don't know the first few letters of a word. When I was a kid I used to curse because I could never find "anaccronym" in the dictionary. (Why can't those adults speak distinctly.) The other day I had to use a reverse dictionary to find "onomatopoeia" because it's pronounced with an "ä" sound. (\ä\ as o in mop)

Any more serious attempt, we hope, would also contain some basic requirements for moral education, as well as all this newfangled counting nonsense.

~Lori Jiffjeff
Acting Ambassador
Legal Aide
Minister of Sandy Vaginas
Chair of "Mothers Against Weird Shit"

I say again, there needs to be a provision to exempt oral cultures from this resolution. Or else you're mandating that children from a culture with no written language should be forcibly enrolled in schools and taught to read and write. We can't support that.

Christelle Zyryanov,
Ambassador to the United Nations,
PDSRA

I say again, there needs to be a provision to exempt oral cultures from this resolution. Or else you're mandating that children from a culture with no written language should be forcibly enrolled in schools and taught to read and write. We can't support that.

Christelle Zyryanov,
Ambassador to the United Nations,
PDSRA
However, you are not indeed using the UN's written service to contact me?
This is for the international good, how can trade or war agreements be drafted if one side is illiterate as well as gullible? They need to be able to write their name, reading the contract is irrelevant perhaps.
Indeed in the UN you need to be able to read the words 'yes', 'no' and 'abstain'.
Perhaps the ability to read 'You will vote...' will also help.

Perhaps the ability to read 'You will vote...' will also help.
Agreed. It might also help them read their obligations under the existing "Reformed Literacy Initiative" resolution.

However, you are not indeed using the UN's written service to contact me?

No, I'm addressing you in the General Assembly. (OOC: You did ask. ;))


This is for the international good, how can trade or war agreements be drafted if one side is illiterate as well as gullible? They need to be able to write their name, reading the contract is irrelevant perhaps.
Indeed in the UN you need to be able to read the words 'yes', 'no' and 'abstain'.
Perhaps the ability to read 'You will vote...' will also help.

Those are good points, but they don't justify this resolution. In a society in which the majority group has an oral culture, it would be sufficient for a small number to be taught literacy, instead of imposing it on all the country's children. And in a society in which a minority group has an oral culture, why should it have literacy forced upon it?


Agreed. It might also help them read their obligations under the existing "Reformed Literacy Initiative" resolution.

*grumbles about poorly thought out resolutions*

Christelle Zyryanov,
Ambassador to the United Nations,
PDSRA

I think this Resolution is going to have to be a very long one. I am going to continue work on this after my prison quality one is complete. Anyway a resolution on this matter has to first deal with the basic concept of the schooling after this an official UN council on education standards should be setup to finish the resolution after the basics have been done.

an official UN council on education standards
Been there, done that, got the comedy misplaced apostrophe. (http://www.nationstates.net/page=UN_past_resolutions/start=53)

I say again, there needs to be a provision to exempt oral cultures from this resolution. Or else you're mandating that children from a culture with no written language should be forcibly enrolled in schools and taught to read and write. We can't support that.

Christelle Zyryanov,
Ambassador to the United Nations,
PDSRA

To be fair, whats wrong with teaching them to read/write? I mean, I wouldn't force them, but it's a good thing to know how to read and write, even if your culture is oral. (OOC: the jeuvinile part of me is just laughing at 'oral culture'
)

I mean, I wouldn't force them, but it's a good thing to know how to read and write, even if your culture is oral.


By your cultural standards, perhaps. But this resolution does force them.

Been there, done that, got the comedy misplaced apostrophe. (http://www.nationstates.net/page=UN_past_resolutions/start=53)
I was wondering when someone was going to bring that one up.

Bob Flibble
UN Representative

Differenciate between words with the same sounds but different spellings.
This doesn't work with the vast majority of languages - those that use a phonetic written system. Indeed, the only language that I can think of for which this requirement holds true would be English.

Both High and Common Ennial are entirely phonetic, but High Ennial uses an archaic script which we expect only historians to be familiar with - it is only used as a spoken language in modern Ennish society.

Stephanie Fulton
UN Consul for the Triumvirate of Enn

[edit] OOC: Yes, I understand that we are using English here. However, IC it gets very confusing.

Do you know how traumatic section B.4 can be? A dictionary is a royal pain in the bottom if you don't know the first few letters of a word. When I was a kid I used to curse because I could never find "anaccronym" in the dictionary. (Why can't those adults speak distinctly.) The other day I had to use a reverse dictionary to find "onomatopoeia" because it's pronounced with an "ä" sound. (\ä\ as o in mop)I once spent hours going through the 'N's trying to look up "pneumonia"...

This doesn't work with the vast majority of languages - those that use a phonetic written system. Indeed, the only language that I can think of for which this requirement holds true would be English.

Both High and Common Ennial are entirely phonetic, but High Ennial uses an archaic script which we expect only historians to be familiar with - it is only used as a spoken language in modern Ennish society.

Stephanie Fulton
UN Consul for the Triumvirate of Enn

[edit] OOC: Yes, I understand that we are using English here. However, IC it gets very confusing

ooc: If this was a serious proposal I'd probably have taken account of that. This is a 5min throw-out, written in the 'common tongue'.

Btw, reverse-dictionaries rock.

I once spent hours going through the 'N's trying to look up "pneumonia"...

Sometimes, I jokingly pronounce such words like they're spelled. Then I wonder why people look at me like I'm crazy. :p

I see two problems with your proposal.

1. Totally, TOTALLY not within the purview of the UN.
2. Please define the fundamental skills you refer to in the first clause. Am I to assume that your list is it? I would argue that your basic skills may not necessarily be useful to all nations. What about strictly agrarian nations, where the most valuable skill is farming-related? Wouldn't planting a single seed be considered a basic skill? It's not in your list. You are indirectly allowing the UN to define what a nation's basic skill set should be.
Bad idea.

--Rooty

Sometimes, I jokingly pronounce such words like they're spelled. Then I wonder why people look at me like I'm crazy. :p

OOC: I often pronounce "pneumonia" as "pee-noo-mon-ya." Got it from a movie: "You're gonna catch pee-noo-mon-ya!" Not sure which movie it was, though. I'm thinking it might be Raisin' Arizona, but it's too early (a little after 9 am here), and I've already started drinking.

Since all UN proposals are automtically complied with by member states, we'll have smart 5 and 10 year olds, without actually having to increase funding to education, encouraging parental involvement with their children's education, provide economic justice to the children of the poor (who are most likely to do poorly in school) or any of a range of other possible ways to increase education.

Are you really assuming that compliance extends to performing the impossible, rather than just to passing laws & trying to achieve the desired results?!? If that is how things work then I want a resolution that grants people the power of (wingless) flight...;)

OOC: That seems to be the idea behind the resolution. This really opens up a whole area for proposals.

UN Common Decency Act

Category: Just Plain Politeness
Strength: Astronomical

Description:

RECOGNIZING that the UN is an organization made up of many different individuals representing many different nations with many different philosophies, systems of government, and standards of grammar

MANDATES that all UN members have respectful, humble personalities.



On second thought, not even a legion of gnomes could pull that off.

Ah well.

Oh, and could we at least hold off on granting the power of flight to people until they are potty-trained?

If so, I'll support the UN Convention on Freedom from Gravity

The questions run too deep

The questions run too deep

:headbang: :p

:headbang:

The pain must run too deep. :D

The pain must run too deep. :D

Oh, no...not you, too...

maybe we should talk about Edufcation standards.

Ps: it's running really deep now :)

The questions run too deepParanoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid; you step out of line, the man come and take you away.

Education Standards Act

Education and Creativity - Educational
Mild

BELIEVING that every person should have a grasp of fundamental skills.

BEMOANING the failure of many, including ambassadors, to write a simple paragraph, work out budgets and read whatever is placed in front of them.

ALARMED at the formation of an underground terror group called 'The Grammar Nazis' (GN) whose attacks on the unlearned is merciless.

NOTING that the easiest method of purging the GN is by educating and therefore eradicating their target.

BELIEVING it will also prevent health problems such as headaches, depression, wall-induced head injuries and eye-strain.

HEREBY MANDATES that:
A. Every 5 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Recite their nation's alphabet.
Write their name.
Count to 100 and do simple addition and subtraction.
Write a simple sentence.
Read a 10 page book with pictures.
B. Every 10 year old without a clinical mental disability or dyslexia be able to:
Do simple multiplication and division.
Understand percentages and simple fractions.
Understand the use and misuse of punctuation such as the comma, apostraphe, conjunctions, capital letters etc.
Use a dictionary and thesaurus.
Differenciate between words with the same sounds but different spellings.
Read a short story.
Understand different methods and styles of storytelling such as similes, poetry, rhetoric, sarcasm and formal letter writing.

Official Message
From The
Ministry of Hospitality


Steamed Parsonages of the Untied Nations,

I'm 1 of the many HotRodian students hoo chose to drop out of sk00l cause it suxxx0r0rz. I think this bill is crazy times like 1000000000 and how r u going to git ill itenerant nations to due it?

With Wrists Pecked,

Grammar Nazi X
OMG WTF I'm only this many years old. :mp5:

Oh yeah, my name is Jo.

Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid; you step out of line, the man come and take you away.


Pa-ran-orya.. we think is the correct way to say this and thus we understand your reason for the following comments. As most problems start with one parent or other... or so the shrinks want us to believe...

Paranoia strikes deep. Into your life it will creep. It starts when you're always afraid; you step out of line, the man come and take you away.

Paranoia may destroy ya.

Pa-ran-orya.. we think is the correct way to say this and thus we understand your reason for the following comments. As most problems start with one parent or other... or so the shrinks want us to believe...
*raises an eyebrow*
'pa-ruh-noi-ah' as far as I know.
You see if we all spelled phonetically no-one could understand what each other was saying any better than if we spoke to each other. The beauty of the properly (non-phonetic) written language each word is perfectly intelligeable when we want to read it, but can easily be lost before it is read, or forgetting your glasses when some troll waves his speech from half way across the assembly hall.

We agree that Education Standards should be set.

We would like to state that punishing the child for not meeting such requirements is wrong. Teachers and Parents should be punished.

We recognize that the requirements submitted in the proposal are the most base educational standards.

Overall, we aprove (with the addition of a suitable punishment).