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© 2004, Jamie McKenzie

The Mayor of New York and the Governor of Florida love the idea of holding kids back in third grade if they fail their reading tests. Tough love? Trouble is this approach has been done before without success. They ought to read the history.

As Santayana once said, "Those who fail to read the mistakes of history are condemned to repeat them."

See the New York Times article, February 4, 2004, Wednesday - ON EDUCATION; "Principal Sees Mistake in Plan to Hold Back 3rd Graders" by Michael Winerip.

"When Dr. Golubchick read of Mayor Bloomberg's new policy to hold back every third grader who failed the city's reading test, he thought, "Big mistake."

© FNO Press, 2004

The copyright for this cartoon by Jerry King belongs to FNO Press. Individuals may forward cartoons to friends via e-mail, but no further reproduction, publishing or distribution may be done without explicit copyright permission. Please contact editor@nochildleft.com for more information.

Don't think too hard!

Some of the so-called research-based reading programs endorsed by the Feds are light on thinking and comprehension while heavy on memorization of patterns and heavily scripted lessons.

If young people don't learn to think for themselves and solve problems, they are condemned to minimum wage futures and low-skilled jobs.

They become dream employees for the retail companies who pay poorly, keep hours too short for benefits but advertise heavily on TV to create a good impression.