Parents Want Plane Diverted During Exam

We are a small world after all

http://news.aol.com/topnews/articles/_a/parents-want-plane-diverted-during-exam/n20070607063009990004?cid=774
from JoeUser Forums

I read the headlines, and my first response was ---- WTF!!!!  Now some namby pamby Paris Hilton wanna bees are going too far!  This is just plane (pun intended) stupid!  Planes fly over head every day almost in every area of the US!  I grew up in the shadow of NAS, and we had those boom busters all the time!  It became a fact of life.  I guess if they had been on a bombing or strafing run, I would have been a bit concerned, but come on!  Diverting planes for an exam???? Get real!

Then I actually read the article.  Seems "we are not alone"!  For this is not in some hollywood suburb (or Manhattan high rise).  Nope!  It is not even Paris' relatives.

It is in China!  Yes, while their concerns are "understandable", their actions to protect their "lil charges" are a bit extreme.  Yet, in a move that should make all Americans' heart glad (at least for those who get the irony), China caved and diverted the planes for the 2 day test.

Bush may be lousy on Wars, and most of his policies, but it seems that NCLB is gaining some momentum in the international community!

Poor little babes!  Their concentration will suffer if they hear a plane!  Makes me beleive that while America may not rise to world domination, at least the rest of the world is going to sink to our pampering.

4,460 views 42 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
now that's extreme. but if a plane flying overhead would throw them that hard, one has to question just how deserving they are to make the top 60% of the scores and get in the university system. if your make or break is a plane overhead for a few seconds, then perhaps you aren't really that strong of student.

i can see the parents wanting the wind at their children's back for the test, but i would think the examiners would encourage more planes to weed out the kids who can't focus.

now, please,,,don't take this post too seriously. it's just a comment, not a doctrine.

take care:)
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
i can see the parents wanting the wind at their children's back for the test, but i would think the examiners would encourage more planes to weed out the kids who can't focus.

now, please,,,don't take this post too seriously. it's just a comment, not a doctrine.


As a parent (as we all are here), I agree! As a former student, I would say "who cares?"

And as a comment, I debated putting this under humor, but then truth is sometimes stranger than fiction!
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
I've heard of ridiculous, but this...
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top

I've heard of ridiculous, but this...

But is it not refreshing to find out it is not happening (at least reported yet) in America?

Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
too funny doc, what's next, kids in NYC that go to school near the elevated subway demanding the trains stop during exam time, "because the screeching of the wheels on turns disrupts their concentration?"
Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

too funny doc, what's next, kids in NYC that go to school near the elevated subway demanding the trains stop during exam time, "because the screeching of the wheels on turns disrupts their concentration?"

Hey!  I did not think of that!

Dont give them ideas!

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top
Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
I had a great funny answer I was going to type until a plane flew over. Damn it!
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
When we were stationed in Jax some of the neighborhoods started a campaign to limit the hours of flight. Then all the military supporters put out signs and bumper stickers that said those jets are the sound of freedom. That put a damper on things. It's hard to argue with that logic.
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
I had a great funny answer I was going to type until a plane flew over. Damn it!


Ok, you convinced me! I live for your funny retorts, and if a plane did that, BAN ALL PLANES!!!!!!!  
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
When we were stationed in Jax some of the neighborhoods started a campaign to limit the hours of flight.


But I dont think it was for "testing". At least not for student testing.
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
MasonM June 7, 2007 19:04:39


A man after my funny bone.

Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
But I dont think it was for "testing". At least not for student testing.


No, they just thought it was too loud. They paid too much for their precious homes to have to listen to jets take off all the time. Except the airfield was there before the homes. It's kind of like buying a house near the railroad tracks, part of the deal is that you have some noise. Actually my first apartment in Louisville was across the street from rr tracks and after a while I didn't even notice or hear them.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
They paid too much for their precious homes to have to listen to jets take off all the time. Except the airfield was there before the homes.


The same thing is happening down in Virginia Beach with Oceana.

And here in richmond, although with a slightly different noise source. Some clowns bought houses down the street from a quarry (that has been there for the past 40 years) and then wanted the quarry to shut down because they did not like the "blasting".
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top
Kind of like the asshats that build homes next to the interstate and then complain about the traffic noise and insist that the local government spend ungodly amounts of money to build noise barriers because they were stupid enough to build there in the first place. I believe that stupidity is probably the one trait common to all peoples.
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
Kind of like the asshats that build homes next to the interstate and then complain about the traffic noise and insist that the local government spend ungodly amounts of money to build noise barriers because they were stupid enough to build there in the first place. I believe that stupidity is probably the one trait common to all peoples.


It does seem to be a universal truism. Stupidity and bitchin.
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
In Beijing they also enforce traffic redirection during exam times to limit road noises. The future of their children is a lot more important to Chinese parents than western ones, and for better reasons than just "little mandarin"-ism. Acceptance into university is the difference between a likelihood of starving and having a chance at fabulous wealth. Who wouldn't want their child to have the best possible chances at that point?

If anything I think this isn't pandering, this is just really caring about academic results. There used to be similar restrictions around schools in ancient China as well, so I guess you could call it cultural if you want. China's always been a place that really, really values education and the opportunities it brings.
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
IN America it doesn't matter if you fail your tests or not. You don't have to even graduate from college to become fabulously wealthy. In China, these kinds of tests have been a make-or-break proposition since Master Kung, well over a thousand years ago.

"Across China, about 9.5 million students are taking the entrance exams, competing for 5.67 million spots. It will be the only chance for most of the students to get into a university."


Hardly a "some namby pamby Paris Hilton wanna bees". The suicide rate for kids who fail out of school there is about like it is in Japan. It would take someone who lives in our little American bubble of entitlement to see it that way. Many of those students won't make it because of just a few percentage points.

The free market there has made it even worse. Education isn't even as guaranteed as it was, and it was never all that great. Their idea of "free market" just means that they don't have to support the poor as much anymore, and socialist ideal of free education has shifted to a whole generation of Chinese no longer being able to afford to educate their children. Paris Hilton? Hardly. We're the nation of Paris Hilton, after all.

I've seen a lot of comparisons like this. Americans have no clue of what it is like to live in some of these nations. They assume there is a relative amount of opportunity in these places. That couldn't be further from the truth.
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
P.S. This is an English comprehension test. I wonder how many American kids could pass a Chinese comprehension test. I wonder how parents here would react if their kids' future rested on a few percent on such. We refuse to even learn enough Spanish to order a hamburger, and the idea of tolerating billboards in Spanish makes us protest.

Hell, I wonder what percent of High School kids could even friggin find China on a map, when many of them can't even find all of our own states.



Reply #21 from JoeUser Forums Top
Bush may be lousy on Wars, and most of his policies, but it seems that NCLB is gaining some momentum in the international community!


Actually, it's the other way around. NCLB was based on socialist educational structure.

Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
If anything I think this isn't pandering


We can agree, or argue the point of whether it is merited or not. But one thing is sure, it is pandering.
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
I've seen a lot of comparisons like this. Americans have no clue of what it is like to live in some of these nations. They assume there is a relative amount of opportunity in these places. That couldn't be further from the truth.


I was not arguing about opportunity, as I am fully aware of the limited nature of it in totalitarian regimes. But as I indicateed with Cacto's answer, it is pandering. It really comes down to a level playing field. But these students may get in - at the expense of others - due to what amounts to pandering to the parents objections.

You raise good points about the system there - but the reality is self evident. If only 5.67 million are going to get in, then putting them into a sensory deprivation chamber is not going to increase that number. There are going to be winners and losers, and it appears that some just got a boost at the expense of others.
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
P.S. This is an English comprehension test. I wonder how many American kids could pass a Chinese comprehension test. I wonder how parents here would react if their kids' future rested on a few percent on such. We refuse to even learn enough Spanish to order a hamburger, and the idea of tolerating billboards in Spanish makes us protest.

Hell, I wonder what percent of High School kids could even friggin find China on a map, when many of them can't even find all of our own states.


But then this was not about the lousy state of the American education system (which is more than a single blog entry in itself). And it is not really about a comparison with the American education system either, since we are not preparing our students to enter a university in China. Whether American students can speak chinese, or locate it on the map does not make a diddly damn bit of difference to the 9 million+ students competing for spots in their schools.
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top
Actually, it's the other way around. NCLB was based on socialist educational structure.


Baker touched on it, and you bring up a good point about Education here, versus other countries. America is one of the most liberal (if not the most) when it comes to who can get into higher education. Many countries pigeon hole students early in life, and ensure that some cannot (or with a great deal of difficulty) move beyond a trade school.

Are they better than the US? Statistics would indicate they are. Results indicate that there is more to the story.

And yes, NCLB is very socialistic, and from my viewpoint, a stupid law.