PUBLIC SCHOOLS & YOUR KIDS

[thea_447]

15 Ways Public Schools Can Harm Your Children
http://www.newswithviews.com/Turtel/joel5.htm
by Joel Turtel

[matthew mckeon]

This guy would love to get his hands on American kids and ram his version of the truth down their throats. His problem with the school systems is he can't do that.

[johan_steele]

Two words for the author: Home School. It isn't difficult and a second option is very simple; Private School. And before I hear someone whine about the cost... you get what you pay for and if you feel your children are worth it a way can be found.

My wife is a teacher by trade, my mother spent 30 years in the trade w/ Special Ed classes, I've been a volunteer at several different schools, our units 2nd Sgt is a HS Teacher & coach, there are several teachers on this forum that work in the Public School System. I don't think too many of them would say the author knew what he was talking about.

No, I do not believe Thea intended this as a thinly veiled insult against those teachers on this board.

When I was a kid we paid for lunch, now kids get breakfest to. Yes, my tax dollars are being wasted at a prodigious rate... not because the kids don't deserve the money for a better education but because that money goes to toys & higher a salary for the administration & too many parents are doing a lackluster job of giving their kids a start in the basics before they get to school. If the education sys is broken, volunteer for the PTA & the school board... it isn't difficult.

[sockknitter]

I'm from public school teacher parents too so I can't participate too much in insulting public schools. My own kids received excellent educations in the public schools of the two cities we lived in while they were in grades K-12. Before we moved into the municipalities, we used documents available in public libraries to look into the statistics of the different school districts in the area (percentage of parents who were college graduates, standardized test scores of the district's kids, percent of teachers with advanced degreees—that kind of thing) and chose the towns that seemed to have the best chances of excellent schools. Also our kids' schools enjoyed superior parental involvement in the form of volunteer hours.

It must be enraging to live in a school district that you feel harms your kids or neglects them. I haven't experienced that so can't comment much.

By the way, I used to think free breakfast was a waste of money but then it dawned on me that full kids are likely not as disruptive or stuporous as hungry ones, and allow teachers to conduct more productive classes for everybody.

[olerebel]

This guy makes some points, but he lays the blame on the wrong people.
The teachers only teach what they are required to teach. They are required to teach the neccessary material for the children to be able to pass the state/federal required tests in order to pass grade to grade, and eventually graduate high school. "No Child Left Behind" increased the load on teachers. I have two kids in school, and go through the homework thing every day. I agree that small children have a faster paced learning objective than they have had in the past.
The guy who wrote this obviously has no contact with schools or school children IN MY AREA.

[Admiral_Porter]

This guy is a fool. The only accurate statement of his is that the textbooks are catered to the dumbest denominator.

The poorest school systems continue to be neglected, the teachers are forced to cater their classes to standardized tests which leads to endless busy work, the students have no say in what they do or hold any responsibility, and the entire school system is run by bureaucrats.

To put it in simple terms teachers and students have almost zero empowerment.

[matthew mckeon]

Dear Friends,

I've taught in public and private schools for 20+ years. The gentleman in the article is not concerned with education, he is concerned with ideology. The public school system offends him because:

a. It is secular and does not promote religion

b. It is inclusive and teaches all, and is not restricted to people "like us," whatever that means to him and his ilk.

c. Its a massive government program, and somebody has told him that big government programs are automatically bad.

d. He lusts after the tax dollars to support his own schools: small, not supervised by the government, religious, restricted. In an attempt to get a slice of the educational funding pie, he runs down public schools.

Public schools are our schools, supported by the tax payer. We should demand efficiency and results. But this is not what this guy is after.

[blue_zouave]

Laughin' my baggy blue trousers off at this tripe... teachin' em too much, teachin' 'em too little, you'll be shocked at what they're teachin' em. Makin' 'em learn furrin languages. I bet this guy hasn't had kids in school for decades.

As for dumbed down textbooks... my sophomore is studying the Constitution right now, and I've been reviewing it with her. The textbook her class is using is certainly NOT dumbed down. And as for kids not being able to do basic math, again, both of my children are studying algebra and geometry, as well as learning the practical mathematics of calculating interest rates and sale discounts using percentages.

All this guy wants to do is sell his self-published book.

Thanks for the chuckle, Thea.

Zou

[FSPowers]

Nowadays, if you believe the news, it seems the sole purpose of a Texas school teacher was to prepare students for the TAKS tests.

It doesn't help when a school district spends $1.5 million on a new board room while complaining that they didn't have the money to buy new computers and textbooks.

Another district sent some of its staff to a educational workshop in Daytona, FL. While the workshop was in session, these staff menbers were filmed by a San Antonio news crew at the beach.

Another district recently fired a Vice-Principal who put her child in a after-school program that was for underprivilaged children. She insists she did nothing wrong. (She is taking the district to court to get her job back.)

The biggest fight right now is how to fund the schools in the first place. The recent practice of taking money from "rich" districts and giving it to "poor" districts was making everyone poor.

I believe that the public school concept is sound, but parents must have a say in how their children are educated.

[olerebel]

I'm inclined to support Shane's idea. The school system is not perfect, but before criticizing it, a person should put a little effort into trying to improve the situation. There may be a school system in dire straits somewhere in the U. S., but not the system as a whole.