Election q: what's important to you?

The problem is, no matter how much you get involved it does not change the dynamics of the school or what they teach, or fail to teach, or how they go about it. Involved parents cannot force the school to get rid of bad teachers. They cannot change the curriculum. The big advantage private schools have is they are not held captive by the NEA and activist politicians who dictate what is taught and how. If they have a teacher who is not doing the job, they don't have to put up with them. They can operate according to the law of supply and demand. I personally see no need to devote more than a week every year to "honoring" MLK.
I don't see the need for kids to watch movies at school (which my daughter is spending all day today doing because "next week is Feb vacation so there's no sense in starting anything now").
I don't need the schools to teach my kids values, especially since many of them are not values I espouse. I don't need my son taught that anal sex with another man is just an alternative lifestyle he has no right to have a negative opinion of, and that his only sexual responsibility is to use a condom. I don't need them to demonstrate to him how to put on a condom. What I would like him to learn is some real, comprehensive history, some useful math, actual science that isn't geared toward educating him about the unproven theory of global warming. I don't need social activism in the school. If I need to teach him everything at home, then let me cut the string to the public school and find another way to educate him.

How do you make the public schools accountable? Tests were instituted to perform some measure of results, and the response is that the schools are now spending the bulk of the school year teaching the kids to take those tests. The kids are now learning even less than before.

 

every college reports record attendance every year.

how many of these students are product of public scool? most, i'd say.

just what is the school's failure? could it be that there are more children from less advantaged homes going to school now, and not getting the proper structure from within the home. and now, the school system has the APPEARANCE of failure?


just curious.

 

They also report the need for freshmen to attend remedial classes for math, reading, etc. (There is also a large influx of foreign students) Schools teach less and expect less year after year. When you grade on a curve, or use pass/fail criteria or other even less results-based grading methods, kids don't need to perform satisfactorily to pass.

Certainly there is less structure in many homes, but that should not affect the content of what is taught at school. There will always be a wide spectrum of performance among students, but the expectations for the average student keep dropping.

There is no one, easy solution, but getting back to teaching basics would be a good start. Testing alone in no way addresses the problems. Throwing more money at the schools won't either.

 

just a question.


seems weird that one could get accepted to a university, and need remedial classes.

 

Depends on which university and your major. College is big business these days. There is a lot of student aid money out there, lots of schools just want a piece of the pie.

Harvard and MIT probably offer far fewer remedial classes than JFK Community College. At JFK, the ability to qualify for government-backed student loans is more important than a high GPA or good SAT or ACT scores.

 

Real easy. Marriage between Man and Woman was instituted to institute a legal contract for protection of any future offspring. There will be no offspring from a gay marriage.
If gays want to give power of attourney to their partner they can do that now. If they want to spend their lives together they can.
They want marriage for economic reasons and to legitimize their lifestyle.

 

how does one "legitimize" what is naturally fucked up?


just curious, of course.

 

I agree with everything in the post except that involved parents can't change the dynamics of a school. It may not be as easy as approaching an adminstrator and saying such and such is a bad teacher, (or fill in complaint here), but with enough complaints, action can be influenced. Go to school-board meetings, etc. If you are the only one complaining, no it won't do a thing, nor would it in a private school and no, you won't have luck changing everything. The main difference I have noticed in a good rated district and a poorly rated distict is the involvment of the committee.

What I really meant with involvment of the parents was more in monitoring what you kids did. Make sure they apply themselves, do their homework, study, so on and so forth.

Good posts!

 

no pun intended, of course!

 

True dat....

 

I wonder if the graduation rate is at record levels as well? And how many of those degrees are meaniful and the graduate seeking/getting employment in the field of their major?

just curious...

As you occassionally do ( j/k) you have brought up a good point. I think we can all agree that the schools systems need improved. I don't believe they (not most of them, anyhow) are a failure, but they could be mucho better. President Bush put in motion plans to improve them, and on paper it sounded good. But it hasn't had it's desired effect. For the record, education has ALWAYS been something of a hot topic for me with candidates, this is nothing new for me. Home is absolutly where it starts, no doubt about it. I agree that social issues are too blame for much of the failures in kid's education, but that's another tough one to tackle...

Good stuff!

 

Well, you have to get the Supreme Court to rule that marriage between a Man and Woman is the same as Man and Shrub and the Leyland Cypress has the same rights to healthcare and benefits as a goldfish.
When your neighbors see you and your Golden Retreiver at the wedding chapel and say "That's fucked up" you can show them the Marriage Certificate and say "Oh no, this is perfectly legitimate. See, right here it says we are a family."

 

That was Barney Frank and Ted Kennedy wasn't it????

 

Exactly.

Parents can have an impact. They are the ones that elect the School Board and in most cases it isn't too difficult for one parent to make alot of noise and influence other parents.

Some parents make noise about shit they know nothing about too. Like the people that bitch about new football uniforms, equipment, etc. because it takes money away from the rest of the students. That is bullshit in most schools(in Arkansas at least) because most of the states' football programs are funded by booster clubs. East TN schools appear to be the same. Anyway, just thought I would add that little vent in.

 

Still in the news:


http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-03-11-our-view_x.htm