Public schools...

[breakingcontact]

Why would you expect government schools to teach anything other than government as the solution to life's problems? If the local government schools are corrupt and can't be changed,parents need to sacrifice and home school or send their kids to private school.

 

[AlamoMIA]

The sooner WISE parents figure out that the public schools are not the best education option - the better it will be for kids, parents , and our country.

Folks, we have tried public(government) education for the past 2 centuries in America.

Education now takes back seat to social indoctrination. THAT is the problem with public education.

 

[oldguy]

The sooner WISE parents figure out that the public schools are not the best education option - the better it will be for kids, parents , and our country.

Folks, we have tried public(government) education for the past 2 centuries in America.

Education now takes back seat to social indoctrination. THAT is the problem with public education.

Bingo , government propaganda, the past few days a school back east I believe wanted the boys to dress as girls and the girls as boys, why, well they stressed bullying however it seems there would be better methods to get the point across. No doubt some parents make little effort to help there kids, they seem more interested in talking on cell phone for hours with co-workers. Single parent, broken homes all hurt our education system, however in my mind that does not give government the right to take over our children. One of our 24 hours news media idiots actually said the children belong to the community, wrong I do not want your socialist views flowing down to my children. My advice to all new parents sacrifice and seek out alternative methods of schooling you won't be sorry.

 

[Vaquero]

If you want something done right, you gotta do it yourself. At least take an active role.

 

[rsayloriii]

... At least take an active role.

That's the key, IMO. Everything started heading down hill and keeps rolling the more parents stopped being parents. Once they start being parents again, I believe the ship can be righted, but only when they start being active in their child's life and quite making excuses for them.

 

[M. Sage]

But are you sure that was the curriculum or a teenage girl not really paying attention in History class?

That's one of the problems. The system we use is not a good one if we want kids to be interested and engaged. It's very square peg in square hole, if you get my meaning. Not surprising since our public school system is based on a Prussian model, which is also why it's so bad at turning out independent thinkers and so good at being used for indoctrination.

To say I'm not a believer in public schools is an understatement. Just thinking about my tax money going to that system makes my blood pressure spike. Pay for your own damn kids.

And before someone says "oh, but you need educated people around you", yeah I do. And I need uneducated ones to mow my lawn and dig ditches, too.

 

[Vaquero]

Public school. I envision the settlers building a building. Used for educating the children and for meetings of all sorts. The teacher was interviewed and hired or fired by the parents of the children of school age. Local control. That's how it works.

 

[M. Sage]

Public school. I envision the settlers building a building. Used for educating the children and for meetings of all sorts. The teacher was interviewed and hired or fired by the parents of the children of school age. Local control. That's how it works.

That I'd be fine with. And let the 'rents pool their money for it.

 

[rsayloriii]

Public school. I envision the settlers building a building. Used for educating the children and for meetings of all sorts. The teacher was interviewed and hired or fired by the parents of the children of school age. Local control. That's how it works.

That is how it works, sort of. The community pays taxes in order to fund building of schools. The community elects a school board. That school board hires administrators. Administrators hire teachers. IF the community (parents) are involved with their child's education like they should be, then they should know whether or not the teachers and administrators are doing their job to the community's standards. If not, then the community demands change and the teacher or administration is replaced.

The problem comes from a few things. State and federal government involving themselves in matters that should be a local issue (standardized testing, etc.). The other, and biggest issue, is lack of parental involvement (ie leave it up to the schools to teach the children what should be taught at home long before the child enters school).

Schools should be an assist to what is learned at home, NOT a replacement.


Sent from my RobCo Pip-Boy 3000.

 

[Vaquero]

That is how it works, sort of. The community pays taxes in order to fund building of schools. The community elects a school board. That school board hires administrators. Administrators hire teachers. IF the community (parents) are involved with their child's education like they should be, then they should know whether or not the teachers and administrators are doing their job to the community's standards. If not, then the community demands change and the teacher or administration is replaced.

The problem comes from a few things. State and federal government involving themselves in matters that should be a local issue (standardized testing, etc.). The other, and biggest issue, is lack of parental involvement (ie leave it up to the schools to teach the children what should be taught at home long before the child enters school).

Schools should be an assist to what is learned at home, NOT a replacement.


Sent from my RobCo Pip-Boy 3000.

Tenure, teacher's unions, etc..............
Local input is all but muted.
System is busted.

 

[rsayloriii]

Tenure, teacher's unions, etc..............
Local input is all but muted.
System is busted.

Which all fall under the "problems". I'm against unions. As far as tenure, I know that I go under a performance review every year, as do the teachers and administrators. We are also required to take so many off contract hours of training each year. If the reviews aren't good, or you don't meet/exceed the required hours of training, then you're fired.


Sent from my RobCo Pip-Boy 3000.

 

[winchster]

That I'd be fine with. And let the 'rents pool their money for it.

While you're at it, how about those people with bridges in their counties pay the bridge fee on registration and not make everyone pay it.

 

[Younggun]

The school I went to recently announced they would be spending over 1 million to buy iPads which would be used from first grade through graduation. What a WASTE of money. Now that Cscope has been trashed maybe they will change their mind.

I hated the way the school was run while I was there and have no intention of sending my kids there.

I'm bordering between that district and another which I will not send my kids to so I'm down to one last district that has a chance. Very small town and I'm hoping they still have the right values or my kids will be homeschooled. I want to avoid it because I don't want them to miss the social interaction but I will not send them to a liberal cesspool.

 

[breakingcontact]

That's a common expression when people consider or criticize home schooling: the social interaction

Who are they interacting with in government school? Some kids with minds destroyed by Ritalin. Kids who have no stability at home, no values. That's the social interaction at public school.

Vs sending them to a private/Christian school where people are raising their children deliberately, trying to prepare them properly for life. Or home schooling where you can meet with others of like mind. Plus home school kids still participate in sports and can be active at church.

Finally think of this...what percent of your schooling was a total waste, taken up by filler or disrupted by your crazy classmates? Did you work at the pace you were capable of or at the average pace due to being in a class of all abilities?

 

[M. Sage]

While you're at it, how about those people with bridges in their counties pay the bridge fee on registration and not make everyone pay it.

Not even similar. I can go out and use every bridge in the county right now if I feel like it. There's no use I can put the schools to.

 

[M. Sage]

That's a common expression when people consider or criticize home schooling: the social interaction

Who are they interacting with in government school? Some kids with minds destroyed by Ritalin. Kids who have no stability at home, no values. That's the social interaction at public school.

Vs sending them to a private/Christian school where people are raising their children deliberately, trying to prepare them properly for life. Or home schooling where you can meet with others of like mind. Plus home school kids still participate in sports and can be active at church.

Finally think of this...what percent of your schooling was a total waste, taken up by filler or disrupted by your crazy classmates? Did you work at the pace you were capable of or at the average pace due to being in a class of all abilities?

Most of it, truth be told. Tons of filler, tons of time wasted on inconsequential minutiae while missing the big picture. Lots of time wasted on "school spirit" BS when high school rolled around. The pace was so slow I wound up being bored into just not giving half a shit and that got me medicated for behavioral problems at one point.

 

[winchster]

Not even similar. I can go out and use every bridge in the county right now if I feel like it. There's no use I can put the schools to.

Yet when I lived in Yoakum county, I paid the fee, and there isn't a single bridge in the county.

 

[M. Sage]

Yet when I lived in Yoakum county, I paid the fee, and there isn't a single bridge in the county.

Hahah, got ya.

 

[Younggun]

That's a common expression when people consider or criticize home schooling: the social interaction

Who are they interacting with in government school? Some kids with minds destroyed by Ritalin. Kids who have no stability at home, no values. That's the social interaction at public school.

Not every student is a Ritalin sedated brain dead liberal in training from a broken home. There is an opportunity to get real experience dealing with bullies, standing up for what is right, interacting with groups, leadership, and many other things they will have to deal with later in life. Including the idiot who is a drain on the group because he doesn't want to participate in the project so everyone else has to do extra work to support him.

Vs sending them to a private/Christian school where people are raising their children deliberately, trying to prepare them properly for life. Or home schooling where you can meet with others of like mind. Plus home school kids still participate in sports and can be active at church.

Being active in church is irrelevant. There are good morals in the bible but it is not necessary to be religious in order to have good morals. Many who preach the bible live in opposition to their own beliefs. Many churches I have seen are heading in the same direction as public schools. Private schools do not equal better in every situation. Obama's children go to private school, I doubt they are being taught about freedom.

I also doubt there is a private school anywhere near me.

Finally think of this...what percent of your schooling was a total waste, taken up by filler or disrupted by your crazy classmates?

I don't know that I could name a percentage, that would depend on what you consider wasted time. Personally, I don't think high school and football should go together. The football is fine but as it is now way to much school time and funds are devoted to crap like football, baseball, band, art, and other BS of that nature. Why sit in a gym for an hour every Friday for a damned pep rally.

There were disruptive students, at times I was that student, although generally well behaved cause I new I would have to deal with anything I did when I got home. Even then there were students who I could see would go nowhere in life because of what I was taught at HOME.

Did you work at the pace you were capable of or at the average pace due to being in a class of all abilities?

I made As in the hard classes and Cs in the easy ones. Made a 0 in art for an entire semester because it is a stupid thing to teach in school and I suck at drawing so I just sat there.

I have up in algebra because the COACH teaching it couldn't explain a damn thing because he was just copying what was in the book. I learn by applying things. Same equations in chemistry and I made straight As the entire year.

Goes back to the sports and schools mixture. When schools will put a coach who doesn't understand what he's teaching in a math class because the can can't afford a coach AND a teacher there is a major mixup in priorities.


Not all public schools are completely screwed up. Many are, but not all.

There is a benefit to kids dealing with other kids on a daily basis and being able to apply what they are taught at home. If I can find a school that has the values I'm looking for I will send my kids there.

I don't lay all the blame on the schools. If parents actually paid attention to what their kids are being taught public schools in Texas would never have gotten this bad because the parents would be beating down the doors wanting answers.

If they supplemented what kids learn at schools with their own values instead of treating the school like a taxpayer funded day care the kids would actually have some values to take in to the school with them.

Just like the state of our government, the faults in our school system have grown do to the inaction and lack of vigilance by the parents.

 

[Greg_TX]

I attended private schools from kindergarten all the way through high school. Our home church (Lutheran) had a K-8 school, and I graduated from a Dominican Catholic high school. What a mix, hmm? This didn't happen because my parents were rich; it happened because the Houston ISD schools that I would have attended were cesspools, even back in the early '70s. These were bad schools even by HISD standards. Any of y'all that are familiar with the Houston Northside area would probably remember what fun the Durkee > Fonville > Sam Houston public school route would have been.

Aside from my school experiences, both of our girls went to our church school from pre-K to 3rd and 6th grade until we had to pull them out for financial reasons. Just getting the bona-fides out of the way to say this: private schools aren't the sheltered enclaves some of you think they are. I'll go through what I see as the good points first, then get to things people may not expect when they think of private schools.

First, if the school has a church affiliation of some kind, then at least God is welcome there and you don't have to deal with the rampant theophobia you'll find in public schools and government. Also granted is that private schools, religious or not, have more freedom of curriculum and teaching methods. In terms of discipline, they (at least the ones I've experienced) tend to be a little less, not more, strict than public schools and they tend not to get caught up in zero-tolerance nonsense. At least that was the case many years ago - times change.

Private schools do have some advantages over public schools, but the biggest advantage IMO is parental involvement. Getting parents to take an active role in the education of their kids is crucial to success. Parents tend to pay attention to what their kids are doing in school when they're forking over money close to a college tuition for their kids to learn their colors, shapes and ABC's. But, if parents stay just as involved if their kids are in public school, that will make a difference also. When my youngest daughter was due for a mid-year teacher conference her first year in public school, the teacher was shocked when she saw both my wife and I walk in. It was an afternoon session and the teacher said she'd seen only two other parents so far that day.

But then there's this...

If you think that private schools will insulate your kids from liberal orthodoxy, then don't send them to a Catholic high school. Mine was chartered by the Dominican Order, but the only nuns we saw were in the library - the rest were lay teachers (quit snickering!), plus a few who had connections to one or more local churches. There were two male teachers who were obviously gay, although they tried not to be open about it and didn't have anything to do with each other. There was lots of kumbaya sensitivity stuff which went a bit beyond church doctrine. One of my history teachers was a chronic drunk, and after 10 minutes of assignments and reading notes would then disappear for 30 minutes for quality time with his bottle of vodka in the janitor's closet. The only teachers I can think of that would likely have been conservative would be the coaches.

Drug use was not at all uncommon in the school since it was mostly full of rich kids who could afford the best drugs and best lawyers. I do not believe that my school was unusual in that respect, but then again this was '79 through '83 so drugs of all flavors were pretty much everywhere. I don't think much has changed between then and now, though. As for sex, I'll just leave at this - there's a kernel of truth behind the 'Catholic Schoolgirl' stereotype, but you can expect shenanigans at any type of school, public or private. Kids can find all the trouble they're looking for, regardless of the school they're in. There were no uniforms, and not much of a dress code other than common decency stuff. The most prolific dealer in the school had long hair that he'd put up in a ponytail any time he had something for sale.

The bottom line is, don't assume that private schools are some sort of isolation chamber, because kids will still do what they all do. Also, regardless of the education path you take, be sure to involve yourself with your children's studies and get to know the teachers and admins. Look at their homework and try to answer any questions they have. Even if your kids go to an outside school, there's still a place for home study and parent-guided learning. Just don't be the type of parent that drops kids off at the school or puts them on the bus, expecting the school to feed and raise the kids with teachers serving as surrogate parents.