It's really a vicious cycle. Parents with low/no income....becoming "bad" parents....kids then lack proper upbringing.....those kids create more kids, etc etc. It won't be easy to do. Privatizing everything would hold people more accountable, obviously - which would help BIG TIME. But it'll just never happen.
I hear folks complaining that education is not our top priority. I travel to other countries that kick our ass in education, "they say". Most are rote learning countries, like Japan, and Korea. I go over there, and shocked how little they can do with how smart they are. Sure, everyone is more on a even playing field. But it takes freakin 5 engineers just to make a decision over in Japan. Everytime we brainstorm on trying to fix the problem, they say, "mark-san, we need to slow down and think about this". I am like your freakin kidding me, lets go in the lab, and kick this things butt and move on. On a night of drinking, they were all joking, and said now they understand what it means, "the american cowboy way". I explained, thats why we are always, one step ahead on technology. Anyone that knows what rote learning is, knows its repetitions over and over. They focus on it. Its designed so that the class can all move up together. Where our learning system, is more of a alpha dog type type of learning. The shining star with natural ability appears, and we cater to that. Hense the reason you see the US with the best, undisputed, graduate and Ph.D programs in the world. China and Russia has a simular learning system. You pick out the kids with natural abilities, and put more effort into them. You come out with more brilliant folks with this manner. I see my co-workers, who are Indian, Russian, Israeli, Chinese, and see how thier children, even in the US public system just are generally better than average. Almost all get scholarships or most. Education starts at home. They don't let thier children play video games for hours on end, if at all. They limit thier TV, to less than hour an evening if at all. They all have thier children in educational camps in the summer, and music. Learning never stops, and now they have a head start when school starts up. Its not acceptable for thier children to ever ditch school. Even during hunting season, ha ha. Unless American families, turn off that boob tube, and realize the damage they are doing to thier kids, no amount of money will help. Oh yea, out of all these families with smart kids, generally thier is a father and mother.
That's why Jeff is somewhat right, money is not going to solve our problems. Until we change are culture back to family first we are pretty much doomed. Can public education work, sure can, in fact our low income public schools compete very well in the world today. We just need to look at the whole picture, not the bullet points.
That's why Jeff is somewhat right, money is not going to solve our problems. Until we change are culture back to family first we are pretty much doomed. Can public education work, sure can, in fact our low income public schools compete very well in the world today. We just need to look at the whole picture, not the bullet points. Will it? I can hear "those" parents now, I pay my money for this school and you will treat little jimmy like he is special
i agree... and, as I've said several times before here, I largely blame fathers for not being Men... they act like children and come home from work, grab the remote, pop a beer open and sit there, completely passive, and the wife raising an additional child... if men would stand up and fight to become Men this problem would get better instead of devolving like it has...
carlin had it right when he said 'children are just like adults, a few winners and a WHOLE BUNCH of losers'... he also said part of the problem was parents placing their children up on pedestals like little trophies... i can't disagree with that very much
One think I would like to know is how are we going to handle Speacial Education in a private system? Speacial Education kids cost more to go to school, who's going to pay for it? The Parents? School Lunch program, the food is terrible, but in some areas it's the only meal a kid gets. Some schools now have breakfast. Speaking of sports, how are we going to handle the best athletes going to a school? If their all private and your're a studd football player where are you going to go? The above are just the tip of the iceburg for all the issues that will need to be resolved. There are no simple answers or solutions(besides snipping certain males)
This is the big issue. Everyone is so worried about the corner cases, that the majority takes the hit. If you spend 30-50% of the money on 5%, what do you get?
as a parent of a special needs child (daughter has down syndrome) I can tell you that IL is consistently rated as one of the bottom 5 states for special ed... and I have found no private schools that have education programs for Down's kids... options are limited for us so local public school is all we've got... it costs us a bit extra (fees and etc.) but we are quite happy with how things have gone for her... long have I advocated that everyone should be forced to live in northern alaska for at least 2 yrs... the conditions are so harsh that it is very unforgiving, if you do stupid things mother nature 'fixes' the problem for all of us... stupidity is punished harshly up there, you simply die. it would clean up our gene pool pretty good!!!!
My wife was a Speacial Education teacher the last 10 years, people have no idea how much work goes in schooling these kids.
I don't think anyone is argueing it takes more energy. I used to teach our sunday school for 4-6 year olds. One downs syndrome child takes almost 70% of one person's time.
yup... this is a JOB... my daughters class has 6 kids in it... they routinely have 3-4 adults in that class to keep things under control... the teachers of special needs kids have the patience of Job but are very firm as they need to be... it is a job that I could never do...
-At what level do major educational policy decisions fall (Federal, State, Local)? All should share in some.. but in this order.. Local, State, Federal (and they should have very little to say). -What types of accountability (both student and teacher) should be in place? In this Order.. Parent, Teacher, Student. -Does the current NCLB and state standardized test system need to stay? Should it be revised? If so, how? Should be revised. Have it count for a grade.. when I was young I remember knowing those tests meant nothing to me.. I didn't care then.. which meant "C" was just a good of an answer as anything. -What are your thoughts on school choice/vouchers? Why? What happens to (not saying it does happen) the underfunded schools affected by the shift in enrollment? Where does the funding for transportation of these students come from? School choice is present today.. the rich still send their children to private schools. I don't think public school choice is possible for fiscal reasons. Instead of putting a band-aid on the problem why not fix the problems of the poorer schools? -Do you believe merit pay would benefit the quality of education? If so, how do you "define" the success on which the merit pay is based? Absolutely NOT! All it will create is more bureaucracy.. more morons in some other office costing me more tax money (that could be going to better use) and judging another entire profession by a child's test scores. In turn this will hurt the public school systems even more. -Most here don't approve of Unions, so what are your thoughts on school districts being able to remove qualified teachers with years of experience and replacing them with lesser experienced teachers based on salary steps alone? I am not a union dude.. but I actually have brain enough to realize they have importance still today. Anyone who doesn't think that has been brain washed by the far side of the Republican party.. or Federalists as they don't like to be called. If it were up to them you'd be making $8 an hour still with education being more of a class system than it already is. -Do you approve of budgetary cuts that affect educational programs outside of the primary subject area (Music, Art, Foreign Language, Business, Career and Technology, etc)? No.. I do not. Education is extremely important.. the education of art and music equally.. if not more than so. The creative mind spawns from those two subjects more than any other. You wanna cut something.. try the landscaping department first. And turn off the lights of the school when the day is over with. Understand.. this post was aimed at no one.. just our elected officials.
Where did your basic education come from, it sure as hell didn't come from some city college girl that thought that kat didn't spell cat . Kids today have no clue as to what life is, dads a jerk and moms, well mom's pokin jerks. We will never stop the other people from being other people so most will do better not trying.
