Quote:
Originally Posted by Moontanman
Hmmm, both my sons went to public school, by trying hard and with a little native intelligence and support from me they did quite well. The oldest is now studying to teach government on the college level and the youngest is a JR at Carolina and on the Deans list. It would have been easy to simply not try and blame the schools but they didn't and neither did I. I went to PTA meetings participated in the system to make sure reality was taught in our schools and it worked quite well. My youngest is an exchange student in Tuebingen Germany this spring and summer. He has told me that home schooled students are a joke. Most of the time they can't find their ass in the dark with a flash light, they seldom are prepared for College and have to get considerable remedial tutoring. Most of them seem to think that proselytizing is more important than learning. I think you take away from public schools what you want, if you want to do nothing but party and slide by you can. But if you are serious and the classes are available because the parents insist on real knowledge being taught the kids can come away with a great education. You get out of it what you put in.
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And you should be proud of what you have stressed to them and proud of them for being intelligent enough to take something away from the system (but truthfully, they didn't. They took something away from you because you are a thinking adult and stress ideas at home. I proved that myself with my first two children. They had NO curriculum. All they had to do was read. The oldest is currently working on her masters in music at the U of Mn., the next is working on his doctorate in physics and math at Indiana. My point, as long as they are exposed to logical thought, they'll do fine. Amazing, but true.) But see, we're talking about a system which is supposed to teach them while we're working our asses off paying the taxes to pay for those new buildings, sports programs, etc. And now the failures of their learning should be placed on them and the parents? I accept the blame for my kids to the extent it is rightfully mine.
Why don't they learn to love learning in school?
It's easy to say it's a matter of family and native intelligence but Montessori proved a long time ago that all kids have the ability to learn and if it's done properly the kids will all act like geniuses and they'll actually turn their hovels into little heavens.
When the school system has them for 8 hours a day for 12 years, that's a lot of time spent in that system.
Now you say that I should insist on real knowledge being taught..... And that implies that I'm still responsible for what the system is teaching, hence this particular 'argument' about evolution, etc. But, a system, which the schools system is (by definition) should be responsible for something. So what is it, exactly? What is its feedback mechanism that keeps it current and keeps it rational (and whose definition should we use?)? How does that 'system' function anyway?
Get involved with the PTA? That's strictly a make believe, pretend process whose main goal is to pass time. Your kids are only in one school for 3 or 4 years. By the time any concepts you'd like to implement would happen they're out of there and on to another mess. It's a con of a different nature. And it's set up that way on purpose. No way can you have an effect.
As a property owner I'm paying for it whether or not I have children in it. And I'll pay for my whole life and as each year goes by I'll pay more and more and own my property less and less. So, after all that, what exactly is the benefit I'm getting? When and how did it happen that we agreed we'd rent our own property?
And the accountability, as you so eloquently implied, is mine and my childrens. And I couldn't agree more. But where is the schools system's accountability? What am I paying all that money for anyway? If the blame is going to be put on me and mine, what happened to the 12 x 8 x # of days per year block of life?
But I understand how this works so I'll shut up. We don't want the factory workers to have to learn more than they need to, just enough to read the signs that tell them which side of the line to stay on, where the bathrooms are, etc. And if they need to read, just well enough to make sure they don't punch in on the wrong timesheeet. I suspect that the common folk think the school system is a hell of alot more than it really, really is. But they're used to getting screwed anyway so who cares? At least it baby sits their kids for them during the day.
What a friggin mess. But what did we expect when we handed over the education of our kids to the government?
I wonder if my daughter qualifies for a bailout.
