My three children received excellent academic educations in public school.
We live in Texas. Much less of the union crap than in other states.
Please remember that every situation is unique. There are good schools and bad schools, good teachers and bad teachers. It’s wrong to throw them all in the same pot.
Does our public education system need improvement? Of course. Always.
But our society needs it more. As a parent who watched first-hand while our children were there, public schools carry a terrible burden trying to teach kids who can’t learn and don’t really want to because they carry the hubris of our world.
And their parents don’t care.
Drink some more of that Kool-Aide YOU SAP!
Vouchers.
Therein lies a powerful argument against public schools. Very few people will EVER care about the quality of a product that they do directly pay for. Because their parents do not care, the children do not either. As you point out, this is a huge burden on the few parents who do. (see Milton Friedman's four way to spend money)
Parents must pay directly for their children's education - public funding must end. Single payer doesn't work.
My children were in the public system in Texas as well — one of the exemplary districts. I spent summers filling in the gaps of their education — things like knowing states and capitals, as they were never made to memorize them. Both of my kids were bored to tears — but I know that many parents were perfectly happy in the system.
Beyond the absence of challenging curricula, I was also irritated by the lack of accountability for student behavior, lack of accountability for rotten teacher behavior, and over-emotional schtick in the classroom. I was taken aback to hear my child’s teacher tell the class how much she ‘loves’ them. No, you don’t. You care for your class, but when they walk out of there at the end of the year, they don’t hear from you again. That’s not love. It’s a lie to say that, and it’s ridiculous. In addition, kids were not allowed to say — no, I don’t want to play with you on the playground. Sorry, teachers, but there is still freedom of association in this country, and if my child does not want to play with the class paste-eater, that’s the way it is.
Yes, there are problems outside the schools — lots of parents demanding things that have zip to do with academia. Parents are expecting schools to raise their children rather than educate them. There are children who have zero support at home to help with homework and they drag the class down, because heaven forbid schools should ‘level’ students according to ability. Someone’s feelings might get hurt. And then there are the kids who barely speak English — how do you teach a child who has no idea what is being said?
In short: if your children received an excellent academic education in Texas public schools — I think that’s wonderful. But I also imagine that your definition of excellent and mine are wholly different. We pulled our kids from the public system; my 10 year old has almost completed pre-Algebra with 96%, and my 14 year old is wrapping up Algebra 2 (he is scoring in the upper 90%’s as well). It’s looking like he’ll be finished with high school at 16. If we were still in the system, they wouldn’t be excelling as they are — they’d have been held back and forced to a mold, and force-fed state emotional/societal crap like what to do if you get in a car with a drunk driver (this was a program my daughter was made to attend in 2nd grade), counseling propaganda about ‘bullying’ (while the school completely ignores actual bullying when presented evidence). Much happier out of that ‘exemplary’ system. Not sure what it was supposed to have been an example of — but to me, it was an example of all that’s wrong with American schools.
I’m with you. There are a lot of terrible schools out there, places that no decent parent would send a child if they understood what was happening, but there are also a lot of great schools. My kids have gone to excellent public schools (and several are still in those good schools), where the focus is on academics, and the quality of the academics is exemplary. Those schools exist, and even in average schools, there are GT classes that provide a real academic education. Thanks for standing up for the truth.
I think of these discussions much like discussion of how safe it is to walk the streets in town. I agree with those in Baltimore, DC, the Bronx, Chicago, Detroit, and East LA who say the streets are dangerous, and I agree with those in smaller towns who say the streets are safe. The mistake is in generalizing from the streets/schools in my neighborhood, yours, or an anti-school/anti-ubran poster’s neighborhood to all the streets/schools. We are all at least mostly right for the streets/schools where we live.
“My three children received excellent academic educations in public school.”
I would be very surprised if it’s as good as you think. And I can almost guarantee you they are subjected to near non-stop subtle, and not so, far left, PC, multicultural, ideological indoctrination throughout the school day. Maybe that mirrors your own beliefs but if it doesn’t you need to be concerned.
I taught in a FL middle school for one year as part of a “change in career” program they had set up to lure teachers in from other careers. It was far worse than I had ever expected. Students at education departments around the country routinely score at the bottom on college level standardized tests and it shows in school break rooms. For the most part the teachers teaching your kids became teachers because it was the only college course of study they could complete. It’s no surprise they endorse all the garbage of the left, they’re not smart enough to see through it. My personal belief is sending a child to public school amounts to child abuse. You are, of course, entitled to your opinion.
http://www.salisburypost.com/News/051912-North-teacher-on-video-qcd
Read this then click on the video link at the bottom of the article.
The incompetency and ignorance of this teacher is unbelievable.
I see the St. Louis Public schools, a model for urban districts, run like a jobs program. Let’s face it, black kids go in eager to learn at 6 years old and face teachers who believe they cannot learn, cannot keep up and need special consideration. This lowered expectation is what they live up to until at 15 they decide they can learn more from the street or from their own baby, and they drop out. Since our child labor laws will not allow them to work with their hands they turn to the work available in their community. Know what that’s likely to be?
Excellent educations in Texas? What schools were those, pray?
You should realize that this is a typical rationalization provided by government education welfare queens.
There it is. It all boils down to parental involvement. If a school doesn't have parents staying on top of things, the kids are doomed.
This is what I think of your school system - defund it. Let the families of Texas pay for their own kids’ education. That is how you improve it - no money for teachers or infrastructure.
We will defend your right to put your children in tax-supported government schools.
We want to maintain our right (and have the same government be responsible to secure our right) to NOT have our in any government-run school.
Here in Indiana, one of the most conservative of the Midwest states, academics be they good or bad, we see with our own eyes what gets off the big yellow indoctrination center wagon (a school bus) every afternoon right on our corner, less than 75 feet from our front door.
No thanks. We will help "improve" our society by NOT making those places a daily source of influences for 6 to 8 hours for our children.
Home schooling now for 31 years now, we shall continue.