Very interesting article! I recommend it to other Freepers.
What if youth were not released to a life of crime but to **work** instead in the company of mature adult mentors? Wasn't that the case in the past, as recently as the Greatest Generation?
In the article it states that while during school days property crime decreases by 14% violent crime against people **increases* by 28%. So?....Why would any rational parent want their children forced into the company of these thugs and thugettes in prison-like facilities that are misnamed “schools”?
By the way, excellent observations on your part.
The judge cares more about property than subjecting the good kids in the prison-like school to these malcontents.
If the condemned are adult enough to be sent to adult lockup how can they be truants?
My observation:
Yes, many of the features and policies of the modern prison-like school are there for the protection of the child, but doesn't treating children like prisoners teach them to be comfortable with becoming state prisoners? Surely this will be reflected in the voting booth in a few years.
And....Regarding “good” schools. Where are the studies that prove they are good? Answer: They have never been done.
It is **unknown** how much of a so-called “good” school's scores are due to the afterschooling and preschooling done **In the HOME** by the parents, the child himself doing home study, and professional or non-professional tutoring.
My observations from working with the tutoring program in our church:
-—These children coming to church tutoring had as much assigned homework as my homeschooling children did all day. Seriously! So?....If they are doing as much homework as academically successful children, aren't these institutionalized children,( if they do their homework), homeschooling after school?
— Maybe the only thing “good” government schools are doing is sending home a very expensive curriculum for the parents and child to follow in the home, and these institutional schools are merely testing, grading, and sorting centers.
-—Finally....It is my anecdotal observation that there is no difference between the home habits, educational values, and the amount of time spent at the kitchen table in formal homework between academically successful institutionalized children and successful homeschoolers.
We spend MORE on K-12 schooling in this nation than we do on the military on a massive K-12 program that has never been proven to be effective. It is entirely possible that any child's academic success is entirely due to the homeschooling ( afterschooling) done OUTSIDE of the government schools. If this is so, institutionalized schooling my be retarding the academic, social, and emotional development of the child from healthy homes. And....To reach the child in dysfunctional families the school would need to duplicate what is missing in a functional family and provide a means to mentor dysfunctional parents. KIPP schools may be an example.