Twenty-one ways "public schools" harm your children

The Education Liberator, Vol. 3, No. 2, February/March 1997 ^ | March 1997 | R.C. Hoiles

[Carry_Okie]

It more often than not comes down to the parents.

You are forgetting that the parents are products of the schools. The children are in the school FAR longer than they are with their parents during waking hours. Toss in homework and that disparity increases. Thus, if the parents were the problem and the schools the remedy, we would be seeing generational improvement.

We are obviously seeing the converse at an accelerating rate of decay.

[repubzilla]

I don't believe parents are the problem and schools are the remedy...what do you propose to do? many of my parents are over 40-not exactly recent high school grads...Is there any hope for humanity at all??? Dear Lord close down the schools now and then we can.......(sarcasm!)

Honestly-by saying the problem is public schools and the time spent there-what is the remedy? The problem with students, parents, schools, hell-society itself is so multifaceted-we just have to fight the good fight on ALL fronts...not just nail schools! Thats too easy.

[nmh]

Me: PARENTS are often the larger problem at home.

You: PARENTS are usually products of public schools.

Me: I'm a mixture of both but still even I can see where public schools have become public sewers. Mothers that I see everyday while dropping my daughter off to school also went to public school and they won't have there kids there for the same reason.

[nmh]

You're right and I thank you fro your reply.

[repubzilla]

"One of school's most important effects is to ensure that most people never develop a working vocabulary of morals, liberty, and knowledge, because school preempts all these things in it's day-to-day operations, and it has to conceal that fact from the vast majority of people so that it can survive as an institution."

WOW! what school do you teach in. Thats some wild stuff. I must remember to ensure that my students don't "develop a working vocabulary of morals, liberty, and knowledge" next week when I get back to work.

Your points sound as etheral as some liberal crazy talk in universities!

I know their are many screwed up teachers, schools, etc..but you know what? Its like the ENRON thing..people here about corporate screw ups and then they make blanket statements about all corporations...people hear about some wacked out liberal loony school story on Rush, Hannity, or O'reily and they think "boy, all schools are screwed up-its just not the case! If it was we would be in worse shape than we are now. We have to combat the libs-I personally know many who are fighting against the wackos!

[aberaussie]

bttt

[ican'tbelieveit]

I agree with BRMG. I would like to see how you defined good. I went to a very small public school growing up. I was not challenged until I got into highschool, which means I spent a lot of time in trouble in the lower grades.

Secondly, I had some phenomenal teachers in highschool. They wanted more than anything for me to learn, and to open doors & horizons for me. But, I still had to deal with the social antics of peers, which completely offset what the teachers were doing.

Teen pregnancies were rampant (and this was a small school, everyones' parents went to church); drug and alcohol use were everywhere. Just run out to someone's pickup.

A few years ago, I interacted with my nephew going thru the same school. His skills were minimal compared to what I had by his age. And all of the rest of the "fun" stuff still existed.

Comparing my experience to his, I would say the public school I went to was good. Yet, I left it knowing I would never subject my kids to that atmosphere. And, when I left, I had teachers who knew I would never support public schools again. I had one teacher in particular who wrote a message in my senior year book to not give up on public schools yet.

[churchillbuff]

so now the orange county register is a socialist piece of junk."""

There was a period when I had the occasion to read the Colorado Springs newspaper. (Owned by the Orange county paper, I believe?) It was astoundingly pro-liberty. Later it changed - to become milquetoast and boring.

[mrfixit514]

Wow, an article bashing teachers. How original.

Really, if you people have such a problem with public schools, do what I did. Send your kids to private schools. If it is really that important you will find a way to afford it.

[KC_for_Freedom]

My school was good in 1963 as well, it is a mess today. When I was there they fired a known communist on the staff for bringing her views into the classroom. Today a teacher who brings his/her liberal views into the classroom receives commendations for social activity. Wear your pink ribbon, fly your rainbow flag, post a sign that homosexuals have a place of refuge in your room, you are mainstream. Complain about standard tests, mandatory flag salutes you are in. The only hope for kids in these schools is help from knowledgable parents at home.

[The SISU kid]

"Schools should be renamed Socialist Indoctrination Centers."

That's S.I.C.


8^)

[kizzdogg]

Ok, sorry it took a little while to post this....

I guess my definition of good is this. I just recently graduated (2003), so I'm not sure what the standards were when most of you other people went to school. I'll start with my elementary school. I don't know what they did but when the four schools eventually funneled into the high school, my elementary school usually had at least five students in the top ten of the class. My graduating year we had four of the top five, including the top three. So I guess you could say that part was good.

Then with my high school, the teachers really tried to make it so that they weren't spoon feeding us answers or information. We had a lot of hands on work and a lot of group projects to come up with our own conclusions. They said that they wanted to make it like a "college experience". And when the state rankings for public schools came out, we were always one of the top schools. They went based of cumulative grades and standardized testing and such. Property values were also more in my school district just because everybody wanted their kids to be in that district.

You can take it how you want it, but that's why I figured my public school education was good.

[Carry_Okie]

what do you propose to do?

Crush the system. Defunding the union by both an IRS bust for tax evasion and cutting off the flow of political funds makes for a good first step. This is a war to save our kids. We don't have to be nice about it.

Here is my program:

Education Policy Components

1. Assist formation of corporate service associations. Offer State funding for local school districts to divest into smaller, more responsive institutions.
2. Use the private and home education market to develop and test learning tools and services. Private validation services would assess product performance against their claims. School boards would be free to select these products for use in public schools. Insurance on the guarantee would cover the cost of remedial education if the product fails to meet warranted performance.
3. Investigate teachers' unions for partisan activities using tax-exempt funds. Prosecute officers for fraud and tax evasion. Send them to jail.
4. Enforce the U.S. Supreme Court decision re Communications Workers v. Beck (487 US 735, 1988).
5. Eliminate regulations that stand in the way of charter schools.
6. Eliminate sole bargaining provisions or programs.
7. Institute merit pay, vouchers, educational tax credits, and educational savings accounts.
8. Veto any bill requiring home and private educators to conform to State teacher certification standards or any bill requiring State supervision of home schools.
9. Analyze any Federal program for insufficient funds and unintended consequences suspecting unfunded mandates. Cite New York v. United States (505 US 144, 1992).
10. Support private scholarship programs that contain a promise of future employment, whereby students are directed into economically useful fields of study.
11. Allow top graduates of inner city schools to enroll at junior colleges for two years, free. Then let them enroll at the university level as sophomores on an equal footing.

[kizzdogg]

Yeah, well, in my high school and town it wasn't very diverse. I think we had like 3 minorities in our school and they were only there because we had one of the only special needs classes. So the kind of liberal things that happen in other places, like praising alternative lifestyles, absolutely didn't fly over in the classroom.

[repubzilla]

hmmm..ok-how about letting W and Paige in on this...you should have submitted your name for the education cab position!

[Carry_Okie]

hmmm..ok-how about letting W and Paige in on this...you should have submitted your name for the education cab position!

They're too busy doing deals with Teddy Kennedy.

[KC_for_Freedom]

fight the good fight on ALL fronts...not just nail schools! Thats too easy.

Of course we want to fight on all fronts, but the school system maintained by the liberals is a liberal voter creation movement. Students today believe lots of stuff that they are told and much of it is not true.

I was taught that conservatives are thiefs and poluters and that liberals were supporters of the poor and the working classes. This is not true. Liberals if anything want to keep the poor and working class poor to enhance their collective political power. Many of conservative approaches would work better to help the poor and the working classes.

Schools now teach that all cultures are wonderful and no one should place one class/culture over another. This is not true. While all people are endowed by their Creator with inaliable rights, all cultures have not led to the same development and wealth for their people.

Schools teach that hatred for the homosexual has led to his/her being bullied and asaulted. The schools teach that the solution is to accept the homosexual lifestyle as one of many normal lifestyles and the problem will cease to be a problem. This is not a valid use of the school system. The solution to a crime is to arrest and convict the criminal. No change of social culture is really required. The schools don't teach this.

Schools teach group learning is as good as individual learning and that same grade for differing amounts of effort is acceptable in school and should become increasingly acceptable in industry. The system has few if any redeaming characteristics.

[avitot]

old saying: "the hand that rocks the cradle controls the world."
new saying: "the hand that writes the school textbooks controls the world."

[repubzilla]

I basically agree with you-but you are generalizing. When you write "schools are this or are doing that"-you make it sound like all schools. In actuality it is some teachers teach this or that. I do not do any of those things you claim and I KNOW I am not the only teacher around. Yes-you are correct radical ideas are at times propagated in schools-it has been that way for hundreds of years-more often in universities.....but it depends on the school district and area as well. A school in Berkley will be more radical than one in middle America. The teachers Unions and the media have a huge role to play in this. Individual teachers are more fed up with these groups as you might imagine.

Students have always believed a lot of what they are told...we need to make education an attractive career to conservative minded people than the culture will change. In fact once the 60's libs fully retire and they are in the process of that know I believe we will edge more towards the right. I don't foresee a sea change but any movement will be a blessing!

[KC_for_Freedom]

Students have always believed a lot of what they are told...we need to make education an attractive career to conservative minded people than the culture will change.

Yes I generalize and I realize "all generalizations are false, including this one". But I taught and had a child go through school in a blue state (blue area) so I am more sensitive to the problem. If things are better in other states that is all to the good. Libs are running colleges to a great degree as well, and I believe the teachers unions spread this drival everywhere they have any influence at all.

Recently the text book commission of Texas rejected several social studies texts because in the discussion of family and marriage the books used gender neutral terms that would be useful if say a teacher wanted to make the point that a two male parent family was a normal environment for the rearing of children. This was the first move in the right direction that I know of.