Posted on 04/14/2005 5:58:52 AM PDT by Sam's Army
Public School Is Too Strict; Socialization Muted
My home-schooled granddaughter and I went to have lunch with my public schooled granddaughter at her school recently. She wanted us to come have lunch with her. It cost $2.50 for me and $1.50 for granddaughter.
It sure wasn't like when we went to school. None of the kids were allowed to talk at all to each other during their lunch hour.
After they finished eating, they had to read a book that they brought with them.
There were monitors with eyes roving to and fro. If they order milk, they are forced to drink it all. It seemed to me more like I was in a prison cafeteria.
They had to get in no-talking lines to arrive and to leave, all in the same uniforms, and no talking of course, even in the rest rooms.
If they talk in lines, they have to go to the principal's office.
I sure didn't see much socialization going on there.
My home-schooled granddaughter and I were glad to get out of there, and step back into freedom.
FRAN GRINER
Lakeland
When I was in middle school, we had a very strict no-talking policy during lunchtime. AND we had to eat all our food, and drink all our milk just like those poor little darlings. If anything, the no talking rule forces kids to eat lunch like they're supposed to, and not get side tracked by talking. We had time to do that at recess.
Recess isn't around anymore at this county in question. Too risky for insurance coverage reasons, among other things.
Schools in Charlotte have exactly the same rules--check out University Park Elementary some time.
1) They learn that they are the students, not the bosses;
2) They learn that having time for introspection is a good thing;
3) They learn to occupy their minds with their own thoughts.
This author seemed to be remembering back to her days when students COULD sit and talk quietly, because those students that got out of hand were quickly brought back in line with a warning of a phone call to a parent. Try calling a parent now--the student is always right and the teacher is always wrong.
And no, I didn't act like that--I was the resident bookworm sitting in the corner reading.
LOL
Else they get medicated.
"The tenses are screwy, usage is terrible"
The gran-dawter who IS being home-schooled probly ain't being edumakated not to good?
You don't need to doubt it. It's quite often the case, especially in primary and elementary schools. It's recommended by the U.S. Department of Education. My kids' school doesn't allow except in the first five minutes of lunch. After that, or if the noise gets "too out of hand" before the five minutes, it's "Yellow Light", which means only light whispering. If there are *any* transgressions, they go to "Red Light", which means there is *absolutely* no talking, but they go to that level during the last five minutes of lunch. They get 15 minutes to get in there, get their food, finish, and then it's off to recess, which lasts 20 minutes. Most days, they don't get but 5 minutes because of some, usually mysterious, infraction of the rules by some child. (It's group punishment now, you see. One messes up, all pay.)
Whomever wrote the letter to the paper wasn't exaggerating.
"... take it to the School Board"?
And get exactly *what*? That's a laugh.
As children learn less discipline at home, discipline in schools will have to increase to keep control of them. Kids are not he same as when you and I were children.
However, the thrust of the letter was that the socialization of kids is now lacking due in part to nonsensical measures like this. A oft-repeated criticism of homeschooling is that kids "won't learn to socialize". That criticism does not hold water when compared to today's public school environment.
The point here is getting lost. Homeschoolers are constantly being bombarded about not being properly socialized. Yet, when I look at school, I see an institution and structure which segregates by age, does not encourage kids to communicate clearly with kids outside their peer group (let alone adults), where conformity is valued above all else, and where individual achievement is downplayed because of the group.
Exactly what aspect of social life does that correspond to?
I have been in the workforce for a pretty long time and I have never had any social experiences which are like school. My socialization was stunted by spending formative years in school.
Yet now homeschoolers are getting the bad rap.
Mind-boggling, really. Actually, more like Orwellian....up is down, right is wrong, etc.
At least not at this point in time.
Well said.
#1, Alert other parents
#2, Get media attention
#3, Find supporters for change
#4, Participate in the democratic process.
All to often Conservatives throw up our hands and say "nothing can be done." The Swift Boat vets are proof of falsity of that belief.
Too many prefer to cry "woe is me" rather than taking the steps to solve the problem.
This sounds exactly like what my two youngest girls (10 and 8) deal with at their parochial school every day. This school also has one of the highest passing rates (89.9%, as opposed to 65% to 72% for the rest) of the state's standardized test in the states. As it feeds all three local high schools, it also accounts for 8 of the last 10 Valedictorians at all three.
Seems to me this school is doing things the right way.
I'm surprised that they would be that strick in elementary school. GOOD for them! We couldn't talk during lunch time and we stood in line without talking.It didn't hurt us.
After spending yesterday in an airport with a bunch of rotten little kids who were disruptive, didn't listen to their parents and were nasty to their parents, I'm all for putting duct tape on their mouths.
Our plane was delayed because a 3 year old refused to keep his seatbelt buckled and screamed and howled when his parents tried to do it. Nice.
Good for them! I had heard that there were a lot of discipline problems in the schools and that's why some of the communities wanted out of that system.I guess you can't believe everything you hear!
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