Shag,
I understand that many people have few options, however far too many don’t even explore options. I am not trying to blindly bash everyone and everything in the public school system as evil. I have many personal friends who are teachers and administrators in public schools.
I am also not naive enough to believe that no child can be educated in a public school setting. Obviously they can.
However, in the general sense you cannot compare the education recieved in a public school to that of a private school. On average there is just no comparison. Case by case, yes you can find instances that buck the norm, but typically the two are not in the same ballpark.
I have many criticisms of the public school system, from the ungodly price tag. I pay more in property taxes to my school district on a 150k house than I do tuition for my childs private education.... I do so to a district who pays teachers a 60k a year pension for life after 20 years served, thanks to rediculous contract capitulations by the district. (Yes pension commitments alone are a huge portion of the budget. So I am being raped over the coals not to educate (poorly I might add based on test scores) the children of my community, but to ensure that people who work 1/2 a career can retire making 1.5 times the median household income for life, with of course lifetime health benefits that go up about 10% a year that I’ve gotta pay for, etc etc etc.
The entire Middle school system is a joke and needs gone, whoever thought that one up single handedly did more harm to education than anyone else. Lets see take the children who are just at an age where where they need structure and responsibilities and some mentoring the most and put them in a completely artificial environment and let them run amok. K-8 is the only way a child should be, with 6-8th graders earning more responsibility and mentoring of younger students as they move into the top grades, not shipped into a closed system with nothing but other 6-8th graders so no responsibility is required of them... so the beginning of the transition to teenager is stifled into self absorption and self fed rebellion.
Mainstreaming is as well one of the dumbest things ever forced upon children. It aids neither the child nor the class in general to do such things with children who cannot keep up for whatever reasons. They will not be educated effectively to reach their personal potentials, and at the same time will be outcast and ridiculed throughout their schooling. A specialized school will aid these children in reaching their potential far more than plopping them into a system that they cannot function in, just for PC feel goodism.
Problem kids belong in military academies, not in mainstream schools where they will do nothing but disrupt and harm others.
I am absolutely amazed that in a country that generally accpet without question one size and type does not fit all for their morning coffee, believe absolutely stupidly that it is how education should be.
Gender schools traditionally deliver far supperior education to their coed counterparts, particularly for girls, but that’s not PC, so forget that... etc etc etc.
I don’t think all teachers and administrators in public schools are evil uncaring or radical leftist (though there definate are some of each) I don’t believe someone who is so mentally ill that they dress as though they are a member of the oposite gender that they are should be in front of a classroom of children. I don’t believe someone who is mentally ill and engaging in self destructive behaviors such as homosexuality should be in front of children. I don’t believe that gradeschoolers should be talking about homosexuality at all as part of their education, particular in a way that portrays this pitiable mental disorder as “just another lifestyle choice”
I do not believe you can raise a moral child in an environment that is openly hostile to the very foundations of western civilizations morality. Attempts to teach morality without the religous context are half a$$ at best.
I am not saying public schools are not a neccessary evil, they are, but they are the base, the absolute last option, the welfare check of the educational system if you will. It should not be the option of first choice ever.
Agreed - 100%, that is why it is my responsibility to educate my child daily and weekly in our family's Christian faith. Does she face situations that are antithetical to our beliefs? yes she does - for starters, every time she turns on the television or listens to a pop song, every time she sees a movie, every time we leave the house it is possible that her faith will be tested in some way. Is it tested at school? Sure it is - but school is not her entire world, it is part of it. If I think it is tested now, how will it be when she attends college where a recent survey stated that college professors are actually hostile to evangelical Christians? I did not leave her religious education to chance. My husband and I purposely set her and her sister on the right path and kept her there with continual attendance and participation in church, modeled by him and I.
As far as education goes, private schools can and are also filled with literature and people that are against Christians ( except for Christian schools, of course). A private education is no substitute for Christian instruction and modeling by parents.
As far as mainstreaming goes - don't forget that mainstreaming is mandated by IDEIA, it is the Federal law. As far as sending kids to a private school for education - it is the special education that drives up the overall cost of education. How would a community save money by sending special needs children to private schools? If I can find an article posted a few weeks ago, the real average to educate a regular, average kid is about $5k a year which is a more reasonable amount when every thing is factored in (books, teachers, administrators, desks, chairs, utilities, buses, insurance, sports, music program, fine arts, science labs, computers, etc.) It is the special education children, especially the severely profound that are the budget busters.
As far as middle school goes, I teach in a middle school and it's a tough call as to where they are best placed at this age. Sometimes I think a K-7 and an 8-12 is best, but you are right, the concept needs to be re-thought.