The weighty truth about public education

email | Craig J. Cantoni

[George W. Bush]

Scary stuff. I'd like to see more in-depth writing from the author.

Someday, some conservative activist will take the time to slog through all the crime reports and public subsidy info and tax records and such to produce a full picture of the effects of socialist policy in some little burg. This writer made a start but what is really needed is a comprehensive investigation into it.

[Eska]

You will always see that top 15% in any school that have been raised with proper ideals/values that excell. I'm talking about that clean cut straight A student who will probably be offered a sports scholarship even though he doesn't need it. Then you see he has four brothers just like him, all over achievers. It starts in the home. They are our future leaders and why America is on top.

Most parents today want nothing to do with school or their kid's education. Schools are supposed to not just cover academics, but socialization also; since this isn't being accomplished in the home anymore.

Until you have spent some time in todays classroom and then look back on how it was 20 years ago; you have no clue. Its a reflection of our own societal dysfunction. Until America starts doing a better job raising kids; nothing in education will improve. Pay increases for teachers, benchmarks & testing, or privatization just circumvents the real problem which is how we have changed as a people.

[Comus]

Public education is America's longest and most complete experiment with socialism. Like all socialistic endeavors, it is a dismal failure. The end of socialised education is at hand, on this medium, the internet. As soon as someone discovers that money can be made with net based private education, public education will die. The curriculum is already a reality, the missing link is buildings and computers, affordably priced. Not all parents can home school.

[Knitebane]

Education is a good thing. But Bill Gates was a college dropout.

And Bill Gates daddy was a patent lawyer. Young Billy Gates learned at home what he needed to know to get where he is today.

If you steal from others and have good lawyers, you can get rich.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

There sure seem to be a lot of fat asses in PA!

And you seem surprised?........ I find this article to be dead on...... I volunteered quite a bit in my son's elementary school - the kids were pretty much a reflection of the parents and home life.....Some of those Mother's looked like they could hold their own in any bar fight!

[Eska]

I live in Alaska; the rural school districts have been utilizing comp based ed programs with mixed results. Sometimes they are successful, other times not; often it goes back to the student.

I see kids that have been pulled out of local schools for various reasons. Kids that are not academically challenged in govt schools, Parents that homeschool for religious reasons, Kids that just want to avoid being somewhere on time, but the biggest group I see are from parents that don't exhibit good parenting skills. Many rural/native/bush families don't consider education important. Most are on some type of govt welfare and it's generational. The state gives the family a computer and dad sticks a cd in at 11:00 for a few hours each day. After a few years of wasting away, the kids get caught up by statewide testing and then usually drop out of the ed process completely. Pregnant at 13 comes next and another welfare family on its way.

Many kids will not develop academically without keeping their feet to the fire. Many parents I see don't even take an interest in their kids education. Times have changed.

I have taught in urban, bush, and native schools. The single central problem is how our country has changed socially and how this affects education. Violence, FAS, substance abuse, dysfunction, and thats just for starters. I just heard the otherday a senior at Kivalina had a rifle on the principal and the new year has just begun. Kid was drunk and threatened to kill the new principal. State police flew into the village and picked the kid up. Do you ever remember a kid putting a gun on a teacher at school?

Teachers are all for comp based ed but how do you successfully hold the students accountable? The big picture is to send these kids out prepared to succeed in life. The largest majority of kids I have seen are not mature enough to accomplish this on their own. Maybe 20% overachievers that would excell in any format. 30% complete losers, shouldn't even be in school. Then the 50% that just float through and for the most part get it together with time, maturity, and proper guidance.

You are completely right about the possibilities of comp based ed but I just don't think kids today could deal with the responsibility.

[quietolong]

bingo!

[ladylib]

It's already starting.