To: wintertime; Amelia
Well, since you have stated many times that ALL public schools are an abomination (or something along that line), then I guess I do fall in one of those three categories. Sadistic, a new adjective.
What you can't seem to bring yourself to admit is that there are good public schools out there. There are schools where the kids are happy and learning and the teachers engage their minds on a daily basis. Because humans run these schools, mistakes are made, but they are not mistakes of sadism. Not every classroom is run on a gang mentality by alpha students or sexually and emotionally abusive teachers. There are great public schools and awful public schools and plenty on a continuum between the two ends of the spectrum. I like to think I teach at one on the positive end and that my girls attended a great school. Yet, you more than once have come close to calling my daughters liars because they say they have not witnessed abuse. This has been expressed in comments such as "Well SoftballMom says HER daughters never saw this" "EYEROLL" "SURE!" These imply that they and/or I are lying. We are not.
You have even told other young posters that if they went to a public school their parents wasted their education. You have no way of knowing that. You make blanket statements that you have no way of proving then try to backtrack your way out of your statement with doubletalk. But your words are out there in black and white and are easily searchable. It's hard to defend absolutes and even harder to defend hyperbole.
To: SoftballMominVA
Well, since you have stated many times that ALL public schools are an abomination
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Those who have followed my posts know that I use that comment in reference to the First Amendment violations. I have not used this statement in regard to the emotional, physical, or educational treatment or outcomes of the children in government schools.
Even though all government school are in violation of the First Amendment, it is theoretically possible ( I supposed) for a child to come through a government school without being physically, emotionally, or educationally damaged. All successful schools, both private and government, must restrict speech, press, assembly, and religious expression, if chaos is to be prevented. While children in both systems experience the same restrictions, the private system conforms to the Constitution, while the government system is in violation of the First Amendment. The child's experience would be the same.
So...for you to take this comment out of context is a strawman argument.
I hope you are not doing this to your students. If you are, it is abusive. Children are not sufficiently mature to recognize strawmen, and they are also vulnerable. Teachers are in a position of authority, and capable of adverserly effecting grades, recommendations, and future options.
I have only addressed one of your stawmen comments. Your post is one long list of stawmen. You claim to be a conservative but argue like a liberal. The tactics of the liberal include distortion, strawmen, taking comments out of context, looking for the one exception, and applying the argument universally. They aim to exhaust the conservative. If the conservative walks away in disgust, the liberal may falsely think they have won the argument. Ah...but this is the Internet and these post stand for all to judge. This techniques do not work here on the Internet.
Hm?...As I think about it, the liberal's arguing techniques remind me of the techniques used by middle school alpha-girls and their girl gang members.
You claim to be a conservative, but the term "conservative government school defender" is an oxymoron. You also argue like a liberal. Did you learn this in you college of education?
77 posted on
01/26/2007 11:26:38 AM PST by
wintertime
(Good ideas win! Why? Because people are .not stupid)
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