Posted on 08/29/2013 10:08:42 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – Do you send your kids to private school? Then congratulations: "You are a bad person," Allison Benedikt argues in Slate. "Not bad like murder bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So pretty bad." Her reasoning is simple: if everyone were invested in public schools—and not just monetarily invested, "but real flesh-and-blood-offspring" invested—they would get better. Involved parents can make a huge difference. Yes, your kid may not get as excellent an education. "Take a deep breath and live with that."
"If you can afford private school," even just barely, "chances are that your spawn will be perfectly fine at a crappy public school." They have support at home, and a family with resources—"the exact kind of family that can help your crappy public school become less crappy." You want a fostering creative environment, small class sizes, individual student attention? So do the poor people down the street. "Send your kids to school with their kids," and then fight to make that school better. Click for Benedikt's full column.
My son went through private schools and did fantastic. My wife is a long time public school teacher. The reason our son was sent to private schools was not because of the teachers but because of the other students in the schools.
A good percent of these children are parenting failures. And the failure of their parents to create responsible children who can follow rules and want to learn has created an empty hole in our public schools.
A good many of these children are bullies, have no self discipline, refuse to follow the simplest of rules, will never do their homework, are disruptive in class, and disrespectful to all authority. Lack of parenting creates these children and then the teachers get screamed at by the same exact non parents who are responsible for their attitudes and continued failures. If you could afford otherwise what good parent would want your children in that arena of monsters? There are a lot of good kids in this mix but they will always be over shadowed and drowned out by the bad ones. Home school is another alternative but there should be a price to pay for the failures that occur there too. At the end of every school year each home schooled child should be tested in an independent facility to make sure they have been taught to grade level. If they pass their parents/teachers should have a monetary reward. If they fail the parent/teacher should face a fine. If a parent wants to take on the job of educating their own children that is usually good but sometimes it goes bad and the children always pay a huge price for that failure. I know I'll hear a bunch from this post but it is what it is. Bad parents build bad students who are almost always doomed to failure...... and then they blame the schools and teachers....
I can’t bring myself to read a full article of this crap, but I’m guessing that Allison Benedikt does not have school age children of her own.
The battle lines have long since been drawn. Collectivists on one side, those who cherish individualism and individual rights on the other. This article is a perfect example of the other side’s POV. Your obligation is not to your children, it is to the collective, in their view. Currently their view is in ascendance. I fear for the Republic.
Kevin Spak is inadvertently indicating that it's lack of parental involvement in public schools which makes them a dangerous place for kids to be; public schools are a babysitting service for tired, working parents imo. So concerned parents essentially have no choice but to send their kids to private schools.
In this case, it was among the graduate pool at Emerson College
“I know I’ll hear a bunch from this post but it is what it is. Bad parents build bad students who are almost always doomed to failure...... and then they blame the schools and teachers....”
You will get no argument from me. No school, public or private, is a substitute for good parenting. The ultimate responsibility for raising children is on the parents, and that duty is non-delegable.
sending your kid to public school is child abuse.
sending your kid to private school shoes you have been paying some attention
But, just as with Obamacare, the liberal elite and theirs deserve exemption from mandatory government education and controls because they are already true believers and pure of both heart and intent.
I did send my kids to public school, and they did wear shoes.
I also instilled in them the same conservative principles I have, and even if they went to Purude, they otherwise turned out OK. Too many parents have abdicated the responsiblity of this basic function of parenting.
Did this column get sent to everyone who works as our elected representatives in Congress?
Your obligation is not to your children, it is to the collective, in their view.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
We are Borg! We are the collective!
Congratulations to you and your children for doing a great job of afterschooling.
Their hypocrisy never ceases to amaze me.
Every time liberals talk about supporting public schools, or taxing the rich, or turning in handguns, or investing in Social Security, or signing up for Obamacare, they could just press that button that writes "except for us".
Guess it's a bad idea, too much truth...
I suck.
Just for the record, the finest DC has to offer is pretty good. The current mayor is a throwback, but Anthony Williams and Adrian Fenty were serious about reform, as was Michelle Rhee. Which of course is why she was fired; union retribution at the hands of a union tool mayor.
The biggest factor, of course, is gentrification. This isn’t the same city it was 20, or even 10, years ago. Perceptions lag.
But you are correct that the DC system as a whole is still bad. The problem is demographics, not money. And that’s where the Slate article is simply incompetent. DCPS is now spending $29,000 per student, the highest in the country and much higher than the private school average. DC is an extreme case, but nationally, public schools are on average more expensive than private schools. The Slate author does not have a clue that real funding equalization (easily done with vouchers) would move dollars in exactly the reverse direction from what she imagines.
That’s great logic. Kind of like, if you have cancer and get treated for it, you are a bad person because you are costing our health care system money it needs to someday give everybody awful health care equally.
perude, lol
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