On 2005-10-14 09:57:00, webcrawler wrote:
Perhaps our public school system needs to figure out why this is.
I'm pretty much for scrapping our current school systems and starting over. Some schools are already making major changes, but far too many are still caught up in the old ways of doing things.
Well, you'll find, if you try it, that educrats and even ran-n-file teachers turn hostile and sometimes dangerous whenever you get close to the nut of the issue.
Most of them believe with fervent faith that what they have been trained to do and have done for a living is all about educating children. Nothing could be further from the truth. The truth is that they have been trained and have worked in the trade of preventing kids from educating themselves.
John Taylor Gatto, former NYC and NYS teacher of the year, explains it best. Here's his whole book online for free:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/toc1.htmThe public school system is not going to fix the problem because that would put them all out of work. Not only that, it would force a significant segment of the population to give up their delusions of grandure and face the fact that they're really bad guys.
As far as scrapping the system, it's getting easier and easier to do that every year; at least from the pov of an individual student. When my dad was a kid, the compulsory schooling laws were not really enforced; except on a selective basis to hassle the trouble makers. But, for the most part, kids studied hard in order to get a diploma and education which were NOT guaranteed w/ minimal attendance and compliance. Kids actually failed classes and grades for purely accademic reasons. Can you imagine?
But things are different now. I took my kid out of public school as soon as she agreed that that was the better option. That was after first grade, which had been too much like kindergarten and, therefore, too boring for her. So we registered her as a homeschooler and just kept on doing what we had been doing; nothing. We read, she wanted to know how to do that. We discuss the issues of the day, naturally she wanted to be able to win an argument now and then. She made friends in real life and through online contacts, they also discuss various issues, she still likes to appear well informed and such. So, naturally, she saw to it that she was. We've never, ever had an argument over homework or study. When the french company that had hosted a server of her favorite online game shut down, naturally she wanted to learn enough French to communicate w/ her new friends. All we had to do was buy the book and cds and stay the hell out of her way. Now, when we argue over the typical family stuff, we often get cussed out in French.
She decided this year that she wanted to go to highschool. So we borrowed a set of 8th grade curriculum from the school so she could make sure she was up to speed. She was, no remediation required. There are no French speakers in her school. But, on the up side, the other students are willing to pay $3/copy for CDs containing all of their favorite songs. And, since she's had the leisure and freedom to explore areas of interest not usually spoon-fed to highschool age kids, they all think she's some kind of genius.
My point is this; at this stage of the comic tragedy that is the American education story, all that is necessary to improve on the system for yourself is to DROP OUT! If you want to solve the overal, public education problem, we'll have to do it enmass.
Our country right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.
--Carl Schurz, German-born U.S. general and U.S. senator
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