Comments on: Before you send your child back to public school, there's something you should know

By: Geneva

Geneva — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 09:26:09 +0000

I left teaching because of things mentioned in previous comments. I realized that textbooks, which are costly, are written not to exhance learning but to impede it and that schools, at least public ones, are more concerned with test scores than learning. Luckily, I went to a segregated public school in a small Texas town where our teachers, because they were black, could not get the college jobs they deserved and were some of the best public school teachers I’ve ever learned. Of course, this was in the 1960s when there was still cooperation between home and school and teachers were revered the way they are in Asian countries. I am a professional writer because I had a seventh grade homeroom teacher recognized my talent and my high school English teacher developed it. Our test scores at the “colored school” were consistently higher than those at the white school where some if the teachers never attended college and I always tested way above grade level as did many of my classmates. My high school standards were so high, I was only the second student in its history to make straight As. Now, students in the public schools where I live are on the honor roll but can’t read. I taught children to read as a second grade teacher and now run an after school program where I’m teaching a teen with autism to read based on his musical interest. It’s not difficult to teach reading, math, science, history, grammar, or spelling. It is often difficult to motivate students. That’s where good teachers excel. However, schools now make it difficult to be a good teacher because of all of the testing done today that has little to do with learning and everything to with funding. I think smaller class size helps because it allows teachers time to individualize learning. However, infant (elementary) schools in England once had as many as 60 students in a class and with parents volunteering to work with individual students and small groups were able to assure that every child received instruction. Parents aren’t welcome in most American public schools these days. I am a former public school teacher and retired three years ago after working for twenty years with children and adults with developmental disabilities in a county agency and as a newspaper reporter and freelance journalist parttime. But I advocate homeschooling. My nephew was homeschooled this past school year abd I had the pleasure of working with him while his homeschooled teacher (my mother who was also my Kindergarten teacher) was on vacation for two weeks last fall. It was one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had as a teacher. His eagerness to learn and engagement as we explored his favorite subject, science, which was also one of my undergraduate minors. Now, I work parttime with a private agency and fulltime as a writer. I’ve written a number of curriculum guides for staff working with individuals with developmental disabilities. I’d love to write learning material for schools, but unless the lessons accommodate the current mandate that no one can fail, schools won’t purchase the material. Failure is not option, even when children can’t read, write, or compute. And critical thinking us completely out of the question.

By: Liberal Conservative

Liberal Conservative — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 18:30:58 +0000

————-Conservatives oppose the public school system because they don’t like lower class people or minorities getting free educations.———–

Where in the hell do you get the authority to speak? Lemme guess, out of your ass?

The REAL reason Conservatives oppose the public school system is because they don’t want to be forced to pay for other people’s education through taxes. Most conservatives, including myself, find it criminal to force people to give up their own income to benefit someone else. This should come through charity.

Do some research sometime and you will find that the federal labor board is creating the mandates for the public school system. That has to tell you something, well, maybe not you.

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 20 Feb 2011 22:11:48 +0000

I’d like to see an example of a school improvement plan.

By: Magnus Rex

Magnus Rex — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:48:46 +0000

While it is true that the public school system has allowed for more children to get an education (something VERY important for the survival of any society), it doesn’t help that many teachers don’t care, simply because they don’t think they get enough money to deal with the stupidity of the average idiot. Teachers need to get over themselves and either (A) get a better-paying job, or (B) realize that the sooner a child is well-educated, the sooner they’re out of your hair for good, because the students who are stupid enough will keep coming back.

Not to nitpick, but any student over the age of 5 that writes out full sentences in text-lingo and hands it in as an assignment, needs to be sent back to kindergarten until they can learn to spell properly. Any student who harasses others for their intelligence or any other of a number of insignificantly stupid reasons (like height, weight, race, or sexuality) needs to be grouped together with all the other intollerant bigots, and be sent home to be taught by the parents that taught them this intollerance in the first place; but not by them, because the LAST thing we need is stupidity, ignorance, or bigotry if we want to advance any further as a society.

Now, as a high-school graduate diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, I do feel that smaller class sizes do allow for better student-teacher ratios, which can help with grades (at least in my experience). Zero-tolerance of intolerance (as much of a paradox as that may seem to be) can help keep the unintelligent out of the way. But the ideology of teaching the standard of the least-intelligent student to the rest of the student body IS a load of bull, and it needs to end, NOW!

Just a few decades ago, America was the land of oppurtunity, where you could be anything you wanted, as long as you had what it takes. Now, we consider it lucky if our graduates don’t burn the fries.

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 16:16:32 +0000

Thank you for so eloquently displaying your stupidity, not to mention the utter failure of the public school system, D.K.

By: D. K.

D. K. — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 09:36:07 +0000

Conservatives oppose the public school system because they don’t like lower class people or minorities getting free educations. They think that the privilege of a good education should be reserved for the rich elite who can afford private schools. This is the main goal of conservative ideology: to set up and maintain an aristocracy in which a small group of wealthy elites and tycoons rule unopposed over an impoverished mass of virtual slaves, too uninformed to know they’re being oppressed and too unskilled to move up in society.

In fact, the only reason this country has so many educated, successful people in it is because of the public school system, in which everyone is entitled to an education. A society without public schools is a society where the poor cannot afford education and therefore cannot lift themselves out of their lot in life. The fact that a site entitled “Make Stupidity History” is railing against an institution that has pretty much single-handedly generated an educated, well-informed, and financially well-off society such as ours is asinine.

By: JesseLovesYou.com » Public Education = Mental Death

JesseLovesYou.com » Public Education = Mental Death — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 01:52:18 +0000

[...] Before you send your child back to public school, there’s something you should know Filed under: Fighting Stupidity — Michael Hampton @ 11:27 pm Comments (13) [...]

By: Michael Hampton

Michael Hampton — Fri, 22 May 2009 20:03:48 +0000

Much better in quality? Where have you been? Try going to a public school sometime. Sending your child to one is akin to child abuse.

As for no evidence of intention, that you refuse to look at the evidence doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. (Try clicking blue underlined things once in a while.)

By: Robert Holloway

Robert Holloway — Tue, 19 May 2009 05:14:41 +0000

The article is trash. If you compare the school systems of today with the school systems of the 1800s, the ones of today are much, much better in quality.

Also, the claim in the article is that there is an intentional degradation of the school systems. There is not any evidence of that though.

By: Randy

Randy — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 03:52:24 +0000

A meek and subservient society is LESS LIKELY to revolt and slaughter the masters. If you keep them from learning the math that will allow them to figure out they are being cheated every day of their lives you stand a better chance of perpetuating the hoax. If really sorry teachers can get certificates it discourages good teachers from competing for a subsistence pay. There is plenty of money to pay teachers, but that is not the game. The game is to dumb down the slaves and medicate the the masses. More is known about Britney Spear’s sex life and Miley’s teenage escapades than will ever be know about how to figure simple interest. That is NO ACCIDENT. No talk show host EVER discusses the Federal Reserve or fiat money. NEVER – they would be cut. IT IS NO ACCIDENT. One thing the masters did not plan for though – they do not have a life raft. They all live on the same boat as we do and the time to dump them overboard is here.