toldailytopic: What do you think of the public school system?

[Persephone66]

Public education is not what it used to be. Parents may feel their kids are receiving 'quality' education when in fact in many cases they are not. Socialization is praised as an advantage of public education. But what are the kids being socialized in? Bullying perhaps or how to get picked upon. He only interacts with his peers and doesn't learn how interact with adults. He may pick up some very bad habits from his peers. My son learned to cuss and to sass people in authority from his peers during the three years he went to public school. He also learned the 'Goth' manner of dress. None of these so called 'social skills' made him marketable in the job market.

In public school these days a kid gets his hand slapped for praying. His exposure to great literature is severely limited. For my son 'literature' was the Harry Potter series. :vomit: My kid was not even taught the basic structure of the English language. A lot of busywork is handed out. I observed this when my son attended public school. He didn't have time to sit down and think. It wasn't this way when I was in school.

Needless to say I don't have a very high opinion of public education.

Just curious, is there something wrong with the Goth style of dress? And I was not aware there was a course in that in public schools.

I only ask because I happen to be a card carrying goth. Really, I have a Goth Card. An elder goth actually. People bother me all the time in the supermarket requesting that I autograph their Count Chocula cereal boxes. Woe is me. *dramatic sigh* That and I have been hesitating on this and I'd really like to know.

 

[sky.]

The whole idea of sending children to a Christian school is to sheltering them some of what does go on in the *real* world.

Can they be sheltered from all the violence, cliches, and sex? No. However, it isn't as rampant in private schools.

Admittedly, I am biased towards privates schools because I not only attended one but also sent my own children to them.

Maybe the only reason it isn't as "rampant" is because the population or student enrollment in private schools is smaller. Not because they are better.

 

[sky.]

I usually see the complete opposite. The vast majority of home schooled kids that I know and have met are far more well-adjusted and mature.

Not the ones I have seen and met. A lot of parents that I have met that choose to home school their children it is because they themselves don't like anything mainstream so they push the same thing off on their children. I wonder how many children who don't go to public school would rather go to public school than Christian or home school? I see a lot of kids that go to Christian school who their parents are grooming them to be pastors or missionaries. I don't think that's all bad but I wonder if the kids would have chosen that path had they been in mainstream school. My boys reminded me often that they would never want to go to Christian school and they are Christian.

 

[Lighthouse]

I went through the public school system and got my undergraduate degree at a public university. I didn't like the people at the public school system, but that's what you get when everybody gets educated. You've got the bright children and the riff-raff collectively. If you're willing to learn and do your homework, the public school system works. If you don't care about school and you refuse to do the work, then it doesn't. But I don't think that you can hold the public school system or the teachers responsible for that. You have to blame the parents.

And what about the kids who don't do their homework but still do better than the kids who do, because they ace all their tests, quizzes and in class handouts?

 

[One Eyed Jack]

And what about the kids who don't do their homework but still do better than the kids who do, because they ace all their tests, quizzes and in class handouts?

I partied with the dropouts while everybody else was doing homework.

 

[The Barbarian]

I partied with the dropouts while everybody else was doing homework.

I had a kid like that. He never did anything. But everything he read or heard in class stuck and was understood. He had less than a 12 going in the class, and made an A on the semester exam. I made sure the principal was behind me, and then I passed him.

 

[Buzzword]

One major criticism I do have for public school is that for the most part, it teaches kids to take tests and write essays.

...and nothing else, depending on the teacher.


I'm AWESOME at taking tests.
I know exactly what study methods work for me, and I feel zero pressure in the testing environment.
So here I am, eight months away from graduating from college, with no foreseeable use for that highly-developed skill.

At least writing comes naturally for me.

 

[The Barbarian]

One major criticism I do have for public school is that for the most part, it teaches kids to take tests and write essays.

Has been. And of course, people like you thrive in it, and will succeed. The problem is the kids who don't adapt well to it.

This is what we decided to do at my school:
http://www.avid.org/abo_whatisavid.html

The idea is that academic success depends on writing, inquiry, collaboration, and reading. And there are structures to make that happen. The AVID program chooses those kids who show promise, but for one reason or another are unlikely to go to college. And it preps them for success. I asked to be on the team that launched this, this year in my school, and our goal is to go beyond the kids in the program, and to implement those ideas for every class in the school.

 

[Lighthouse]

I partied with the dropouts while everybody else was doing homework.

I had a geometry teacher who never actually graded homework one year; he only marked if you had done it or not if he chose to do so that day, and all he required on those days was that the homework be laid on your desk, however he never actually checked if it was the homework. We could have placed any piece of paper on our desk that looked as though we had done math on it. So I never did the homework. And I didn't even attempt to fake it because I was too bothered by the fact that he didn't check it. And yet I aced everything that was actually graded in that class. I never got a single problem wrong.

 

[One Eyed Jack]

I had a geometry teacher who never actually graded homework one year; he only marked if you had done it or not if he chose to do so that day, and all he required on those days was that the homework be laid on your desk, however he never actually checked if it was the homework. We could have placed any piece of paper on our desk that looked as though we had done math on it. So I never did the homework. And I didn't even attempt to fake it because I was too bothered by the fact that he didn't check it. And yet I aced everything that was actually graded in that class. I never got a single problem wrong.

I stopped doing my geometry homework the last nine weeks of ninth grade. I already had a 101 average for the year, so I figured I could get a zero the last time around and still pass.

I had a kid like that. He never did anything. But everything he read or heard in class stuck and was understood. He had less than a 12 going in the class, and made an A on the semester exam. I made sure the principal was behind me, and then I passed him.

I wish I'd had a teacher like you in 11th grade English. I made a 95 on the final, and the teacher still failed me. I had to go to summer school that year.