Originally posted by lazs2
eskimo... are you saying that the school is there to be black childrens "fathers"?
all schools should have to acheive minimum educational standards... Public schools don't do it now and do it even worse the more money we throw at them. Priveat schools do more with a LOT less..
It is a question of focus... they (public schools)have lost so much focus that it is allmost impossible for them to regain it. Money won't help... we have to start all over.. vouchers are the sensible way. vouchers will indeed pay the entire cost of education. Those who think that public schools don't cost parents any additional money are wrong... parents are dunned for money on a weekly, allmost daily basis.
public schools are a bloated unfixable mess. Private schools outperform them in every way measureable.
lazs
Sometimes teachers do have to play a bit of a parent role. Aside from teaching kids to read, write, add, and subtract, teachers have to teach kids how to follow rules, the difference between right and wrong, how to show basic respect for other people, and so on. A heck of a lot of parents are not doing their jobs, and a lot of kids are very neglected and are not heading down the road to function as contributing citizens. Not only does it need to be done for the sake of the whole child, but many kids are so socially behind that they are not capable of learning the basics in the classroom.
Have public schools lost their focus? From what I’ve seen, it’s the laws, written by non-educator politicians that create so much extra work, red tape, and educational standards that teachers are required to cover. When you look at a first grade curriculum, and see the amount of; economics, science, social studies, health topics that teachers are required to cover, its no wonder time left for learning to READ and WRITE has been cut thin.
It is not fair to compare public schools to private. Public schools are required to accept all students, regardless of special needs, attendance history, behavior history, etc.
As a public school teacher I had more special needs students in my class than we have in my entire private school of almost 500 kids. I also had more severe behavior students per class than we have in our entire school.
In private school, we can just kick them out. I’d say about ¼ of my old PS students would get kicked out of my private school for their behavior.
In public school, it can be nearly impossible to force students to attend, and to do their homework. The kids know it and often their parents don’t care. I had a student who missed over half of the school days of the school year. We did all that we could to turn mom in for allowing her kid to be so truant. She skated by because the laws are so protective of parents. We couldn’t even hold this kid back a year. Mom insisted that he should go on to the next grade and there was nothing that we could do about it. In my private school, that would never happen. Our kids attend school, and they do their homework. < notice the period.
Typical kids at my old public school had parents who spent little time with them. Most parents had spent time in jail. Dad was often out of the picture. Some parents openly used drugs and got drunk in front of their kids. Some kids didn’t have a bedroom, they slept on the couch. Many bounced from mom’s house one night, to grandmas, to uncles, etc. Parents usually had minimal education. The PTA had 4 parents (out of 600 kids).
At the school where I now teach, parents are doctors, dentists, architects, soccer moms, business men/women, etc. The parents make sure their kids do their homework, and usually help quite a bit. Major social problems are much more rare. Our kids are polite. Families go to church. They shell our money for their kids to attend our school.
Our test scores are quite a bit higher, go figure.
I guess it is a clear indicator that we are doing a better job than the public schools.
eskimo
