2

[Edited on April 2, 2009 at 10:35 AM. Reason : 2]

4/2/2009 10:35:31 AM

Quote :

"I'm going to agree with you and concur that funding public primary education makes no sense whatsoever. "

aa
What about state and local gov't funding schools??

Free markets woo! guberment needs to stop tukin my monies to edumicate the children of illegals and welfare mom. If school are private than they'll be better and make dem lazy people pay for their childrens schoolin not me!

Do you honestly think that would work out. All that will happen is we'll regress to the 1700's and many cheap/poor/irresonsible parents will opt to not pay for their children to attend school at all. The last thing this country needs is more ignorant fucks running around b.c their mama decided to use their 8th grade tuition money to buy a new mustang to sit in front of their trailer park home.

Public schools should/never will disappear we just need to fix the system away to the "teaching to the test", the fed having such an active role in creating curriculum, and make quality private schools more attainable for americans besides the elites of society. No one has a right to send to get tax payer money to send their kids to Reginald's Prep Academy but for those who can make the sacrifice to pay for this should be allowed to receive a credit back for all the money they pay for public schools with.

Quote :

"One glaring problem with public schools is that they are trying to be all things to all people and burdenning themselves with devastating diseconomies of scale. "

This is why they should be primarily run by the local community and managed overall by the state. With no federal influence.

[Edited on April 2, 2009 at 10:36 AM. Reason : a]

[Edited on April 2, 2009 at 10:41 AM. Reason : aa]

4/2/2009 10:42:19 AM

Quote :

"The last thing this country needs is more ignorant fucks running around b.c their mama decided to use their 8th grade tuition money to buy a new mustang to sit in front of their trailer park home."

Why? We do that w/ welfare and food stamps.

4/2/2009 6:33:32 PM

Quote :

"I'm not denying that our schools could probably use some improvement, but I strongly believe that parents are the main motivation for children to fail or succeed. My daughter will be going to public school to learn crucial social skills and independence. I will be actively involved in her teaching and will correct/fill in the gaps as much as I see fit."

I agree with everything here. Crappy schools are taking the blame for crappy parenting. Schools have only had the opportunity to become crappy because of crappy parents. In our society the teachers really do not have any authority over the students, parents are the only ones that can keep a student on the right track.

4/3/2009 10:46:05 PM

i read Outliers a couple weeks ago, and it had a very interesting chapter on education. Actually, the chapter was about cultural influences in education (which boiled down to: Asians work hard), but there was a side discussion that was much more interesting that focused on the "achievement gap" between poor students vs. middle class/well-off students (i'll just say "rich" for expediency sake).

It's been known that starting at a young age there is a gap between rich and poor in standardized testing, and that gap only increases as students get older. But a study was done where a diversified group of students was followed where they took the CAT (California Aptitude Test) at the beginning and end of every school year from 1 to 5th grade. What they found what that during the school year, there was basically no gap between groups. i.e. the average increase in the CAT from the beginning of, for example, 3rd grade and the end of 3rd grade was nearly identical for all groups, indicating that rich, poor, and middle-class were all learning basically the same amount during the school year.

The difference came in what happened during the (long, in America) summer break. There was a huge difference in the groups from the end of one grade to the beginning of the next. The poor students would often lose points on the CAT from the end of a grade to the beginning of the next. The middle-class students would be about the same, and the well-off students would often gain points from the end of one grade to the beginning of the next, indicating they not only retain knowledge during the summer, but are learning more.

So this conclusion backs up the idea that the achievement gap isn't a problem with the schools, it's a problem with the parents, as others have said. Of course, it may be unfair to a certain degree, because well-off parents can afford to send their kids to special summer programs and camps, that poor parents can't necessarily afford. However, other studies have shown that, besides having the resources to supplement their children's educations, another major difference between poor and rich parents is how much learning takes place at home. Well-off kids simply get read to more, and do more reading and learning on their own than poor kids. Again, sometimes maybe the poor parents are working too much or working odd hours or something and don't have time to be with their kids, but it's still a major cultural difference where more well-off parents tend to spend more quality, educational time with their kids.

4/3/2009 11:30:47 PM

^ year round schools ftw?

4/5/2009 7:29:57 AM

well, yeah, actually - that was one of the study's recommendations.
Also, he pointed out that the US school year is by far on of the shortest in the industrialized world. The US school year is 180 days, Europe's are somewhere over 200 and Japan is, i think, 240. That alone is putting US kids at a distinct disadvantage already

4/5/2009 9:05:48 AM