Twenty-one ways "public schools" harm your children

The Education Liberator, Vol. 3, No. 2, February/March 1997 ^ | March 1997 | R.C. Hoiles

[WhiteGuy]

You should sent this to the president.

He and Teddy Keg are in charge of the government classrooms and giving the schools our tax dollars.

[perfect stranger]

bump

[ken21]

exactly.

hoiles owned the colorado springs paper. friends from the springs brought it to the university.

and it was my first introduction to the libertarian viewpoint.

the orange county register was responsible for energizing republicans that elected ronald reagan. when i moved to socal in the mid-80s i caught the end of a great paper.

it's a tragedy that the parasites who inherited their fortunes from hoiles, not one, could think of managing the business. they were too interested in spending their money.

now, the oc register is liberal-socialist puke.

[AVNevis]

As a public school student, I would like to add an interesting perspective to this discussion.

I go to a public High School and am very smart. A public school education will not ruin your kids.

It all depends on the maturity and morality of the child. If you instill good values into them before you send them to a public school, they will most likely do fine. I did.

However, if you do not instill good values into them, they will be susceptible to liberal brainwashing.

So if you do decide to send your kids to a public school, just educate them on morality and conservatism beforehand.

[AVNevis]

"I have worked in public schools for 15 yrs. I have seen some excellent teachers and some who are just horrible. I agree with Ahnold...merit pay for teachers, no tenure, and no union! Bad teachers cause the whole system to fail."

I absolutely agree. I have had some teachers who deserve to be paid $100,000, while others I had should be fired.

Good evidence of what a good teacher can do is with my 4th grade teacher. I had a lousy 3rd grade teacher and my test scores were about average. But a year later my test scores jumped all the way to the 95th percentile, where they remain today. She is probably the best teacher I have ever had, even though at the time I didn't particularly like her.

[churchillbuff]

it's a tragedy that the parasites who inherited their fortunes from hoiles, not one, could think of managing the business."""

Of course, this isn't uncommon in the business - or newspaper - worlds. A dynamic founder is succeeded by heirs who are more interested in cashing in - or cashing out, and professional managers are brought in, along with all a corporatist, "get along go along" approach to ideology and principles. A number of newspapers that were once proudly conservative -- Chicago Tribune, Dallas News, Detroit News, even LA Times -- went left when family patriarchs died. It does sound, though, as if none of these papers was ever as radically pro-liberty as Hoiles' was when he was alive (to judge from his condemnation of public schools as "gun run" schools! Wow! That took real independence of mind, and real courage. those kinds of qualities aren't always inherited!)

[ken21]

yeah, well the los angeles times used to be readable.

the chandler son took over the times and was more interested in surfing.

he moved the corporate offices up to oxnard so the could be closer to the surf.

one day during a corporate meeting, a secretary came in and slid a message to him, and he looked at it, dismissed the times corporate staff, and tossed the message into the trash on his way out the door. the staff grabbed the message. it read:

"surf's up".

a few years back the los angeles time was purchased by the chicago tribune.

[Kevin OMalley]

We have been discussing inexpensive ways to fast track kids through high school to avoid the liberal agenda:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1315730/posts?page=84#84

Unfortunately my thread title was not well thought out, because some parents might instinctively skip over it due to attached stigma, whether real or imagined.

[Born Conservative]

[cubreporter]

Oh, you misunderstood my post. I said: "Oh noooooooooo" as in fake surprise. :) Public schools have been going downhill for ages. :) Thanks for the encouraging words though. Appreciate them.

[wgeorge2001]

[One of school's most important effects is to ensure that most people never develop a working vocabulary of morals, liberty, and knowledge, because school preempts all these things in it's day-to-day operations, and it has to conceal that fact from the vast majority of people so that it can survive as an institution.]


It seems that so many deny the this obvious truth. The P.S. system intentionally deceives parents and fears the loss of their jobs more than their concern for the education of children. I understand that the teachers have the highest percentage of their own children in private and other alternative schools than any other profession in America.

[GodBlessUSA]

That's great news that you received a quality education in East Islip, Long Island. East Islip is union free and that may account for some of this. It sounds as though they have acquired qualities I don't see within the districts we have attended on Long Island.

Certainly, you are correct, there are good public schools within the bad. My daughter had a fabulous teacher in first grade and that teacher should be rewarded by the system. She should be singled out for her success and dedication. Unfortunately, I don’t see public school districts doing this. That is incentive, and it works for everyone. Rewards for the best teachers. Not an equal status regardless.

I graduated on Long Island many years before you and I can see the difference in the curriculum comparing back to days gone by. My children come home and there is an extreme amount of propaganda and political correctness being taught and not enough time spent on the topics this article is covering. They are not focusing on the studies that give the best of education. They have stopped celebrating America and promoting pride among our children. They do not teach the topics, in depth, of what made America great like they did when I was young.

I wish you continued success in your education . It’s good to hear you did well. I hope you are considering continuing on. You must be very intelligent, your young and posting on Free Republic ;)

[television is just wrong]

I read recently (can't remember where) Germany has made home schooling illegal.

[Piquaboy]

If the NEA and Rats has anything to do with it, the same thing would happen here.

[Mmmike]

WOW! what school do you teach in. Thats some wild stuff. I must remember to ensure that my students don't "develop a working vocabulary of morals, liberty, and knowledge" next week when I get back to work.

You don't need to trouble yourself. It will happen on its own. The students are placed in a strange environment for 13 years and told to "perform", more or less. It's up to the student to find a way to comply. He "knows" deep-down that explicitly religious outlooks are fit to be marginalized, and that the regimen he's being put through is sacrosanct. And so he finds a way to do what he's told, without making recourse to religious underpinnings. But, how else can a student do this except by living out a personal "triumph of the will"? In the aftermath you often get a telltale embrace of bizarre, aggressive, left-wing hedonism, but that's just a consequence of the mold into which students are squeezed. After that it's off to college, and sometimes law school, and heaven help the rest of us.

Your points sound as etheral as some liberal crazy talk in universities!

That's okay; you have to muck around in the ether in order to find bigger lessons of life in everyday experience, but we have to be aware that life isn't all ether, and concrete reality, far from being contemptible, teaches us to know our limits.