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Yup. Remember where Al Gore went to school in DC? It wasn’t the public school system.

Even in northern Virginia, James Carville sends his kids to private school.

At the risk of suffering a barrage of attacks, I am going to pose a few questions to all of you relative to the education system in this country, in general, as was illustrated by the comments in the this thread’s original article.

First, full disclosure: I have been adjunct faculty in two different universities at both graduate and undergraduate levels (engineering and other technical subjects) and I currently substitute teach at the local, small town, high school (mostly math and science) when my business (I am an independent contractor) permits.

Second, concessions for reality: There are, unfortunately, a number of teachers and administrators who think and act as though schools should be institutions of social engineering and indoctrination rather than of education an learning. The real question is how many of these types are there in the system and whether, or not, their influence in via the NEA, state education departments, etc. is disproportionate and what can be done about it.

Now, the questions for you:

1. How do you propose for teachers to maintain classroom decorum and discipline when a great many of the students never experience anything similar at home? …You can only send some students to the principal’s office… (As an illustration, I have personally witnessed some of the abysmal, home environments I cite when giving a few young men a lift home following after-school tutoring sessions.)

2. What are you proposing to counter the lack of male role models in the home? (There is a 30% illegitimacy rate total and nearly a 70% such rate among African-Americans, or blacks, if you prefer.) An unmarried mother cannot teach her children all she should, run a home properly, go to PTA meetings, little league games/recitals (if such exist for her children) and support her family financially all at the same time. (Note: I am not advocating any sort of state intervention here, merely posing a question.)

3. How do you propose to help public school districts avoid textbooks filled with “propaganda” when the texts are mandated by the state and bought with state funds? (It is not economically feasible for the textbook publishers publish anything but what the largest school systems buy… California, Texas, etc.)

4. How do you propose to keep teachers from being punished for “poor performance” by their students when the students arrive on the first day of class already so deficient in basic academic skills that there is no hope of getting them up to an acceptable standard for assessment tests by the end of the year?

5. How do you compensate for courses designed purely to “cram” as much information into the course for exposing the student to what they might see on standardized tests and leave no time for teaching something as vital to citizenship as “critical thinking?”

There are many, many more questions that could be posed, especially related to compensation (I make more in one quarter in my business than my daughter, a full time teacher makes in a year) or how to protect teachers from frivolous lawsuits, etc.

Remember where Al Gore went to school in DC? It wasn’t the public school system.

Back in the 1950s when Al Gore was in grammar school, the education in the DC Public Schools was probably every bit as good as what kids got in private schools. I'd suspect the reason his old man sent him to St. Albens(?) was because the old racist didn't want his little boy "mixing with darkies" in the public schools.

The worst thing the left ever did in this country was to destroy the public schools.

Remember where Al Gore went to school in DC? It wasn’t the public school system.

I can't remember which EEEVVVIIILLL radio talk-show host (probably
Rush) noted that while Al Gore, Jr. pimped for "Midnight
Basketball", Al's kids were probably in bed early each night in
order to make it to their private schools bright-and-early.