Verga is right - it can get quite ugly. At this point there have been YEARS of accusations back and forth from many people. Very few have ‘clean hands’ in how we have treated each other.
However, I know I have never made comments towards other posters that have been made towards me - and yes I do mean specifically, my name, me personally, in addition to the general, broad brush comments.
Even when I try to be kind, it backfires. Whatever. Life goes on here in VA just the same.
Peace
You and I used to fight here until the occasion arose for us to have civil discussion which allowed me to discover some of your numerous virtues and, I had thought, that you are supportive of the sort of private education in which my wife is involved. I have also thought that you and I have achieved a mutually respectful and friendly FR relationship. I don't really think that has changed between you and me. Certainly not on my side.
I have fought with verga here and really don't expect that to change.
The difference is that verga wants to draft kids from families hostile to most public schools into the public schools and thereby force anti-public school parents to waste their time in never-ending and utterly fruitless ideological wrestling matches with leftist teachers' unions, administrators and school board members who deal from a stacked deck. All people like me want is to be left alone by the cheerleaders for P.S. 666 (that does NOT mean you or your school) and (preferably) not to be taxed to support the handiwork of Horace Mann and John Dewey.
I have little doubt that you personally are an exception to my general attitude as to public school teachers and that your school and/or board of education may be an exception as well. Just as I have conceded the same as to Marcella and the Texas public schools with which she has been associated.
OTOH, it ought not be expected that parents who have homeschooled and/or parents who have been involved in independent private religious schools are EVER likely to give a pass to public schools generally. Many of us very much resent what most public schools have come to represent and the fact that we are FORCED to fund them. In Connecticut, my original home state, and in my very rural part of Illinois (never mind Chicago), they do a very poor job for an excruciatingly high price.
The State of Illinois is sagging well below sea level from the weight of public employee pensions that are largely unfunded but generous beyond the dreams of avarice. Chicago public school teachers are now making $75,000 per year after their latest strike. At least Chicago (for reasons I fail to understand), unlike every other municipality must bear the entire pension burden that it has dished out to the public employees generally who, together with the welfare army, are the base of the infamous Chicago Machine.
One example of the craziness in Chicago was the discovery that a public works (garbage collectors) union official had retired and was triple dipping. He had been a full time union official who had not seen a garbage can or dumpster that he had to work on personally for many years. His job for the union entailed schmoozing politicos. He retired from the union with a verrrry generous pension. He also received a pension from the public works department of Chicago reflecting his forty years as a technical "employee," which was by definition ridiculously generous. Finally, he took advantage of a quirk in a state law provided by the corrupt idiots in the state capitol to work ONE DAY as a substitute teacher in the Chicago Public School system and that qualified him for a third pension as though he had taught there for forty years instead of a mere one day. Virginia is probably sensible enough not to allow such taxpayer abuse. The Soviet Union was probably more responsible than Chicago. Source Don Wade and Roma (morning show on WLS radio AM 890 Chicago). They recently retired because Don developed an apparently malignant brain tumor.
Illinois has just again had its credit rating downgraded because of the absolute refusal of the Demonrats in the State Capitol to do ANYTHING to rein in these public employee pensions. An argument is reasonably made that pensions in place and maybe even the negotiated pensions of the existing employees are constitutionally sacrosanct since government is not allowed to tamper with existing contract rights. The Demonrats will not even consider establishing a new and lesser compensated tier of newly hired employees who must accept lesser pensions as a condition of being hired.
We have suffered the last year or two of Dubya's Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson draining the general public during a recession to comfort the big Manhattan bankers and corporate corruptocrats lest their disastrous decisions that threatened to bankrupt such firms as Goldman Sachs might interrupt their annual 6 or even 7 figure "bonuses" or the luxuries of their lifestyles. We have suffered four more years of Obozo and his never-ending farming of the public to soften the cushions of government employees including teachers at the expense of having no economic recovery and by draining the private sector and our descendants. Meanwhile the employees are farmed by the unions to lavishly fund the Demonratic Party and its campaigns.
I certainly hope that you do not believe that your kindness toward me has "backfired." Verga is an entirely different story. Wintertime and I have our differences over matters of faith but I often rise to her defense because she is usually first to arrive on these threads, because I find her relation of her experiences with homeschooling quite credible and because she is often targeted in ways that amount to bullying (not by you).
Anything that I ever say here about public education is now and for some time past, never directed at you. If, previous to discovering your virtues and credibility, I was unkind or unfair to you and failed to apologize, I certainly now apologize because such remarks must have been objectively wrong and morally unacceptable. I have also found your posts as to your experiences quite credible and often persuasive in a subject area in which I am not easy to persuade.
In any event, may God continue to bless you and yours, including the students you strive so hard to serve.