Posted on 04/01/2012 8:42:49 AM PDT by wintertime
Regarding: So-called "good" government schools
This “good schools” idea should be closely and critically examined. Why? Because the afterschooling, private tutoring, and preschooling, done by good parents, and the hard work of the child, is never considered when government school districts, ( or real estate agents), proudly proclaim that their schools are "good" schools.
How do we know that these schools are “good” or not, if the contributions of the parent's afterschooling, private tutoring, or the massive amount of work done by the parents in the preschool years, is **never** studied and formally measured?
Perhaps these so-called “good” schools are merely ordinarily bad, but it is the parents in the preschool years, and the child diligently doing homework and projects, and their hard work **IN THE HOME**, ( AKA "afterschooling"), that is the real reason these students have high standardized test scores.
Afterschooling has **never** been studied by education professionals. In more than a decade of posting on forums on the Internet, no teacher or education professor has ever provided me with a link to a study that evaluates the contributions of afterschooling, private tutoring, the efforts by parents with their preschoolers, and the hard work done by students with homework. A Stanford professor of education e-mailed me and told me that none of this has **ever** been specifically studied or carefully measured and evaluated!
Why is this important?
We in the U.S. are literally crushed by government school taxes. Really, we are! In some of our states, the amount spent on government schooling is nearly a quarter of million dollars per child for 13 years of schooling. Essentially, no one ever truly owns their home or business. We are renters. The government is our landlord and property taxes are our rent. And....Please remember that business property taxes (passed on to the customer) raises the price of everything that we buy and use, makes our products less competitive abroad, and encourages businesses to move jobs off-shore.
Look at the serious economic and sad social consequences of single-payer and socialist-entitlement schooling, ..yet... **no one** really knows if our schools are teaching anything. It could be that they are merely sending home a curriculum for the parents and child to follow in the home, serving as testing centers, and providing grading on projects.
Anecdotally, I see the hard work of my own children with my grandchildren. I talk with good parents in my church. They work with their preschoolers every day with Internet programs that teach phonics and beginning arithmetic. In the early years they are supervising homework at the kitchen table. They check regularly to see that their children are not falling behind in reading skills and with basic arithmetic and algebra. They insist on regular study times and habits. They get private tutoring help when needed. (They are essentially doing everything that good homeschooling parents are doing! ) Who will take the credit for the high standardized test scores of these children? Yes, the government school, of course!
Also, ( anecdotal observation), after working with the cub scouts and youth of our church, I have concluded that the **only** children who are learning to read and do basic arithmetic are those children whose parents are, and have done, **tons** of afterschooling and preschooling in the preschool years. ( We live in one of the "reddest" counties in the U.S. and our population is vanilla ice cream white!)
Finally,... ( another anecdotal observation).... I have found that there is little to no difference between academically successful homeschoolers and successful institutionalized children in the amount of formal study done **IN THE HOME**. Both sets of academically successful children ( home or institutionally schooled) have parents with similar home habits and values, and the amount of time spent at the kitchen table or child's desk IN THE HOME is about the same. So?...Isn't it worth taking a good look at whether or not the success of an institutionalized child is due to the so-called "good" government school or due to the efforts of the parents and child **in the home**?
But my way would be cheaper.
Do unions control the schools? Depends on the state - guess it does in your state, not so much in mine.
Right to work state vs at will
Again....as with so many things, your mileage may vary.
But my way would be cheaper.
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Definitely!
They sure do in mine and therefore, rather than wasting my time with the “School Board”. I’ll do my part to let any and all parents in on the fact that homeschooling is easy, virtual school is free in our state and how much better my kids are BECAUSE I pulled them out of Public School. A school board member from my city told me on the sly that MI trains 85% of it’s students to be line workers because that’s what we need. So instead of a line worker or a pole dancer (another thing MI trains for) I have a pre-chemist and a pre-engineer.
So the “mileage may vary” works both ways. When people come onto these thread and make statements BOTH ways, none of it is blanket. Your public school may work, but anywhere that Unions control, perhaps it would be better if you didn’t suggest the school board option. It does squat.
In the meantime, I’m going to the boat that floats, and not keep bailing the water while I sit in the sinking ship. Anyone one that does want to keep bailing, good on ya.
Your public school may work,
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By law, every government owned and run socialist-entitlement K-12 school in this nation is godless. Students whose parents can’t ransom them are forced by law to attend. Taxpayers are under the threat of police and court action to support this establishment of a godless religious worldview.
None of it is “good”.
Bump your evergreen wisdom.
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