Posted on 10/24/2008 5:53:04 AM PDT by meandog
I'll take this "report" with a grain of salt. I want to KNOW who is behind the EDUCATION TRUST. Did they ask people in the suburban school district, or was it the inner cities?
I bet the people BEHIND EDUCATION TRUST are SOCIALISTS trying to get all schools run by the NEA and ban HOMESCHOOL!
What do you mean by neoliberal?
Oh yeah, about sports. Last year’s Heisman Trophy winner was home schooled through high school.
My homeschool son played soccer, ran track, and played golf - all on homeschool teams again Christian schools.... homeschooling and sports has changed dramatically and continues to do so as more and more parents see the dismal failure of publik education....
He was accepted at a major university where he is now studying to be an architect.
Yes, I’m the first to admit my children are culturally deprived. They’ve never gotten to hunt and hit Jewish people.
What’s the difference between a kid dropping out or graduating without being able to read his diploma? Frankly, I much prefer the former.
1. Strict honor code.
2. ACLU out, school sponsorship of boy and girl scout troops and prayer back in.
3. Merit pay for good teachers, bad teachers fired.
4. Zero tolerance for drugs, violence, disrespect of teachers and administrators.
5. Alternative (boot camp) schools for violators of above.
6. School uniforms (or at least strict dress codes).
You left out the biggest reason: changing demographics. See my post #24. If you check out public schools in the suburbs and states that have low minority populations, school performance has not changed all that much. And Asians appear to be doing well anywhere. In just 15 years, half of our K-12 population will be minorities. This is primarily an urban problem. The dropout rate in our 50 largest cities is about 50%. Detroit's is closer to 75% dropouts.
By 2042 non-Hispanic whites will be 50% of the population. Dempgraphy is destiny. We need to address the school performance of blacks and Hispanics because that is our future. They are underachieving for a variety of reasons including single family households, poverty, drugs, and failing school systems. Throwing money at the problem won't solve it.
It’s because High School’s value is fast declining. Most College kids are spending their first 3 years learning what kids used to learn in High school.
...And I’m saying this as the spouse of a high school teacher, who maintains a very positive attitude toward her students. Her minimum target is to push her kids 18 months ahead during the year they are with her.
“The sad thing is that this nation shows no signs of reversing the negative trends in public education.”
Speaking to Harry Wurzbach: My guess is 73% of all “conservatives” think public education is a constitutional right.
Speaking to all: Stop steeling my money for your daycare.
I agree that your 1-6 would produce dramatically better educational results than what we’ve got now, but you know it’s impossible. The system is beyond repair, and it’s the *nature* of a government-run monopoly to deteriorate in just this way. The present situation was perfectly predictable, and is being replicated, as our British FRiend mentioned, in other countries.
Yeah...but you'd have to admit that he's somewhat of an anomaly. I mean a white quarterback who runs a 4.5 forty, come on...(besides, I despise the 'Gators and can't wait until they meet the Dogs at the Cocktail party next month)
Well, I guess areas with high non-white, non-Asian populations tend to be more Left in nature, so that would make sense.
The success of Asian-American students in our failing public schools says enough about the true opportunities for non-white students in this country. Basically, if parents demand that their children work and learn then kids can succeed in any environment. If they don’t, then the system makes failure and mediocrity perfectly acceptable.
I want pie.
I call BS. Both of our girls are leaders among their peers in our congregation; it's the pube-lick skool kids who uniformly sit there like a bump on a log and don't volunteer to participate. They perform among the worship musicians, do sound for the congregation, do audio-visual work, and baby sit. They each find their way into the world in a manner that suits them. One of my daughters is effectively an officer on the board of directors of the community concert association (her mom holds the position legally while FReeper NattieShea does the actual job). The other goes to run in track meets at the local high school.
The beauty of home education is that the process of integrating them into adult life begins sooner and proceeds gradually. It's the public school kids who are sequestered from reality and then released clueless into a hostile world.
Despite these factors, urban parochial schools have done a much better job with far less money. It has to do with providing structure and discipline. Of course, parents who are willing to spend their hard-earned money to put their children into these schools show their interest and concern for their children, so it is self-selecting in a way. And the public schools cannot be as selective in their students and must accept nearly everyone.
Question: Why not get your church to start a private school? That way you get the advantage of group learning too...something that homeschooling misses.
“whats the difference between a kid dropping out and graduating without being able to read his diploma?”
Job security for the American Federation of Teachers?
That was under "cultural barriers" :-), along with other factors such as assigning a low value to education, poor attendance, early childbearing, and so on.
I think nothing would help the public schools more than the ability to expell students who will not act constructively. Call their parent(s) and say they have to take them home and rear them themselves. Some charter schools, I've read, are able to do this, and it works miracles.
present day British school kids are absolute idiots — not their fault, but the school system is so dumbed down you just get chavs coming out of it.
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