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I don't think the institutions themselves are barbaric, I think the kids that attend them are. But the same goes for private schools also. Believe me, I've attended both. Just because the parents can afford to send their kids to private schools doesn't mean the students have any more motivation than public school kids. In fact, I think privatizing education might possibly create an even larger dependent underclass.
The fact is, despite what the students are like, public schools can be pretty amazing. I'm a senior in one myself, and I can attest that if you're actually committed (not necessarily even intelligent), they offer so many opportunities. I'm not trying to brag when I say this, but I'm on track to graduate with about 30 or so hours of college credit, depending on which college I decide to attend, all for less than $250. I've been able to take some incredible courses that actually prepare me for the real world at my school district's technology/vocational center. I'm seeing friends who grew up in the barrio trying to decide whether they want to enroll at MIT or accept a full ride to a state university. And this is at an inner city magnet school in a supposedly "podunk" part of the nation. Yes, public schools have some major problems, but I know that most of these opportunities would not be available to the general population if it were not for them.
People have been saying this for decades. There are lots of things the state could or should do that never get done. An inability to actually address the needs of students is another reason to end public education.
Not get done? I teach in just such a school district and the fact it is working as well as it has is evident by the development of 8 other districts in my state in the past 10 years.
And FYI, tracking has been out of favor for decades, you have it backwards.
This is one of the reasons why public schooling should be abolished. There is too much federal control.
So irrational...
The public schools are a reflection of the demographic they serve. Nothing more. The misbehaving criminal element that truly does exist in some schools is not a result of the schools at all. It's the result of the environment these kids are "raised" in. These kids are not taught criminality at school. These kids are not taught agressive antisocial behavior at school. The schools don't condone this behavior but the parents and their lawyers keep them tied up in legal procedings to protect their "innocent, wrongly accused" gang-banging brats.
But it's so much easier and intellectually lazy to point one's finger at the schools as the problem. Seeing symptoms and ignoring the disease is NOT the first step in any kind of solution.
The schools didn't degenerate into the mess they are today over a weekend. There is no quick, cheap, easy solution to a huge problem that was decades in the making.
Not get done? I teach in just such a school district and the fact it is working as well as it has is evident by the development of 8 other districts in my state in the past 10 years.
And FYI, tracking has been out of favor for decades, you have it backwards.
Not everywhere. SOme places it is alive and destructive. Public education does not need to be abolished, just the idiots that manipulate it.
So is it the school which is barbaric, or the neighborhoods and families which surround the school which are barbaric? How is a gun in a backpack a reflection of the school itself? It's not like the school board or its employees are randomly putting loaded firearms into students backpacks. I'm guessing the whole neighborhood around that school is dangerous and that is the element which is coming into the school.
The school is barbaric. The "control". Just this general authority the state has. There was controversy about the "lockdown" afterwards at another school shooting (shooting a school police officer).
"Thousands of students were kept in classrooms without food, water or access to restrooms longer than necessary, the Los Angeles school district's police chief acknowledged."
"Some parents complained about student hardships.
"No food was given. My son and daughter said classmates were peeing into trash cans," said Odette Fulliam, whose children attend Hale and El Camino."
Peeing in trash cans?!!? This is crazy. "A Chicago school district official said she had never heard about students urinating in buckets. Most lockdowns last less than an hour, said spokesperson Monique Bond, or only affect parts of a campus."
I think the policies are barbaric. Why aren't students simply tossed for life if they're caught with a weapon? Why are we so obsessed with saving the bottom 10-20% of society?
In my zero tolerance utopia, I'd ship the kids to China or Asia if they are caught with a gun in school. Let them learn what real harshness is about. They'd learn to appreciate their American freedoms more. We're giving too many freedoms and rights to losers.
I think the reason schools get so much blame is that you're there for a long time. 7-8 hours a day, 9 months of the year. For 12 years.That's almost like sailing around the world with somebody for 12 years. You'd want to know who your shipmates are. If you were sailing for 6 or 9 months, in tight quarters, would you want some of these kids on your trip?
You'll always have misbehaving criminal elements in neighborhoods. But why is everyone forced to suffer? It's like everyone having to share a housefire, if a bad guys house catches fire. These schools aren't even human out here.
Where is tracking "alive and destructive" in this country?
My district still tracks...higher level performers get the college tract, lower performers get the McDonalds tract.
If you tell the counselor your parents graduated HS and have blue collar jobs or you like working on cars, you are placed on the McD tract, no college prep classes.
Tell the counselor you like computers or your parents went to college, you are on the college tract.
The McD tract students generally accept that placement (as do their parents) and they typically never consider college.
My district still tracks...higher level performers get the college tract, lower performers get the McDonalds tract.
If you tell the counselor your parents graduated HS and have blue collar jobs or you like working on cars, you are placed on the McD tract, no college prep classes.
Tell the counselor you like computers or your parents went to college, you are on the college tract.
The McD tract students generally accept that placement (as do their parents) and they typically never consider college.
All schools have college prep or honors/AP, that isn't what I meant by tracking. Traditionally tracking is separation for ALL subjects and ALL grades with little or none "testing out" with multiple levels. I actually have no issue with the type of streaming done in high school except everyone not college prep or higher in a subject area are lumped together. We need to bring back vocational schools for kids and stop requiring all kids take college prep as happens in many places. Something more like ability grouping in terms of how often its evaluated but with emphasis on lower performing as well as higher.
Additionally are you claiming that your school does not let you into the college prep/honors track if you perform well on tests and/or with teacher recommendations?
My district still tracks...higher level performers get the college tract, lower performers get the McDonalds tract.
If you tell the counselor your parents graduated HS and have blue collar jobs or you like working on cars, you are placed on the McD tract, no college prep classes.
Tell the counselor you like computers or your parents went to college, you are on the college tract.
The McD tract students generally accept that placement (as do their parents) and they typically never consider college.
I don't understand how tracking can 100% be attributed to the system. When I was in high school I selected my classes and created my schedule. Now granted you needed administration approval to enroll in an honors or AP class but if I was an honors student who wanted to take shop and remedial math nothing would have stopped me. If I wanted to tranfer to a vocational high school that also would have been my choice- my high school wouldn't have just transferred me. Conversely there weren't kids the school gave up on in terms of a college education. I knew people in remedial math but also honors English.
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Public school bashers...
