[Buzz123]

All you hear about is how bad our schools are. This is only one of many, many success stories concerning local kids educated in Nevada public schools and at UNLV.

Las Vegas Business Press :: News : Executive Snapshot: Ashley Morris


Also, notice that Ch-3's station identification says owned and operated by Nevada high school graduates.

[Buzz123]

Note that several of these people were educated in Las Vegas too.

Las Vegas Business Press :: News : Beyond Gaming

[von949]

Great post. If these people can make it in the local school system, then there really is no excuse for anyone else.

[Atlas1337]

If you expect the State to educate your kids, you're an idiot so its no wonder your kids will be idiots too.

[NoMoreRJ]

I can't understand you guys saying how wonderful our school system is just by a few success stories.

There are a few success stories from the worst ghetto urban schools in LA, NY and other big metros so we should all think that they are just as good a school as the suburban schools in NY CT, MA, CA and TX?

People, please do not be so quick to generalize. Once we have a good number of students graduating onto higher learning is when we know we have an improved school system.

I remember from statistics class long ago that you throw out the far out liers from your group to get a better idea of where the general masses are.

With that said, we as a country provide the best opportunities for children with free schools (yes taxes and such cost excepted). And even in the worst schools, if the child applies their best, they have a good chance at college, even though they will be far behind other students from the suburbs.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by NoMoreRJ

I can't understand you guys saying how wonderful our school system is just by a few success stories. You're jumping to conclusions. Nobody said that.

There are a few success stories from the worst ghetto urban schools in LA, NY and other big metros so we should all think that they are just as good a school as the suburban schools in NY CT, MA, CA and TX? I don't know about those other states you are generalizing about, but I do know that Texas has a zillion "Independent" school districts. The ones in rich neighborhoods do well. The ones in poor neighborhoods deprive the kids of an education. In Nevada every school is on a pretty equal footing.


People, please do not be so quick to generalize. Once we have a good number of students graduating onto higher learning is when we know we have an improved school system. Aren't you generalizing just by saying these things?

I remember from statistics class long ago that you throw out the far out liers from your group to get a better idea of where the general masses are. Your stats class left out a few facts about Nevada. One is the 26% or more aliens that either don't speak English or it's their second language. If you don't understand the words how long are you going to sit there and listen in confusion?

Another is that if you know you can get a six figure a year job parking cars with all that fresh air and exercise thrown in, as soon as you can bust loose are you going to sit in a place you were forced to go to in the first place? Doubtful.

With that said, we as a country provide the best opportunities for children with free schools (yes taxes and such cost excepted). And even in the worst schools, if the child applies their best, they have a good chance at college, even though they will be far behind other students from the suburbs.

That may have been true up until about the mid 1960's, but then they started training teachers, or at least school "counselors", in the totally unworkable, and bogus pseudo-science of psychology. Now they mess with our kids minds and social behavior instead of teaching the practical subjects that schools used to teach. But even back then they didn't have everyone's complete attention because every kid was being forced to go somewhere and do something that only confused the he** out of him. You can make someone sit in a classroom but you can't force him to learn. But if you weren't engaged in some other agenda all the time, you could make it interesting enough that he'd try.

[NoMoreRJ]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

That may have been true up until about the mid 1960's, but then they started training teachers, or at least school "counselors", in the totally unworkable, and bogus pseudo-science of psychology. Now they mess with our kids minds and social behavior instead of teaching the practical subjects that schools used to teach. But even back then they didn't have everyone's complete attention because every kid was being forced to go somewhere and do something that only confused the he** out of him. You can make someone sit in a classroom but you can't force him to learn. But if you weren't engaged in some other agenda all the time, you could make it interesting enough that he'd try.

Agreed. No child left behind meant teachers began to teach for tests and in real life that's not how it works. The teachers even began to cheat on test to make better grades for students.
What's wrong in schools in the US is teachers unions, student apathy, parent apathy and generally wasteful spending of $$ on administrators by administrators.
Take away cell phone electronics in classrooms, pay teachers better to get better teachers to enter the profession and kick the old non performing teachers out. Require parents to parent children and send all non attentive students into dumb baby sitting classes and send the smart hard working ones into good classes.

[von949]

I don't think anyone is claiming that we have a great school system.

Lets say you put 100 average kids in the most terrible school system in America but with great, caring, responsible, educated parents.

Then....

You put another 100 average kids in the best school system in the country but with terrible parents(or lack of), crime ridden, alcohol/drug abuse environment, non-educated parents, ....you get the picture.

What percentage of each group would be more likely to succeed in life and school?

[unf0rgiven6262]

Originally Posted by von949

I don't think anyone is claiming that we have a great school system.

Lets say you put 100 average kids in the most terrible school system in America but with great, caring, responsible, educated parents.

Then....

You put another 100 average kids in the best school system in the country but with terrible parents(or lack of), crime ridden, alcohol/drug abuse environment, non-educated parents, ....you get the picture.

What percentage of each group would be more likely to succeed in life and school?

It's an uphill battle for sure. When I was working with kids here they would routinely come out saying the teacher just played a video for the duration of the class and all their class mates are just goofing off. In some of the worst schools here the child would have to have superman like focus to consistently do well. Not that it can't and isn't done but I would never for a moment with good conscience recommend anyone move here who has schools in their top 3 priorities. The college level is certainly different for obvious reasons and I don't see why anyone couldn't do just fine at UNLV if they offer a major they want.

[Buzz123]

I'm not saying we have a great school system here ...I'm saying nobody has a great school system anywhere. But individuals that are motivated can succeed anywhere they are free to do so. Forcing people to sit in school thinking they will automatically learn anything is the same as trying to force the proverbial horse to drink.

Kids naturally want to absorb knowledge. The Department of Edumacation prevents them from doing so.