<p>ASAP said,
“Every student is there to learn. They all take the most challenging courses they can handle. That means my son can’t slide by doing mediocre work and getting As for it. The standards are very high.”</p>
<p>I hope you are talking about your own situation and not making generalizations about all public schools. I get tired of the assumption that an A in a public is easy to get.</p>
<p>ASAP is referring to private schools (I think).</p>
<p>Personally, I think all public education prior to seventh grade is unnecessary. Well, maybe not to the point that we can cut it entirely, but I learned my times tables in kindergarten. We were tested on times tables up to the end of fourth grade. Where is the progress here?!</p>
<p>An interesting quote from the [url=<a href=“http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338]link:[/url”>John Stossel's 'Stupid in America' - ABC News]link:[/url</a>] </p>
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<p>Hehe, since when has kids falling asleep in high school classes been new, or exclusive? </p>
<p>And for lack of control and complete lack of learning going on, 20/20 should have looked no further than my honors physics class. Perfect example.</p>
<p>Also, how do students get to college without knowing that you are supposed to proof read your typed papers before handing them into a professor? Or, how do they get to school writing…not good?</p>
<p>Wow those Belgian kids are smart!</p>
<p>What I can’t stand about pieces like this is the way they ignore the responsibliity we all bear for the plight of our schools. For all the platitudes and sanctimony, we don’t especially value education, certainly not as an end in itself. Teaching is not held in high esteem as a profession; academics are marginalized, regularly scorned as ivory-towered eggheads. Meanwhile, our desire for money, status, and instant gratification drives us onward, instilling a shallow impatience that stands at odds with the slow, difficult process that learning often is. I know I’m getting windy here, so I’ll just end by saying this: I don’t discount the idea that choice could help improve public schools in some ways, but let’s not overlook the possiblity that the habits of mind engendered by our consumer culture could also be to blame for some of the problems.</p>
<p>i’m watching it right now. i must say, Stossel does have some excellent points.</p>
<p>What is smart is letting the education dollars attach to the student…create competition.</p>
<p>Here’s a huge waste of money. Our school district just spent $75,000,000 on a 11,000 seat football stadium/10,000 seat indoor arena with a 20,000 square foot administrative conference facility. It includes a catering facility that can prepare 1000 meals at a time. We already have a bowl-type district football stadium bigger than that of any Ivy League college. This is the second one…to accommodate about 7 high schools who play each other (3-4 games total per week.)</p>
<p>One of the premises for building this new monstrosity was graduation. Because our high schools are so big we were required to graduate our seniors at a nearby professional sports arena which cost about $50,000 every year. Inconvenient, but plenty of room for every family member. So they build the $75 million facility and we are told that now our D will be limited to 4 guests for the graduation exercises. Haven’t figured out which grandparents to tell not to come. And in about 1500 years, the cost-benefit relationship will swing in our favor. </p>
<p>Our starting teaching salary is well below $40K…something is wrong with this picture.</p>
<p>If anyone read A Hope in the Unseen, the DC highschool they compare with the charter school is Ballou High, the school that the main character went to (Cedric Jennings) and one of the worst in the country.</p>
<p>Interesting report, by the way.</p>
<p>oh and one other thing…in a district that is approaching the 100,000 enrollment mark, we had less than 40 NMSF.</p>
<p>Something is wrong with the picture.</p>
<p>This is thoroughly appalling…I almost fell out of my chair when the women at the end made the comment that “competition is going to improve education? It’s just not gonna work. You know competition is not for children. It’s not for human beings. It’s not for public education. It never has been, it never will be.”</p>
<p>Okay, since when has America not been a free-market economy?</p>
<p>ldmom06: i totally agree on how some high schools waste so much money on pointless, unnecessary things. my high school recently did a $42 million dollar expansion (includes 10 new science classrooms, a 1,000 seat theater with raising orchestra pit, a skylight library furnished with antique lamps and sofas). Construction has been delayed constantly (it was suppose to be done before the start of the Sept. 2005) and the school is asking my town for $3 million more dollars. And yet my school can’t spend just a fraction of tax dollars to replace ripped old books or help fund some clubs or lesser sports team (like track, fencing). so yea, most schools don’t know how to spend monday correctly, which is the prime reason why most people in my town go to private schools.</p>
<p>kcirsch: i also laughed at that woman’s statement. she must be really really blind. competition is everywhere, and i feel if parent’s can choose, then schools would be up on their feet in making sure the quality of teachers are good. and i personally know that education is falling down the tubes (at least in my high school) because all the experienced teachers that i know have retired this year and the past 3 years. makes me wonder what education is gonna be like for my little sister …</p>
<p>yeppers…competition is the answer. </p>
<p>But parents also have to demand the right things. The extravagant spending in our district that I just described happened because parents who place a higher priority on the superficial and the superfluous have a louder voice than those of us who believe the money should be spent in the classroom. These same loud parents squawked until our ranking system was modified to eliminate the extra GPA points for Honors and AP (my pet peeve in case ya haven’t noticed). Too many shortcuts and too much instant gratification…and kids learn by example.</p>
<p>Anyone read Thomas Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat’? America is in trouble baby…and the trouble starts in our schools.</p>
<p>“Wow those Belgian kids are smart!”</p>
<p>haha, yea they most likely are. i’m not saying that america sucks or anything, but when i went to an int’l summer camp back when i was a sophomore in high school, i was amazed by all the languages that foreign people can speak (up to 5 languages). And yet i go to school, and ‘most’ people can’t speak any other language besides English. after that experience and watching the 20/20 special, i guess i am beginning to understand why my dad says i have it easier in america than when he attended int’l school.</p>
<p>I think where the American education system fails at middle school. Middle school, which can be backed up by many of my friends, believe little was learned in middle school. Middle school is the place where cliques form and so does laziness. Middle School taught me social skills, not academics.</p>
<p>“America is in trouble baby…and the trouble starts in our schools.”</p>
<p>can we blame it on Texas?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.texscience.org/[/url]”>http://www.texscience.org/</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.texaspolicy.com/commentaries_single.php?report_id=415[/url]”>http://www.texaspolicy.com/commentaries_single.php?report_id=415</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5469437/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5469437/</a></p>
<p>hahaahah, oh wow, then i guess if texans went to health classes in my school (in nj), they’d prolly be grossed out from the visual representation of a women going through labor in “Miracle of Life”.</p>
<p>I’ve posted several times about Belgium, especiallt about my visit to my cousins’ schools. A few day ago, I posted this in the thread about vouchers.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=136140&page=2&pp=40&highlight=Belgian[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=136140&page=2&pp=40&highlight=Belgian</a></p>
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<p>Please note that Hanna pointed to a constitutional issue:</p>
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<p>However, I believe that this issue has been overcome in at least one state -see the example of Milwaukee.</p>
<p>As far as how long this has been debated, let’s remember that Economist Milton Friedman introduced voucher systems in **1955 ** in an academic article titled “On the Role of Government in Education”. He blamed the government for a stifling and poorly performing school system in the U.S. He then introduced voucher systems to stimulate the development and improvement of schools. Regarding the government financing of schools, Dr. Friedman borrowed the idea of a free-market economy.</p>
<p>oh groan…I was at that Tx Board of Education meeting where the textbook issues were discussed. (D was getting an award, I was there to take a picture.) Sometimes, I just don’t know what to think of our education system (or legislative system…can we talk top 10% law here) in this state anymore.</p>
<p>xiggi, the voucher systems appear to do quite well at producing results, but the libs and the unions will never let it happen. Public schools like the one I attended will continue to underperform from now until infiniti.</p>