TexasCHLforum.com

mamabearCali wrote:

mojo84 wrote:I am amazed at the broad generalizations many seem to be so comfortable throwing out there. It's akin to the anti-gun crowd yelling we should get rid of all "assault weapons" because they are for nothing but killing people, no one "needs" them and some have been used to inflict incredible tragedy. Talk about hypocrisy.

Some of you folks need to get over yourselves and come down off your holier than thou I love my kids more than you do high horses.

I agree, public schools need to improved, some more than others. Some may even need to be shut down and start over. But this attitude that they are all beyond repair and are just houses of socialism is ridiculous.

There is a reason I chose to live in Boerne rather than the other places I've lived such as Odessa, Houston and San Antonio. Much of it had to do with the school district.

Tell you what, why don't you tell us why you think the public school experiment should continue? Why don't you tell us why with declining results for the past 50 years the current system should be permitted to continue? Why should it continue with failing results when there are so many other things that we know would work?

Great you chose to live in Boerne. I live in a very nice county in VA too. It is lauded for it's public schools...guess what they are still insane....the have still disciplined children severely, at a young age, for relatively minor infractions. They still throw a hissy fit if someone so much as mentions an after school bible club and has the audacity to invite someone to it. It is still a grinder system.

I have not seen many here with "holier than thou I love my kids more than you high horses". Homeschoolers have been called all sorts of names through the years and come across every sort of insults. If you have felt uncomfortable having your schooling choices questioned, then just imagine what we homeschoolers go through. Nearly every day when we are out and about in public, in Costco, in Kroger, at Target, at Chick-fil-a, at football practice, at ballet class I have to defend my choice to homeschool. Everywhere we go someone brings up the age old question "What about socialization?" Usually it comes up as my children are playing happily with theirs. So if anyone has come across strong to you, remember that they have had to defend their education choices to everyone, to the state, to their coworkers, to their family, to the general public at large.

Homeschoolers believe that their way is best. They want others to experience the success that we have. Instead of getting mad at us. Why don't you tell us why you feel your way is the best.

Finally the argument this nation is going through is not analogous to the public education system. There is a constitutional amendment for our right to bear arms. I don't remember a constitutional right to a free education. Second the "stupid and criminal" rate of people misusing guns is very small in comparison to the number of children failed by the public education system. If every fourth house had a gun mishap that disabled a person I bet we would be having a different conversation right now. There is no hypocrisy in calling failing schools failures. There is no hypocrisy in saying that the system we have in place is failing, when it is.

chasfm11 wrote:

Keith B wrote: I am not knocking home schooling at all. What I am knocking is the home school parents who do not allow their kids to get involved in extracurricular activities. They exist. We had a neighbor who's kid was starved for outside activities and they were not allowed to participate. Those parents that do make the extra effort usually have well rounded kids. There are similar cases of private, parochial and public school kids who are socially introverted as well. It all boils down to how involved the parents want to be and the opportunities presented to them. I know those that home school in small rural areas do not have the same opportunities for outside sports, clubs, etc. locally that those who live in a metropolitan do. The place where those exist are usually in the public school.

Like any approach, there are those that the rest of us could judge to be incorrect. There are kids who are starved for social connection just as there are a few who succeed through the inner city school process. We had neighbors who home schooled their daughter through high school and when the girl went to college, she went wild. It was somewhat of a joke while I was teaching that the girls who were the most openly wanton in high school had been the products of a very tight and segregated by the sexes parochial school system.

I don't think that there is a perfect educational solution. This thread started by suggesting that parents should have options, which I whole-heartedly support. Charter schools, home schools and private schools should be in the mix. I'm adamantly opposed to the current direction of the public schools. While I recognize that there are pockets of good teaching that are occurring, the overall focus of the curriculum is wrong and, in more cases than not, I believe it is being poorly executed. Public schools are failing mostly because there is no accountability for either the material being taught or for the quality of teachers.

I have to admit that the commercial company from which I retired did a really lousy job of getting rid of bad performing employees but some of the same reasons as for the schools. Goals and objectives need to be clear and employee/teacher contribution toward meeting them needs to be assessed. Those goals and objectives in my business were no less murky than they are in the school environment.

What works is smaller, less bureaucratic organizations. Big banks fail, big auto companies fail and big school environments fail. Economy of scale benefits are greatly outweighed by bureaucratic ineptness. With smaller schools and choices, education in the US can stop falling behind the advances of the rest of the world.

http://rossieronline.usc.edu/u-s-educat ... fographic/

Simply throwing money at the problem is obviously not getting it solved. We've given over the schools to the social aspect and I believe that is wrong.