End Public Schools

[psijac]

I was thinking if we truly want to stop mas shootings at schools we should just close all schools. Distance learning has matured greatly with the rise of the internet. Home schooling has always been an option. Public schools are failing anyway. This could also prevent bullying and maybe even racism. Since a child at home still needs to be watch this could also be a return to the nucleus family.

Any thoughts?

[fickman]

Too many parents don't want to be responsible for their own kids, and that's even among those who are abdicating their leadership roles to the schools and/or churches. To remove their crutch and make them primarily responsible for the shaping of their children??? There's too many institutions (marriage, family, etc.) that failed long before the schools. . . you'd have to fix each one of those.

If you consider the trajectory and momentum of our nation, it's an interesting thought that will never happen.

Individual families will continue to press on, but mainstream society sailed past that port long ago.

My take is a little pessimistic, but ultimately optimistic and hopeful: it's a fallen world, and it will continue to grow darker and bleaker until the return of the King.

[mojo84]

As much as I would like to pin it on the public schools, I think it is more of a parent problem than a school problem. Parental involvement at school and home is the key. Not knocking anyone but it is hard enough to properly raise kids with both parents involved but trying to do it with only one is nearly impossible. Not to mention the damage done to the kids during and as a result of the divorce process. I also realize there are way too many two parent homes that don't take responsibility for their kids either due to lack of interest, financial stress or just overall dysfunction. All those things are their responsibility and not the responsibility of the schools.

While the schools aren't perfect and need improvement, I think blaming the public schools is just more of today's cultural tendancy of not accepting responsibility and blaming someone else for our failures.

[Andrew]

As much as I would like to pin it on the public schools, I think it is more of a parent problem than a school problem. Parental involvement at school and home is the key. Not knocking anyone but it is hard enough to properly raise kids with both parents involved but trying to do it with only one is nearly impossible. Not to mention the damage done to the kids during and as a result of the divorce process. I also realize there are way too many two parent homes that don't take responsibility for their kids either due to lack of interest, financial stress or just overall dysfunction. All those things are their responsibility and not the responsibility of the schools.

While the schools aren't perfect and need improvement, I think blaming the public schools is just more of today's cultural tendancy of not accepting responsibility and blaming someone else for our failures.

Why do most suburban schools excel while many inner city schools fail? As stated, parental involvement is the key to educational excellence. But it's not just parent/teacher conferences or PTA meetings, insuring homework is done and bake sales, it's also the home environment that the children are raised in. A safe, warm when it's cold/cool when it's hot, home. Nutritional needs met. Emotional support. Access to study resources. Mostly positive role models. Hopefully good health care. Good hygiene lessons. Clean well cared for clothing/shoes.
How successful would any child be when none of the above are part of their life? There will always be exceptions, the inner city student that achieves greatness/the suburban student who fails to live up to their potential, the single mom/dad that provides and cares for their child, the self-involved couple that has a child as an accessory or because of a "mistake".
I believe that repairing the family in the U.S. wether nuclear or extended, is the first step to not only improving the schools, but insuring the survival of our nation.

[jmra]

I was thinking if we truly want to stop mas shootings at schools we should just close all schools. Distance learning has matured greatly with the rise of the internet. Home schooling has always been an option. Public schools are failing anyway. This could also prevent bullying and maybe even racism. Since a child at home still needs to be watch this could also be a return to the nucleus family.

Any thoughts?

What utopia world have you been living in? Go sit in front of a school on a staff development day and watch how many parents try to drop their kids off for school. That should tell you how involved parents are in their kids education.
You think we have an education problem now? You can't get parents to meet teachers about their kids grades. You think that parent is going to make sure the kid does his work at home?
Within a decade 80% of the underage population would be illiterate.

[v-rog]

It is because of the public school system that I still have my sanity!

[SherwoodForest]

This is a serious question - When families visit the Gulf Coast do reasonable parents allow their young children to venture out into the surf beyond the "safe zone" generally considered to be too shallow for bull shark predation ?

Informed parents will not.

Yet the vast majority of parents continue to patronize a public school system that harbors drug dealers, child predators, rapists, armed robbers, murderers, kidnappers, random bullies, and is staffed by employees represented by educator associations publicly at odds with our constitutional principles.

[cheezit]

yup all for if if I dont have to waste more tax dollars. keller isd is pretty high on the tax rate

[chasfm11]

This is a serious question - When families visit the Gulf Coast do reasonable parents allow their young children to venture out into the surf beyond the "safe zone" generally considered to be too shallow for bull shark predation ?

Informed parents will not.

Yet the vast majority of parents continue to patronize a public school system that harbors drug dealers, child predators, rapists, armed robbers, murderers, kidnappers, random bullies, and is staffed by employees represented by educator associations publicly at odds with our constitutional principles.

The reason for the latter and not the former is the zeal with which the parents will be prosecuted if their children are not in school. No one will care if kids don't go into the surf.

The same people who bury their heads about problems with the National debt are usually the ones who ignore reports of problems in public schools. Lal Lal land runs from sea to shining sea and on a variety of subjects.

The Federal government entered public schools in a big way with Title I in 1965 with the stated purpose of helping to implement the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like every other thing that they touch, the Feds salivated at the new found power and their influence has made the schools more and more unaccountable to the local citizens ever since. To fix the schools, the Feds will have to be extracted and I don't see that happening anytime soon. Even if that does happen, the big city teacher's unions will continue to ensure substandard education within their respective power zones. A kid that comes of most of those environments with a good education is a miracle.

[Dragonfighter]

Some flaws in your recommendation is that you are assuming that there is a parent around to teach the child and that the parent is educated to the point that they are qualified to teach a child.

em mine

While I agree with the first part, lazy parents who want the free babysitting and what not. I wholeheartedly disagree with the second part. Many homeschooling parents learn with their children. A study was done in about 2003 (IIRC) where home school students were tested when the parents were of 9th grade and below education. They overwhelmingly tested in the 95th percentile.

"Qualifications" for a parent to home school their children is limited to loving them and a willingness to invest the effort in their outcome.

[Keith B]

While I think distance learning and computer based courses have their place, school is not all about curriculum. I learned a lot of things like social interaction, friendship, how to fight, how to love, etc. While there have always been bad things at school, playing sports, being in teh band, school clubs, and other activities are a part of my life that I would not want to have missed. Sitting a kid behind a computer screen all day to 'learn' would do nothing to help promote how to work with others and potentially turn many into worse social introverts than we already are getting today from kids who do nothing but play video games and play on the Internet.

[Jeff Barriault]

I have a better idea. Adopt a plan like they have in Finland. Let the tax money for education go with each child. If a community wants to have a public school, it must compete with other schools for the children and the funds that go along with them. The schools in Finland hate it, but the competition has led to Finland having the best educated students on the planet.

Parents get to decide where their children go, and because they are given a choice, they tend to become more involved in the system. Unlike here where unless you have enough money to send your child to private school, you have a very limited choice of schools, if any.

[chasfm11]

I have a better idea. Adopt a plan like they have in Finland. Let the tax money for education go with each child. If a community wants to have a public school, it must compete with other schools for the children and the funds that go along with them. The schools in Finland hate it, but the competition has led to Finland having the best educated students on the planet.

Parents get to decide where their children go, and because they are given a choice, they tend to become more involved in the system. Unlike here where unless you have enough money to send your child to private school, you have a very limited choice of schools, if any.

I think that part of the detachment by some parents regarding schools is because they feel that they have not choice. Not everyone has the willingness to take on the establishment that many of us do. I can tell you from a series of personal experiences while our daughter was still in school that it isn't easy. I agree that some will be too busy or self-involved to pay much attention but I don't see that as a norm except in the inner cities. Competition always seems to lead to a better product.

I'm about to lobby our granddaughter' district about not accepting CSCOPE. So far they haven't accepted that program and I want it to stay that way. If the parents really understood what all was involved in that, many of them would be beating down the administration doors demanding that rejection. I'll bet that not 1 in 100 parents in the districts that have bought it even knows the name, let alone how bad it is. Full disclosure would make a lot of difference. You cannot expect parents to make good choices about their kids when you hide all of the facts.

[JALLEN]

For years, I have advocated closing the public schools. Since at least my first day in school more than 60 years ago to this very day, we have poured more and more money into education and the more is spent, the less effective it has become. Schools today appear to be little more than baby-sitting services for prepubescent children and dating services for post-pubescent ones.

The trouble basically, IMnotalwayssoHO, is there is way too much teaching, and far too little learning. The system is geared that way somehow. The kids are marched along in assembly lines, and at least here in California where the districts get their money from the state, way too much attention is paid to butts in the seats and too little to knowledge in the noggin. From what I see, all the schools are doing is progressive brain-washing, and currying favor to get more money.

In place of public schools, give the parent/guardian of each school age child a voucher which can be used as the parent sees fit. Organizations will spring up, in all shapes and sizes and offerings to meet the needs of the parents. You want your child to be a Rhodes Scholar, you will make certain choices, not only of schools but of family life, like Tiger Woods' dad had him swinging a golf club when he was 3. Maybe your child isn't destined for academic brilliance. As you realize that, you select other educational opportunities. You might even send your kids to church sponsored organizations, perish the thought. The more tightly the choices are controlled the less effective they will be.

The teachers who are incompetent, or poorly motivated, will find employment elsewhere. The ones who are effective and willing to work hard will find plenty of opportunity in one place or another and reap the rewards of their excellence. One vast improvement will be the operators of the educational emporiums will be happy to enforce their policies, and if the parents are unhappy, there are other choices. This is a double edged sword, pleasing customers while delivering the product effectively. The hooligans can get the boot, unless of course, your program specializes in hooligans, and some will, or might.

This will play hob with Friday night football in Texas. Hey, nothing's perfect.