Korimyr the Rat

There is a concerted effort on the part of some "conservatives" to destroy the public school system-- to better reinforce their superior position in society. They do not want public school students to be more successful in society.

Focusing on test scores at the expense of skills accomplishes this-- as does cutting the funding of schools that cannot meet the test score requirements.

Then, of course, there's the "liberal" attack on the public schools-- the idiotic feelgood liberals who don't want to admit that some people are just plain better than others, and want the schools to place "self esteem" and tolerance as their highest priority at the expense of performance and achievement.

And this is the second half of the coin, the private problem that complements the political one. Parents do not realize that educating their children is primarily their responsibility and that the public schools are a form of welfare-- government assistance for families who cannot provide for their childrens' proper education on their own.

We have come to view, in this country, public schooling as the default-- if not superior-- option in regards to the education of children, when the public schools simply cannot, with any amount of funding, compete in terms of flexibility and personal attention with even half-heartedly devoted parents.

First, reassess your goals. The public schools cannot realistically be the best source of knowledge and education for all children-- children are individuals and the school is an institution. Not to mention, your school is a government agency and will continue to be handcuffed by political dictates.

Second, I think the most important things are to discredit the two main political attacks against the school system-- remove the role of standardized testing in determining funding, and reinforce that the purpose of public education is to enhance student performance. Push for skills-based education and performance-oriented curriculum over ideological conditioning, and change the promotion and retention systems to reflect that performance orientation.

Beyond that, I believe it is a matter of restoring your ability to provide the educational services that you used to-- getting the funding to reduce class sizes and offer more electives. Restore the classical education, including having classes on Literature, Logic, and Philosophy in the secondary schools.

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Korimyr the Rat

In the majority of school districts, parents do have choice; they can withdraw their children from the public schools and teach them themselves. This allows them to choose the majority of the curriculum-- they must still meet State requirements, but they have the option of how-- the teaching methodology, and if they require outside assistance, even the teachers.

My sister and her husband intend on schooling their son themselves, and when my sister asked me to help with the Social Studies parts of the curriculum, she was most explicit about her requirements.

Doesn't appear in most State constitutions either, I reckon. And if it's your responsibility and not the government's, why do you think it's your State government's responsibility, either?

UtahBill

good post, for a rat....

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Being judgemental is the prime directive of some evangelicals.
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UtahBill

We used the public schools for the majority of our kid's education, then fine tuned it from there. There were a few times I would tell the kids that their teachers were expressing opinion more so than fact. Public school history books are really pathetic...
Our 2 kids are college educated, at our expense mostly, and successful in their careers and with minimal debt, mortgage payments only. Credit card debt gets them in trouble with their parents, .....as we tell them that is the quickest way to fail to qualify for loans should they ever need one, and want it from us. We also taught them that if every one is doing it, it is probably the wrong thing to do. The herd instinct is not suitable for humans...

Graffight

I would take a different approach than vouchers and giving parents choice, because i believe that will do nothing but resegragate and create a much larger inequality between the haves and have nots when it comes to schools. Honestly the thing that is missing is accountability, for families and teachers. It is true that in most cases that the difference between good students and poor (by poor i mean poor performing) ones is their life at home, and when you mix enough poor performing students into one school with parents that don't care it's not long before teachers become discouraged, and other student suffer as well.

There has to be accountability on two fronts...
first teachers should be paid based on performance. not only the performance of the students, but based on how much effort they put into the classroom. How effective they are at developing curriculum, how much the children are learning how good they are at involving parents.

second parents should be held accountable...if your child is performing at a D level or below there should be requirements for the parents, starting at figuring out why their child is performing at that level and meeting with teachers to discuss strategys to move their child from point A to point B. If the parents are unable to move the child from point a to point be they should be charged a fine for waisting the teachers time in and out of the classroom.

Thridly the education system should be changed so it no longer focuses on "teaching to tests" and money should be given to schools based on overall performance of the students. Teachers should be required and incentivized to continue their education as long as they are educating others. Teachers should have to go to summer school, and teachers who consistantly have failing classes should be reqired to come up with action plans to move from point A to point B...point B being passing classes (passing being a C or Better)

If teachers have consistantly good performance they should be given bonuses. If all your classes average a B you get more money, if they average an A you get even more. Music and arts should in no way be removed from schools. Extra curricuar activities should be replaced by after school tutering for underperforming studetns. there should be no more kids getting a free pass in class because they are a sports star....there are so many issues in schools...what do you guys think?

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