Whooooa there... easy big fella. I mean indoctrinated into low standards, each kid just another $15k brick in the wall just to meet the lowest expectations.
With all the federal red tape it seems like the doe has been a failed project. I would like to see teachers have more freedom (obviously with discretion from the local PTA).
There's been quite a few times at parent teacher conferences where teachers are consistently saying things like "we're only doing this to satisfy regulations" (especially in regards to common core math). Aiming everyone to be just at the bare minimum. I mean the report cards in elementary didn't even allow the teachers to grade at "above average" when a student was absolutely crushing it in a subject. They grade like this so that the next semester of reporting they can up it a notch in order to show "improvement over time' to pad the districts reporting metrics. Why not acknowledge these things when they happen and move the kids killing it to the next threshold. It seems like no child left behind has had the consequences of everyone trailing behind. These are the types of things I don't like and prevent me from having the doom and gloom perspective that some may have. And I can't relate to Mr. Lawndale's post in the slightest (although it did give me a chuckle).
I can't speak to the DOE as I don't fully understand their role. Instead, I've always understood education as a very local issue in America and relying primarily on local funding, input, and so on.
You are going to find a wide variety in the quality of schools no matter which type you pick. The thought that the category of school determines its ability to educate is a little too simple.
Charters: These range from amazing to complete scams.
Private: Same
Religious Private: Range from awesome with a bit of religion tossed in to schools that teach dinosaurs walked the earth when Jesus turned water into wine and walked on water.
Public: Huge spectrum as well, but there is always public oversight.
Home: The range here is also huge. Kids not learning the absolute basics of even how to read to kids being indoctrinated with religious nonsense to kids being overachievers. Although, I do worry about kids who are homeschooled and face unpleasant home lives whether by neglect or abuse. No escape from hell. The idea that parents are always right or always safe is absurd. A lot of children need the chance to escape their parent's abuse and idiocy.
Looking at the schools alone also doesn't account for the negative influence environments and parents. Kids in super poor families face all sorts of issues in their neighborhoods. Kids aren't going to kick ass if they're hungry, tired, afraid, and stressed all the time. 8 hours in the classroom with the most caring teacher in the world won't erase the other 16 hours a day fighting for an existence. And, wealthy parents are pretty fucking dumb. They push the schools to encourage sports instead of academics.
https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/R/bo149570065.htmlAnd, parental "discipline" isn't necessarily good for kids either, unless we are trying to teach them to be the lowest ranking person in any institution.
https://www.ucpress.edu/books/unequal-childhoods/paperFinally, I'm biased. I collected a lot of degrees and I only went to public schools. My public high school is in the top 20 schools in the state I grew up in. That school, despite the problems and my rebellious fuck authority mentality, gave me a huge advantage in life. An advantage I could have never afforded through a voucher. My mom was a single mom without a lot of money. We couldn't afford an extra 7K in tuition costs + transportation to an expensive rich kid private school. Nor would she have had the ability to teach me. My computer classes, math classes, and foreign language classes surpassed where she felt comfortable in late middle school. She wasn't going to teach me HTML, trig/pre-calc, or the basics of Spanish, but my high school did.
We could potentially set up all schools to be like Oak Lane Country Day School, where Chomsky went as a child, but the cost would be astounding. Public education has its issues but for the for-profit-education scares me the most and homeschooling makes me uncomfortable. Yea, some parents are qualified to teach their kids, a lot of parents aren't and their poor kids are starting off life with a huge disadvantage. And, anecdotally, I'm yet to meet a home schooled kid who was able to socialize well with their peers. Both home school kids that skated my local park were difficult to interact with. Not saying they were bad, but they struggled interacting with their peers.
Topic: Changes under Trump 2.0 (Read 188620 times)