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I went to a US public school for one semester as a sophomore in high school. I knew more than the teachers in Geography, History and Civics. University (public) was more of a challenge.
I had a US history teacher in 10th grade who could not identify the original 13 colonies.
Football coach, naturally.
Yes, I did, and that is completely irrelevant so to whether or not I have the "right" to criticize the public school system.
It seems that most in this thread went to public schools, if not all the way through then at least for a good part of the time. Most can write legibly and make themselves understood, even those with such extreme bigotries. As products of the public schools, they seem to validate public education.
But, most also seem to be fairly old, like me, and afflicted with the common Old Farts Disease which somehow produces "this younger generation is going to hell" kind of comments.
I wonder...how many of you so SUUURE that public schools are super bad have been in one lately? How many of you have kids or grandkids in public schools right now? If you do, how are they doing? Are the learning to read, do math, use computers?
Mine are. No, their schools aren't perfect, but they're learning what they need to learn in a safe and supportive environment. I just had lunch with two of mine at school the other day and I saw the same thing I see every time I go: Good teachers, concerned teachers, excellent staff, clean facilities, adequate equipment and reasonably good food in the cafeteria. I see students of all colors, from all backgrounds, from all ethnicities, repeating the Pledge of Allegiance every morning (in English). They know the National Anthem and they know who George Washington and Abe Lincoln are. They can write, they can think, they do research and make reports. And, NONE of them are any farther along than the 5th grade.
The public schools are not failing my grandkids, any more than it failed my kids or me.
What's different about YOUR local schools? Or, have you actually been down there to see?
One of the worst failures of our public school system is that after graduating from that system, the ones who attended believe they have a good education. After all, they went!
School is NOT supposed to teach children how to function in society. That's the function of parents, churches and communities.
Millions of others have the same experience, which is why millions of others are both ignorant and illiterate.
Most of those who are 'ignorant and illiterate' are so because they expected to be given an education rather than earning it. You get out of your school experience what you put into it. That's the bottom line. You can blame all of life's failures on someone or something else; or you can take responibility for yourself. Gosh, don't I sound like a conservative so and so. Yet here are all the right wingers in this thread bitching, moaning, whining and complaining about what the public school system isn't giving them or didn't give them.
It doesn't make any difference whether a country leans left or right when it comes to the quality of education.There isn't a question that the level of education today is poor. Just how poor is it really?
It is poor enough to imperil the nation.
How Ignorant Are Americans? - Newsweek and The Daily Beast
Young Americans? ignorance baffling - Columbia Daily Tribune : Opinion
The ignorance about our country is staggering.
According to one survey, only 28 percent of students could identify the Constitution as the supreme law of the land.
Only 26 percent of students knew the first 10 amendments to the Constitution are called the Bill of Rights.
Less than one-quarter of students knew George Washington was the first president of the United States.
It's the age of ignorance.
Age of Ignorance by Charles Simic | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books
It took years of indifference and stupidity to make us as ignorant as we are today. Anyone who has taught college over the last forty years, as I have, can tell you how much less students coming out of high school know every year. At first it was shocking, but it no longer surprises any college instructor that the nice and eager young people enrolled in your classes have no ability to grasp most of the material being taught. Teaching American literature, as I have been doing, has become harder and harder in recent years, since the students read little literature before coming to college and often lack the most basic historical information about the period in which the novel or the poem was written, including what important ideas and issues occupied thinking people at the time.
Not that American ignorance is limited to literature and history. They are equally ignorant of science.
Poll Finds Americans Are Ignorant Of Science - NYTimes.com
Many Americans also mistakenly say that laser beams are focused sound waves and that atoms are smaller than electrons, said Jon Miller, director of the Public Opinion Laboratory at Northern Illinois University, who conducted a nationwide survey for the National Science Foundation.
In a July telephone survey, 2,041 adults 18 or older were asked more than 70 questions on basic science. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Asked whether the Earth goes around the Sun or the Sun around the Earth, 21 percent replied incorrectly; 7 percent said they did not know.
But, every single dolt can regurgitate the last thing they were told about global warming!
Unfortunately for Americans, the rest of the world is not so hampered by liberalism. When American students go out into the world, they will be competing with job-candidates from India, China, Japan, all over the world and they aren't ignorant.
Yes. I went to a public high school and a public college. And I was lucky enough to play for the football team at both places. I not only recieved a good education, but, I was able to be on the football team where I learned things not taught in a classroom: Discipline, pushing through adversity, not quitting, physical and mental toughness, following directions, teamwork, leadership, etc, etc.
Millions of others had the same experience. A great investment with our tax dollars to provide a publicly accessable system to teach our children how to function in society, to give them a small foundation.
It seems that most in this thread went to public schools, if not all the way through then at least for a good part of the time. Most can write legibly and make themselves understood, even those with such extreme bigotries. As products of the public schools, they seem to validate public education.
But, most also seem to be fairly old, like me, and afflicted with the common Old Farts Disease which somehow produces "this younger generation is going to hell" kind of comments.
I wonder...how many of you so SUUURE that public schools are super bad have been in one lately? How many of you have kids or grandkids in public schools right now? If you do, how are they doing? Are the learning to read, do math, use computers?
Mine are. No, their schools aren't perfect, but they're learning what they need to learn in a safe and supportive environment. I just had lunch with two of mine at school the other day and I saw the same thing I see every time I go: Good teachers, concerned teachers, excellent staff, clean facilities, adequate equipment and reasonably good food in the cafeteria. I see students of all colors, from all backgrounds, from all ethnicities, repeating the Pledge of Allegiance every morning (in English). They know the National Anthem and they know who George Washington and Abe Lincoln are. They can write, they can think, they do research and make reports. And, NONE of them are any farther along than the 5th grade.
The public schools are not failing my grandkids, any more than it failed my kids or me.
What's different about YOUR local schools? Or, have you actually been down there to see?
I don't think I missed very much and, in fact, believe I got a fine education.
