The problem with education

Zander

Platinum Member
Sep 10, 2009
22,519
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Los Angeles CA
The problem with public education - summed up perfectly in a cartoon......

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These grades are terrible!! these grades are terrrible!!
 
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That's certainly part of the problem.

That is also, incidently, a damned good argument for ending education run by LOCAL school boards.
 
why did the kid's parents start complaining about their grades? sure the school should hold their ground, a bad grade is a bad grade....but it seems to me, in the cartoon's last pic....it's the PARENT's that are the real problem!
 
I love it! But there needs to be a third frame, with the principal berating the teacher.

I teach seniors. There is an unwritten rule that: ALL WILL GRADUATE ON TIME! (Esp. the criminals)
 
That's certainly part of the problem.

That is also, incidently, a damned good argument for ending education run by LOCAL school boards.

What exactly does bad parenting have to do with local school boards?
 
Some of those same parents who blame the teacher may not be checking to see that homework is done, actively support the school, so the child knows his boundaries and doesn't read with their children when they are young.

Maybe they are too busy on the computer... did you check to see your kid's homework tonight? lol
 
Some of those same parents who blame the teacher may not be checking to see that homework is done, actively support the school, so the child knows his boundaries and doesn't read with their children when they are young.

Maybe they are too busy on the computer... did you check to see your kid's homework tonight? lol

I know around here, some of the schools, 70-80% of the parents are illiterate.
 
Actually I found it odd when my mother didn't say anything about my D's in religion.

Of course I would do the same thing if I had it to do over.

Where is the criticism of the books and the tests? If people can graduate from Harvard but can't explain what causes summer and winter and educators think that is OK then there is another problem somewhere.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0wk4qG2mIg]Harvard Graduates Explain Seasons - YouTube[/ame]



And she gave a crappy explanation saying noting about the gyroscopic action of the planet keeping the axis pointed in one direction as the Earth orbits the Sun. Grade school physics. Like airliners hitting skyscrapers.

psik
 
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My daughter will have a serious problem if she brings home grades like that. She'll have the '69 version to deal with, not the '09 version!
 
My daughter will have a serious problem if she brings home grades like that. She'll have the '69 version to deal with, not the '09 version!

I had straight A's in math with my straight D's in religion. LOL

It is not my fault that religion is really stupid.

psik
 
My daughter will have a serious problem if she brings home grades like that. She'll have the '69 version to deal with, not the '09 version!

I had straight A's in math with my straight D's in religion. LOL

It is not my fault that religion is really stupid.

psik

Now with grades like that I'd have to find out what the problem was causing the disparity. Were you not doing the work, or were your own views so opposite of the teacher's that you were being graded poorly based on your opinions more than the quality of your work?

If my daughter weren't doing the work then she'd find herself being punished. If she was doing the work (and doing it well, not just half-assing it) and the teacher just didn't like what she was saying then I'd be talking with the teacher, then the principal, then the school-board until her grades were changed appropriately. As long as the actual assignment is done and the criteria are met, you shouldn't get graded down just because the teacher doesn't like what you have to say.
 
I had a lengthy debate with a Pub school teacher on another board. Mostly about standards and testing. He couldn't understand why EVERYONE is up in his face about his job and his profession. He had a point. Considering that he gets pummeled by not only parents, but admins, principles, local boards, and the students themselves. And to add insult -- EVERYONE gets to blast him in the political arena..

Well -- it's because he's a PUBLIC school teacher. Not a private school teacher. That's the unfortunate side effect (largely) of being a publically paid civil servant. Everyone IS in your business.

Private schools are not constantly nagged about standards and testing because they by and large HAVE TO MEET by CONTRACT the expectations of the parents. Public schools have no such accountibility. Parents trapped in a failing PUBLIC school have little recourse.

We DO need to perform a triage and take some load off the Pub School teachers. They are battling against problems that they don't want and that they shouldn't be fighting in the 1st place. The pub school problem today -- needs an integrated multi-disciplinary approach to make a big diff in "failing schools". For "bad" schools -- it's a community problem, not an education problem largely. We shouldn't be attacking it from an education standpoint in the first place..
 
My daughter will have a serious problem if she brings home grades like that. She'll have the '69 version to deal with, not the '09 version!

I had straight A's in math with my straight D's in religion. LOL

It is not my fault that religion is really stupid.

psik

Now with grades like that I'd have to find out what the problem was causing the disparity. Were you not doing the work, or were your own views so opposite of the teacher's that you were being graded poorly based on your opinions more than the quality of your work?

Brother Edwards idea of teaching religion was copying pages and drawing pictures out of the catechisms we HAD TO BUY. We probably had to do 20 assignments every grading period. I did 3 in September and decided it was WAY TOO STOOPDI! I thought I was going to get and F. I concluded the school must have a policy of not flunking people at religion. So I did no more assignments for the rest of the year. Straight D's.

I am still pretty much an agnostic. Even the New Atheists are pretty boring. Have they said anything that wasn't said as well 50 years ago?

The idea that all subjects are equally important is ridiculous. And then they require 4 years of English literature and no accounting. Double-entry accounting would have been more useful than most of the more complex math I did get and usually got A's in. Why aren't parents demanding accounting for all kids instead of just insisting that kids get good grades in whatever junk they have to take?

Why aren't parents exchanging info and creating a reading list and ignoring a lot of what the schools say? I just don't get this TRUST IN AUTHORITY mentality.

psik
 

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