In To Kill A Mockingbird, there is a scene where an innocent man is thrown in jail. The man is black. The setting is in the 1960's. Women can't serve on juries in Alabama. Then, the bell rings, and my freshman AP English teacher calls it a day. We had discussed in class a concept that is in this book. People are made equal by the law.
In response to Rym's story, I have this to say. Anyone who claims that smart people are anti-equality is a moron for not listening to the English teacher. Down here in Texas, To Kill A Mockingbird is required reading for AP students. The AP provides the same study materials for the book. AP is nationwide.
I must say, even in AP courses, I learned little. History was the exception, we had a great history department. In senior AP English, our teacher taught us so little that no one got AP credit.
John Stossel said it best when he said that we are "stupid in America." Other countries are ahead of us by leaps and bounds. My high school separates 9th and 10th grade. Since then, teachers I knew personally said that behavior has worsened.
In Texas, we have a problem with corrupt politicans running the show. We had bond proposals, class clousures, and so forth.
Here is a great example. My high school dropped computer programming. You had to double block math to get to college level pre-cal, which is needed to get considered for Computer Science at Lamar University. My CS advisor was astonished by what my high school did. As a result, I am a sophmore having to take Programming Fundamentals I over again because of lack of preparation. I also had to retake pre-cal since I couldn't take college level in high school. I again have to retake it because I got a D. :-I
Students at my former high school are unprepared for computer science for two reasons: the administration thinks it is a fad and they refuse to update their software (No new versions of Java runtime, for example. There are only 24 computers running XP. 300 run Windows 98 and 10 run Windows 2000. They refuse to buy software for the computer department who is now only able to teach Microsoft Office by decree. A digital graphics class exists, but are locked out of their computers for three months a year because they rent software for a limited time to save money. They do not check for viruses. The disconnect is so bad, I broke the rules to remove spyware from a teacher's machine. There were over 200,000 on one machine. The principal caught me and wrote me up for hacking. I got Saturday D-hall for trying to help a teacher!
Public schools are dooming the future of America and something must be done to stop it before it is too late.
Public schools are dooming the future of America and something must be done to stop it before it is too late.
I would somewhat agree with this statement. With No Child Left behind, this pretty much guarantees that we are teaching towards a test instead of teaching in a way that children learn. The classes where projects and spirited debate and lecture were used instead of memorization seemed to have provided the most memorable experience and thus the class learned more in the end. Classes that just came down to brute memorization to pass tests were easily forgotten over time. Making teachers, (at least the talented ones) conform to rigid requirements to cover specific requirements everyday limits the ability of the truly talented ones from actually creating a lasting impression on their students and foster a love of learning.
That being said I fear for how we teach Science in all forms of education. Home-schooled are “generally†religious wacko’s who short change their kids view of how science works, Private schools “usually†don’t have the budget for experiments or have a bias towards wacko religious background and lastly Public schools are vulnerable to public policy and tend to focus on factory learning (memorization) instead of attempting to foster a love of learning. We have to start teaching children how to learn instead of what to learn. We are quickly moving beyond the place where memorization of facts is necessary for survival. Instead, we have to foster an imagination and love of learning bolstered with the ability to think logically through problems and how to resist manipulation.
My first job out of college was teaching math at Millersburg Military institute. Since it was a private school, I didn't have to have a teaching certificate.
It was pretty weird. It was in a very rural area in Kentucky somewhat equidistant from Lexington and Cincinnati. The school included grades 6-12. The kids were mostly rich problem kids from Cincinnati. Part of my job was to actually live on campus and occasionally be the "faculty duty officer", which meant that, during that time, I was the only responsible adult on campus. That was major suckage, but I had an apartment in the Senior Barracks, which was pretty cool.
Like most boarding schools, there were the obligatory ghost stories of students who had committed suicide in the barracks, the class buildings, the parade ground, and the mess in all manner of nasty and embarrassing ways, depending on who told the story and who they were trying to haze. The main administration building was an old plantation house, and so there were stories that it was a stop on the underground railroad, giving rise to more ghost stories.
Of course, I didn't believe any of the actual events in any of the actual stories, but there was definitely an atmosphere of dread; a pall of fear about the place. The isolated setting, the plantation house, and an abandoned classroom building squatting like an overturned tombstone on the quad all conspired to make the place feel like one of Stephen King's "wrong places". There was just something that felt very unwholesome. So, even without giving any credence at all to the stories, I rarely slept the night through when I was living there. Some nights I was so scared I could barely move.
Now before you make fun of me, please remember that I said I didn't believe any of the stories and that I'm not saying anything spooky actually happened. I'm just saying it was a very creepy place and it was hard to get a good night's sleep. I've never been anywhwere that creepy before or since, and if I was creeped out, I can't imagine how scared a 6th grade kid must have been. I don't think those kids learned anything, except maybe how to stand at attention.
I believe public school is the best type of schooling you can get, simply because it lets you experience real life situations more than private schooling or home schooling.
I'm currently in my sophomore year at a public high school. I have to say, sometimes I wish I went to a private school because I get bored in classes. I easily receive A's in my subjects, am in all honors courses, and I still -want- more. I'm currently taking the most advanced classes offered for my grade level, and I guess I'm satisfied. I could ask for junior courses, but I'm satisfied with the classes I'm taking. Although the public school track fails to make courses harder for "advanced" students, they still let me become exposed to different situations and people. For example, in my high school everyone is separated into a social group, like the preps, geeks, goths, and so on. Everyone knows the drama that goes on in the school, and becomes used to the problems it causes, and learns how to deal with them. My school was built recently, and so it is stocked and supplied well with books and computers, which is also a plus. There are a ton of extra-curricular activities you can take, from sports to clubs to drama, which colleges love to see on an application. You just can't get the same things in home schooling.
The only problem I see right now, is that teachers are teaching us to prepare for a test, rather than to learn. I think this was already brought up, but I believe the No Child Left Behind (my H Government teacher mistakenly called it One Child Left Behind... ^.^) has caused more trouble than it's worth. All it has done is lowered school standards, and caused more tests. All my teachers teach based on a curriculum set to teach us all the information on the tests, rather than what they think we need to learn. Although we learn good test-taking strategies, I believe that we should spend more time on learning information, rather than learning how to take a test. The SAT's and HSA's also cause a lack of time to teach us. We only spend about one day on a certain topic, when we should be spending three. Students just don't have a chance to absorb information, so they can't grasp the subject to which they're trying to learn. Personally, I think schooling still has a long way to go before it's perfect, if it ever will be.
To Kill A Mockingbird, like linktothepresent brought up, is required for standard 10th grade reading. Many students read the book, but don't really grasp the meaning of the book. They just study for the test we have to take, and take -everything- literally. Unfortunately, everyone who reads a classic only complains about it, they don't really understand why it's a classic anymore.
I didn't read To Kill a Mocking Bird in high school, but this reminded me of when I overheard some younger students back in high school talking about things they had to memorize for the Hobbit, and knowing that book was ruined to them, what a shame..
I'd say it depends a lot less on the where and a lot more on the how. I went to public school until high school when my parents switched me to a private school. We moved a couple times so I went to several different public schools.
The basic idea of school is to learn. The worst teacher I ever had was at the private school...actually, there were two awful teachers there. One was far worse than the other but both were pretty terrible.
On the other hand in public schools I had a couple teachers that were awful but it's not as noticeable in the lower grades because the kids are smart enough to realize it. Besides...how hard is it really to learn 4th grade math good teacher or not?
The educational system as a whole could really use some revamping but the biggest problem is teachers/parents that don't know how to stimulate and motivate their students/children and get them interested in learning. That's where the changes can start.
I'm 17 and still in public high school. I was homeschooled from 1st to 6th grade. For 7th grade I was put in a charter school. It was a shit ass year. The kids were crazy christians and the other girls didn't like me because all the guys wanted to go out with me. (Yeah at one time in my life I was popular outside of my band and Anime club friends.) The next year I went to a public middle school. I was a really bad student and got mixed up with the wrong people. But for freshman year of highschool I was sent to a charter school. It was the most amazing school that I have ever been at. It was small (173 kids in all). But the teachers could help you if you needed help. I knew almost everyone and because it used to be an alternative school, everyone was really open minded. And we had open campus for lunch. But because it was too far away and gas prices are so bad, I had to go to the public high school. It isn't bad but I don't like it as much. So there is my thoughts on schools! ^_^
Two minutes of reading John Taylor Gatto's stuff shows that he's a crank. He might have a couple of good points, but his whole set up is unnecessarily sensationalistic. It kills the message when you do that. No one will take him seriously.
Private school sucks ass if you don't believe in the religion the teachers are trying to shove down your throat. Home school sucks because you don't have the social interaction with other students. Public school is awesome because of the fact that you see how fucked up the world really is, it teaches you more than the subject manner. Yay.
I went to both a high school, and, am now attending a Charter school.
Much more work to do, It gets me where I need to go, Its a much, much faster pace than traditional highschool. Hands down, it's one of the best decisions to make if you are behind on school credits. Plus, it's in an environment thats somewhat social and the teachers I have are absolutely amazing. People have told me that being home schooled turns you anti-social, and I give them the same response every time, "I've got legs, I can walk. I've got friends that I talk to. I use my legs to walk to my friends and talk to them after my school work is through."
It makes me sad that I can't show them my appreciation because I dont turn much in anyways. I sit on my ass at home, toss aside the workbooks, and hop on the gaming systems. It is a horrible habit that I need to break. I mean, if you were in my position (A kid almost 17, no job, no self-motivation, with ADD) going to school only twice a week (Monday and Wednesday) you really lose track of what you gotta do.
Private school sucks ass if you don't believe in the religion the teachers are trying to shove down your throat. Home school sucks because you don't have the social interaction with other students. Public school is awesome because of the fact that you see how fucked up the world really is, it teaches you more than the subject manner. Yay.
Yeah, that argument about "home schooling means you don't have social skills" is bullshit unless your parents are homeschooling you because they ain't want you learnin' bout no evolutions and bein' gay. Home school kids hang out with each other. There is generally (at least in big cities) a home school community.
Yeah, that argument about "home schooling means you don't have social skills" is bullshit unless your parents are homeschooling you because they ain't want you learnin' bout no evolutions and bein' gay. Home school kids hang out with each other. There is generally (at least in big cities) a home school community.
Absolutely. I homeschooled from 5th grade until I graduated, and I hung out with a ton of kids the same age as me because they were doing the same thing.
Yeah, that argument about "home schooling means you don't have social skills" is bullshit unless your parents are homeschooling you because they ain't want you learnin' bout no evolutions and bein' gay. Home school kids hang out with each other. There is generally (at least in big cities) a home school community.
I can prove the home school = no social belief as well. I used to attend a church with many home schooled children who were social by other means. Girl scouts, boy scouts, events, each other, sports teams, the neighborhood kids. Plus there's home school communities out there like Rhino said.
Two minutes of reading John Taylor Gatto's stuff shows that he's a crank. He might have a couple of good points, but his whole set up is unnecessarily sensationalistic. It kills the message when you do that. No one will take him seriously.
When I was reading his stuff I wasn't sure if it was serious or not. Good points but it just seemed fishy to me.
Stuff Rym said on page 1
It might seem F'd up for me to agree since I was once in the 99%, but I was a 1% before.
I was in a regular public high school where I was just going through the paces of education and didn't care. Then I transferred to another school that was a "standardized school" which seemed like to be a code name for "Piss poor dumbed down education". I'm not embellishing either. The curriculum was more middle school and very lacking. I was considered a 1% instantly by everyone and could sympathize with the others like me. Forced into boring watered down explanations of things.
Then I went to another high school which had an advanced track called university high school, a regular to remedial track for everyone else and one for the various arts. I wasn't a 99% or 1% but they let me take classes from all programs due to my unique circumstances and abilities. That school's set up was way better than most I've seen and they handle students better.
Before I write all this I apologize in advance for the great length of this, I have active parents in the homeschooling community so I'm well aware of all the things and... well just read it if you want.
I went to school until 4th grade, and then started homeschooling. I started homeschooling because I was doing a lot of after-school activities, and had trouble keeping up with my huge amount of homework. The main incident that happened just before I left school was because I was dancing in the Lincoln Center Nutcracker (I did ballet for 8 years). I ended up even losing my homework once, and fell pretty far behind more than once. The school basically told my parents that I could do ballet or school. I was about 10 at the time and my parents weren't going to make me decide, especially since I loved learning and ballet. So my two choices were either going to a music school, which would make things easier for me since I also did piano at the time, or homeschool. I didn't get into the music school and I'm glad. It is true that my mom is an exceptional teacher since both her parents were teachers, but she has proved that most anyone can be a good teacher with just a bit of research. Just check out her sight and you'll see how very possible it is to have a good experience homeschooling, especially in NYC. http://homeschoolnyc.com/
My personal belief though, on which is better, is that it really depends on the kid, and parents. If the parent and child are willing to be patient and work together, even just a bit, then homeschooling has a decent chance. On the other hand, some kids need a lot of socializing. I've met kids who need and, or really want to be surrounded by hundreds of kids for most of the day. As for public verses private school, it all depends on the staff. I personally don't see much of a difference in the basic idea asides from you have to pay for one. Either way one should research and see how good the teachers and staff are, or if he/she should go to a different school.
I do have a small vendetta against public schools because of what i believe they were originally created for. I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house. The SAT has an even worse tale, that I will tell later if requested to do so.
Earlier someone mentioned John Taylor Gatto (I tried to quote it, but couldn't some reason, so forgive me). I once heard him speak, and although I didn't stay for the whole lecture my mom and dad did and I heard about it. He was kinda cool, but not quite all that he's made out to be. It was years ago so my memory is kinda fuzzy, and there was someone else talking that day too, another teacher with acclaim similar to Gatto's, so I might get what they said mixed up, but the quality of them was the same. So he had a PowerPoint with a way to get someone to read a book. His example was Ulysses by James Joyce. He had an extremely simplified version with pictures that he said could be found online. As he was talking about this he was talking about how it's a good way to keep kids from getting bored because of how easier it is, and they are then able to understand it, or something like that. As he flipped through the slides he would say what happened in each picture/scene of the book, and more than once got it wrong, my mother actually corrected him, after like the third one. But what pissed off my dad was when the lecturer, who I think was gatto, mentioned the barrels that come out of no where and keep popping up in front of Ulysses (hope it was barrels, I haven't read the book yet so please correct me if you know) . He was saying that this was for no reason, but my father, who's a huge Joyce fan, mentioned to me and my mother later that Joyce never did anything without a reason, you just have to read all his other books to understand his reasons. So what I'm trying to say is, Gatto is good, but don't rely on him like some people do with Dr. Phil, who also has been wrong and biased before.
Unfortunately I have to say public school by default. Homeschooling may seem like a good idea but I don't see a lot of people remembering everything they learned in high school. Hell, I don't remember what I learned today in class. If a parent has to teach from its like they don't know much more about the subject than their kid. Also I have a bunch of cousins who were home schooled for years and when they were finally tossed out into the world, they went insane and sort of ruined themselves.
I cant really say much about private schools. All my life I've been in public school but from what I hear, isn't private school kind of expensive? Perhaps that's just a stereotype I'm thinking of.
I do have a small vendetta against public schools because of what i believe they were originally created for. I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house. The SAT has an even worse tale, that I will tell later if requested to do so.
I hate cotton garments, because cotton was once picked by slaves.
I do have a small vendetta against public schools because of what i believe they were originally created for. I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house.
I was under the impression that educating slaves was illegal, at least in America.
I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house.
I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house.
Source?
Yes, please.
Because otherwise your belief pretty sadly fails. It doesn't even make sense for just goofing around. What do you think they had to do in the house?
I do have a small vendetta against public schools because of what i believe they were originally created for. I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house. The SAT has an even worse tale, that I will tell later if requested to do so.
I hate cotton garments, because cotton was once picked by slaves.
Do you hate sugar? Corn? Potatoes? Leather? Wool? Beef? Mutton? Pork? Tobacco? Hemp? Whisky? Beer? Bread? Cheese? Milk?
Fine. Let me elaborate. I believe that the school system is still being used by the government, not to produce good working slaves, but to produce whatever kind of workers are needed at that time. Some 30 years ago the US needed doctors and lawyers, and what came out of the schools in the next 10-15 years were doctors and lawyers. Now that the US is in a small economical crises it needs people who will do factory jobs, so that the big companies will build their factories here instead of India. Potatoes were not created FOR the slaves, it's the other way around, but schools were created for slaves, and are now used to manipulate. This is my belief. Your allowed to have yours, but this is mine.
In Texas, we have a problem with corrupt politicans running the show.
I thought that was the problem with the entire US Government and Presidency.
Private school sucks ass if you don't believe in the religion the teachers are trying to shove down your throat.
My private school was Christian but I was brought up as a Hindu by my parents, I was allowed to be excused from the one time a week that going to the chapel was required and there was no religious class, rather it was relabelled "Ethics and Religion" and it was quite broad plus I could argue with the Christian perspective but usually everybody treated it as a period to shoot the crap or plan pranks.
I can only talk about my personal experiences -
I went to a private school in India when I was 3 -4 years old where I learned english and basic maths (adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying).
My family moved to Australia where instead of education I was in freaking kindergaden forced to do stupid craft projects, finger painting etc. I was really bored and found all the kids to be really stuplid. The "teachers' kept tyring to make me misspell my name because it was beyond their understanding.
I then went to Public School for Primary School, I was still coasting (not learning anything new) till year 4, I got called out for reading a book or doing homework before school finishing in between questions at class. Years 5-7 were a breeze but the cool thing was that I got to go to an advanced half-day of school at a different location twice a week where you got to choose your course, whether it was Zoology to cartooning to Detective Writing to Advanced Maths. (This was extracurricular)
During public school I made a heap of friends, P.E. was a requisite and on top of this I played T-ball and then Baseball where I was even used as a backup for another team in an age bracket above my own.
My Public High School was stratified and I was in the top class and looked down upon for being smart and melanin rich (it was a fairly poor area and also catered to students coming in from Rural areas who weren't use to non-white people handing them their asses in sports and academics.
At public school I use to get in a shit-tonne of fights for being different, I didn't complain and I actually quite enjoyed it at the time.
Then I got a scholarship to a Private school for years 11 and 12 (senior year equivalents to the US). Private school was massively different in that even the "dumb guys" were educated, the teaching quality was relatively much higher, there were so many damn facilities, it was amazing, the librarians would come and ask me what graphic novels to buy for the library because they observed that I read most of them. If I finished class early I could leave early, the computer labs were always open to play some multiplayer Quake 2 or Starcraft, there were computers in all the rooms, you could fight for your answer in Physics, Chemistry and Calculus if you got a different answer but thought it was correct, one time I did this for Physics and it resulted in only me and this other guy getting the question correct and everyone else getting it wrong.
The quality of teachers was amazing, I was crap in essay writing but my teacher actually taught me how to write essays well and actually brought my score up, over time, from a pass to an A.
There were heaps of extracurricular activities from scuba diving, to golf, to debating.
Sport was required by all, practice twice a week after school and competition days every week against other private schools. Scouts would come to all these games and would often pick up 1 or 2 guys to join professional clubs, especially for Australian Rules Football.
A kid had epilepsy in my public school at high school and people would just come and watch him have a seizure as if it were a show, I developed it at my private school (luckily) and no one made fun of me or said anything behind my back, luckily at my Private school they had a fully qualified nurse with access to all the required drugs, training and equipment to handle it.
Uniforms are semi-mandatory in Public schools in Australia and are obviously mandatory at private schools.
I don't think I would have gotten the spectrum of different opinions from teachers had I been home schooled, nor would I have encountered the varied social situations whether it was pure violent racism to having students you hardly know carry you down to a medical facility just to help.
That's not a source. Also, if you were presented with evidence that contradicted this belief, would you change your views?
And it's still not a source.
MY source is a good friend who I haven't spoken to in a while, so I can't ask him where he heard it from, but I would trust him more than I would Wiki because he's corrected my mistakes by proving Wiki wrong on multiple occasions. As for if I saw proof contradicting this, probably not, but it would depend on the proof. If the proof is a handful of examples of schools that actually work towards teaching the child, no, I would just think that those schools are doing what all schools should do, not do what the government wants them to.
Just out of curiosity, are you just questioning me to see how well I defend my beliefs, or do you honestly believe them to be totally wrong?
MY source is a good friend who I haven't spoken to in a while, so I can't ask him where he heard it from, but I would trust him more than I would Wiki because he's corrected my mistakes by proving Wiki wrong on multiple occasions.
So just because you trust him, we should believe you? This is a False attribution fallacy. Next.
Just out of curiosity, are you just questioning me to see how well I defend my beliefs, or do you honestly believe them to be totally wrong?
Comments
In response to Rym's story, I have this to say. Anyone who claims that smart people are anti-equality is a moron for not listening to the English teacher. Down here in Texas, To Kill A Mockingbird is required reading for AP students. The AP provides the same study materials for the book. AP is nationwide.
I must say, even in AP courses, I learned little. History was the exception, we had a great history department. In senior AP English, our teacher taught us so little that no one got AP credit.
John Stossel said it best when he said that we are "stupid in America." Other countries are ahead of us by leaps and bounds. My high school separates 9th and 10th grade. Since then, teachers I knew personally said that behavior has worsened.
In Texas, we have a problem with corrupt politicans running the show. We had bond proposals, class clousures, and so forth.
Here is a great example. My high school dropped computer programming. You had to double block math to get to college level pre-cal, which is needed to get considered for Computer Science at Lamar University. My CS advisor was astonished by what my high school did. As a result, I am a sophmore having to take Programming Fundamentals I over again because of lack of preparation. I also had to retake pre-cal since I couldn't take college level in high school. I again have to retake it because I got a D. :-I
Students at my former high school are unprepared for computer science for two reasons: the administration thinks it is a fad and they refuse to update their software (No new versions of Java runtime, for example. There are only 24 computers running XP. 300 run Windows 98 and 10 run Windows 2000. They refuse to buy software for the computer department who is now only able to teach Microsoft Office by decree. A digital graphics class exists, but are locked out of their computers for three months a year because they rent software for a limited time to save money. They do not check for viruses. The disconnect is so bad, I broke the rules to remove spyware from a teacher's machine. There were over 200,000 on one machine. The principal caught me and wrote me up for hacking. I got Saturday D-hall for trying to help a teacher!
Public schools are dooming the future of America and something must be done to stop it before it is too late.
I would somewhat agree with this statement. With No Child Left behind, this pretty much guarantees that we are teaching towards a test instead of teaching in a way that children learn. The classes where projects and spirited debate and lecture were used instead of memorization seemed to have provided the most memorable experience and thus the class learned more in the end. Classes that just came down to brute memorization to pass tests were easily forgotten over time. Making teachers, (at least the talented ones) conform to rigid requirements to cover specific requirements everyday limits the ability of the truly talented ones from actually creating a lasting impression on their students and foster a love of learning.
That being said I fear for how we teach Science in all forms of education. Home-schooled are “generally†religious wacko’s who short change their kids view of how science works, Private schools “usually†don’t have the budget for experiments or have a bias towards wacko religious background and lastly Public schools are vulnerable to public policy and tend to focus on factory learning (memorization) instead of attempting to foster a love of learning. We have to start teaching children how to learn instead of what to learn. We are quickly moving beyond the place where memorization of facts is necessary for survival. Instead, we have to foster an imagination and love of learning bolstered with the ability to think logically through problems and how to resist manipulation.
Blah blah blah.
It was pretty weird. It was in a very rural area in Kentucky somewhat equidistant from Lexington and Cincinnati. The school included grades 6-12. The kids were mostly rich problem kids from Cincinnati. Part of my job was to actually live on campus and occasionally be the "faculty duty officer", which meant that, during that time, I was the only responsible adult on campus. That was major suckage, but I had an apartment in the Senior Barracks, which was pretty cool.
Like most boarding schools, there were the obligatory ghost stories of students who had committed suicide in the barracks, the class buildings, the parade ground, and the mess in all manner of nasty and embarrassing ways, depending on who told the story and who they were trying to haze. The main administration building was an old plantation house, and so there were stories that it was a stop on the underground railroad, giving rise to more ghost stories.
Of course, I didn't believe any of the actual events in any of the actual stories, but there was definitely an atmosphere of dread; a pall of fear about the place. The isolated setting, the plantation house, and an abandoned classroom building squatting like an overturned tombstone on the quad all conspired to make the place feel like one of Stephen King's "wrong places". There was just something that felt very unwholesome. So, even without giving any credence at all to the stories, I rarely slept the night through when I was living there. Some nights I was so scared I could barely move.
Now before you make fun of me, please remember that I said I didn't believe any of the stories and that I'm not saying anything spooky actually happened. I'm just saying it was a very creepy place and it was hard to get a good night's sleep. I've never been anywhwere that creepy before or since, and if I was creeped out, I can't imagine how scared a 6th grade kid must have been. I don't think those kids learned anything, except maybe how to stand at attention.
I'm currently in my sophomore year at a public high school. I have to say, sometimes I wish I went to a private school because I get bored in classes. I easily receive A's in my subjects, am in all honors courses, and I still -want- more. I'm currently taking the most advanced classes offered for my grade level, and I guess I'm satisfied. I could ask for junior courses, but I'm satisfied with the classes I'm taking. Although the public school track fails to make courses harder for "advanced" students, they still let me become exposed to different situations and people. For example, in my high school everyone is separated into a social group, like the preps, geeks, goths, and so on. Everyone knows the drama that goes on in the school, and becomes used to the problems it causes, and learns how to deal with them. My school was built recently, and so it is stocked and supplied well with books and computers, which is also a plus. There are a ton of extra-curricular activities you can take, from sports to clubs to drama, which colleges love to see on an application. You just can't get the same things in home schooling.
The only problem I see right now, is that teachers are teaching us to prepare for a test, rather than to learn. I think this was already brought up, but I believe the No Child Left Behind (my H Government teacher mistakenly called it One Child Left Behind... ^.^) has caused more trouble than it's worth. All it has done is lowered school standards, and caused more tests. All my teachers teach based on a curriculum set to teach us all the information on the tests, rather than what they think we need to learn. Although we learn good test-taking strategies, I believe that we should spend more time on learning information, rather than learning how to take a test. The SAT's and HSA's also cause a lack of time to teach us. We only spend about one day on a certain topic, when we should be spending three. Students just don't have a chance to absorb information, so they can't grasp the subject to which they're trying to learn. Personally, I think schooling still has a long way to go before it's perfect, if it ever will be.
To Kill A Mockingbird, like linktothepresent brought up, is required for standard 10th grade reading. Many students read the book, but don't really grasp the meaning of the book. They just study for the test we have to take, and take -everything- literally. Unfortunately, everyone who reads a classic only complains about it, they don't really understand why it's a classic anymore.
The basic idea of school is to learn. The worst teacher I ever had was at the private school...actually, there were two awful teachers there. One was far worse than the other but both were pretty terrible.
On the other hand in public schools I had a couple teachers that were awful but it's not as noticeable in the lower grades because the kids are smart enough to realize it. Besides...how hard is it really to learn 4th grade math good teacher or not?
The educational system as a whole could really use some revamping but the biggest problem is teachers/parents that don't know how to stimulate and motivate their students/children and get them interested in learning. That's where the changes can start.
Home school sucks because you don't have the social interaction with other students.
Public school is awesome because of the fact that you see how fucked up the world really is, it teaches you more than the subject manner. Yay.
I went to both a high school, and, am now attending a Charter school.
Much more work to do, It gets me where I need to go, Its a much, much faster pace than traditional highschool. Hands down, it's one of the best decisions to make if you are behind on school credits. Plus, it's in an environment thats somewhat social and the teachers I have are absolutely amazing. People have told me that being home schooled turns you anti-social, and I give them the same response every time, "I've got legs, I can walk. I've got friends that I talk to. I use my legs to walk to my friends and talk to them after my school work is through."It makes me sad that I can't show them my appreciation because I dont turn much in anyways. I sit on my ass at home, toss aside the workbooks, and hop on the gaming systems. It is a horrible habit that I need to break. I mean, if you were in my position (A kid almost 17, no job, no self-motivation, with ADD) going to school only twice a week (Monday and Wednesday) you really lose track of what you gotta do.
I was in a regular public high school where I was just going through the paces of education and didn't care. Then I transferred to another school that was a "standardized school" which seemed like to be a code name for "Piss poor dumbed down education". I'm not embellishing either. The curriculum was more middle school and very lacking. I was considered a 1% instantly by everyone and could sympathize with the others like me. Forced into boring watered down explanations of things.
Then I went to another high school which had an advanced track called university high school, a regular to remedial track for everyone else and one for the various arts. I wasn't a 99% or 1% but they let me take classes from all programs due to my unique circumstances and abilities. That school's set up was way better than most I've seen and they handle students better.
I went to school until 4th grade, and then started homeschooling. I started homeschooling because I was doing a lot of after-school activities, and had trouble keeping up with my huge amount of homework. The main incident that happened just before I left school was because I was dancing in the Lincoln Center Nutcracker (I did ballet for 8 years). I ended up even losing my homework once, and fell pretty far behind more than once. The school basically told my parents that I could do ballet or school. I was about 10 at the time and my parents weren't going to make me decide, especially since I loved learning and ballet. So my two choices were either going to a music school, which would make things easier for me since I also did piano at the time, or homeschool. I didn't get into the music school and I'm glad. It is true that my mom is an exceptional teacher since both her parents were teachers, but she has proved that most anyone can be a good teacher with just a bit of research. Just check out her sight and you'll see how very possible it is to have a good experience homeschooling, especially in NYC. http://homeschoolnyc.com/
My personal belief though, on which is better, is that it really depends on the kid, and parents. If the parent and child are willing to be patient and work together, even just a bit, then homeschooling has a decent chance. On the other hand, some kids need a lot of socializing. I've met kids who need and, or really want to be surrounded by hundreds of kids for most of the day. As for public verses private school, it all depends on the staff. I personally don't see much of a difference in the basic idea asides from you have to pay for one. Either way one should research and see how good the teachers and staff are, or if he/she should go to a different school.
I do have a small vendetta against public schools because of what i believe they were originally created for. I could be wrong, but I believe that it was created to teach slaves or servants in times of old how to read, write, and do simple math, so that they would be better suited to do their jobs around the house. The SAT has an even worse tale, that I will tell later if requested to do so.
Earlier someone mentioned John Taylor Gatto (I tried to quote it, but couldn't some reason, so forgive me). I once heard him speak, and although I didn't stay for the whole lecture my mom and dad did and I heard about it. He was kinda cool, but not quite all that he's made out to be. It was years ago so my memory is kinda fuzzy, and there was someone else talking that day too, another teacher with acclaim similar to Gatto's, so I might get what they said mixed up, but the quality of them was the same. So he had a PowerPoint with a way to get someone to read a book. His example was Ulysses by James Joyce. He had an extremely simplified version with pictures that he said could be found online. As he was talking about this he was talking about how it's a good way to keep kids from getting bored because of how easier it is, and they are then able to understand it, or something like that. As he flipped through the slides he would say what happened in each picture/scene of the book, and more than once got it wrong, my mother actually corrected him, after like the third one. But what pissed off my dad was when the lecturer, who I think was gatto, mentioned the barrels that come out of no where and keep popping up in front of Ulysses (hope it was barrels, I haven't read the book yet so please correct me if you know) . He was saying that this was for no reason, but my father, who's a huge Joyce fan, mentioned to me and my mother later that Joyce never did anything without a reason, you just have to read all his other books to understand his reasons. So what I'm trying to say is, Gatto is good, but don't rely on him like some people do with Dr. Phil, who also has been wrong and biased before.
I cant really say much about private schools. All my life I've been in public school but from what I hear, isn't private school kind of expensive? Perhaps that's just a stereotype I'm thinking of.
Because otherwise your belief pretty sadly fails. It doesn't even make sense for just goofing around. What do you think they had to do in the house? Do you hate sugar? Corn? Potatoes? Leather? Wool? Beef? Mutton? Pork? Tobacco? Hemp? Whisky? Beer? Bread? Cheese? Milk?
May we have (dare I say it?) a scrim behind which unfortunates such as Mr. Lo may be placed?
And it's still not a source.
In Texas, we have a problem with corrupt politicans running the show.
I thought that was the problem with the entire US Government and Presidency.
Private school sucks ass if you don't believe in the religion the teachers are trying to shove down your throat.
My private school was Christian but I was brought up as a Hindu by my parents, I was allowed to be excused from the one time a week that going to the chapel was required and there was no religious class, rather it was relabelled "Ethics and Religion" and it was quite broad plus I could argue with the Christian perspective but usually everybody treated it as a period to shoot the crap or plan pranks.
I can only talk about my personal experiences -
I went to a private school in India when I was 3 -4 years old where I learned english and basic maths (adding, subtracting, dividing and multiplying).
My family moved to Australia where instead of education I was in freaking kindergaden forced to do stupid craft projects, finger painting etc. I was really bored and found all the kids to be really stuplid. The "teachers' kept tyring to make me misspell my name because it was beyond their understanding.
I then went to Public School for Primary School, I was still coasting (not learning anything new) till year 4, I got called out for reading a book or doing homework before school finishing in between questions at class. Years 5-7 were a breeze but the cool thing was that I got to go to an advanced half-day of school at a different location twice a week where you got to choose your course, whether it was Zoology to cartooning to Detective Writing to Advanced Maths. (This was extracurricular)
During public school I made a heap of friends, P.E. was a requisite and on top of this I played T-ball and then Baseball where I was even used as a backup for another team in an age bracket above my own.
My Public High School was stratified and I was in the top class and looked down upon for being smart and melanin rich (it was a fairly poor area and also catered to students coming in from Rural areas who weren't use to non-white people handing them their asses in sports and academics.
At public school I use to get in a shit-tonne of fights for being different, I didn't complain and I actually quite enjoyed it at the time.
Then I got a scholarship to a Private school for years 11 and 12 (senior year equivalents to the US). Private school was massively different in that even the "dumb guys" were educated, the teaching quality was relatively much higher, there were so many damn facilities, it was amazing, the librarians would come and ask me what graphic novels to buy for the library because they observed that I read most of them. If I finished class early I could leave early, the computer labs were always open to play some multiplayer Quake 2 or Starcraft, there were computers in all the rooms, you could fight for your answer in Physics, Chemistry and Calculus if you got a different answer but thought it was correct, one time I did this for Physics and it resulted in only me and this other guy getting the question correct and everyone else getting it wrong.
The quality of teachers was amazing, I was crap in essay writing but my teacher actually taught me how to write essays well and actually brought my score up, over time, from a pass to an A.
There were heaps of extracurricular activities from scuba diving, to golf, to debating.
Sport was required by all, practice twice a week after school and competition days every week against other private schools. Scouts would come to all these games and would often pick up 1 or 2 guys to join professional clubs, especially for Australian Rules Football.
A kid had epilepsy in my public school at high school and people would just come and watch him have a seizure as if it were a show, I developed it at my private school (luckily) and no one made fun of me or said anything behind my back, luckily at my Private school they had a fully qualified nurse with access to all the required drugs, training and equipment to handle it.
Uniforms are semi-mandatory in Public schools in Australia and are obviously mandatory at private schools.
I don't think I would have gotten the spectrum of different opinions from teachers had I been home schooled, nor would I have encountered the varied social situations whether it was pure violent racism to having students you hardly know carry you down to a medical facility just to help.
Just out of curiosity, are you just questioning me to see how well I defend my beliefs, or do you honestly believe them to be totally wrong?