I watched a documentary about the American public education system that I'd recommend everybody watch who cares about the subject. It's called "Waiting for Superman" and it's available on Netflix.

I've seen both sides of public education. I went to a high school for the first 3 years that cared and seemed to cater education to each individual student. We had advisors that put you in classes that would prepare you for college and whatever major you planned on taking on. Then my senior year, I went to a small town high school that has the "one size fits all" mentality. Lets just say I didn't do anything my senior year and somehow got straight A's. It's shocking how some schools don't prepare students for the next level at all.

My wife is a victim of the public education system that has the "one size fits all" mentality. When we first started dating, she had no idea how to write a proper paper. I was appauled at her ability to write just a high school level paper her senior year, the year they should be preparing students for college. Some how, she got an A on the assignment.

What other experiences does OT have with this, whether with themselves or with their kids?

 

Originally Posted by jesterwords

RE: see half the threads I've started in the past two weeks or so... hahaha.

Public education and myself don't see eye to eye a lot. So much so that I've debated running for school board so that I can actually split my head open fighting the idiots who fuck up our kids with this bull shit assembly line, paint by numbers method of education.

I'm basically going to sell my financial soul to get my son into private school next year. To save his future, and in effect (in my opinion) his life.

I want to put my daughter in private school, but the only ones close by are religious schools and I don't want my daughter forced into relgious doctrine unless she wants to be

 

Originally Posted by jdbunchOSU

I was appauled at her ability to write

 

Originally Posted by scgolfer

I am worried because some the English essays and papers she has written is no where near what will be expected hopefully in high school and certainly college.

Dude...she's in 8th grade, calm down. That's what high school is for.

Seriously, if you have any of your own work from 8th grade saved still, go back and take a look at that shit. You'll be either appauled at what a dunce you were or impressed at how far you came in a relatively short period, depending on your personality type. 8th graders suck at everything compared to high school/college students.

Could not be happier with the public school that my son attends...but obviously so much is dependent on location, etc.

No doubt there is a serious problem with the education system in this country, but I do not think it is only with public schools (although probably worse there than private).

Edit: I actually could be happier..they don't let kids bring laptops or turn on smart phones at my sons school which seems silly. But thats one of few complaints.

 

Originally Posted by mordan

+1000000 all depends on where your at, DC has some of the best Public Schools in the nation, they are stunning really.... here in eastern NC our private schools are garbage and our public not much better, I assume Killingbird your location is still valid, doesn't surprise me at all Cary area has legit school.....

yeah, Cary is where I am at. But I'm obviously well aware that I can go 15 minutes from my house to Durham and find some terrible schools (and probably a few great ones). I would never send my child to a private school, but I would definitely pick where I lived very carefully. I just wish Cary had more diversity. Great schools, but they are white as snow which is kind of a bummer.

 

Originally Posted by Lord Supremo

lol glad you beat me to it...seems kind of odd to have that in the middle of a run-on sentence about not knowing how to write!

as for OP...i went to a small town HS, but we had a great counselor and very good teachers who did a very nice job preparing us for college/real world.

my HS enrollment was ~400.

Always attended public schools and most of the teachers were great. They spent a lot of their personal time on extracurricular activities for the students and most of them gave personal attention as needed to help struggling students. Were they all great teachers? No, but my experience with them was positive for the most part. Students get out of it what they put into it.

I'm sure a lot of public education failure and success depends on exactly where in the community the school is located and the demographics of specific regions. I would also guess that parents who are spending thousands of dollars on private education for their children take an entirely different approach to their kids involvement and success in school than parents who have their kids in the public school system.

 

Originally Posted by Lord Supremo

How come?

Public schools here are too good to justify the expense of private school. And we are not religious so that eliminates a lot of the private schools anyway.

 

Originally Posted by killingbird

Public schools here are too good to justify the expense of private school. And we are not religious so that eliminates a lot of the private schools anyway.

the private school I went to was technically religious and I still turned out to be an atheist.

 

Originally Posted by Neeek

Look on the bright side; since she's illterate she won't have to read bad words on peoples' shirts in public.

LOL, I was going to put something along those lines, and at least shes not gangbanging the 8th grade football team, like some said in that thread. lolz

I went to private school until college. My sophomore year of high school was more difficult and demanding than my first couple of semesters at Mizzou. I had to have been one of the least motivated students of all time and I made the dean's list. And yet others found their first year to be challenging. Its mind boggling that others' high schools couldn't have them ready for that level.

one reason I'm thinking of running for my local school board

tbh

a lot of the time its the kid and not the school. parents dont want to accept that though. little jimmy just a lazy fuck up? no way. its that shitty public school system. plus theres people who always went to private schools. parents went to private schools probably. their kids are gonna go to private schools who take almost an elitist approach. they wanna promote how great private schools are so they bash public schools as like a promotion of private schools when in reality they only know talking points about public schools but dont really know.

exactly