Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Courtney on February 16, 2011 at 9:22pm

Eh....to paint all public schools with a broad brush is disingenuous at best.

I attended public school throughout K-12 and I felt like I received a great education.
I have a cousin who attended private school K-12 and if you looked at papers we both wrote, you wouldn't be able to tell the difference.

 

I think a lot of our public school ills could be relieved if parents took a more active role in their child's education. A lot of parents expect the schools to teach EVERYTHING and the parents won't have to reinforce it at home.

There is also the issue of socioeconomic status coming in to play in many areas. How can we expect poor children to learn when they're too busy worrying about from where their next meal will come, if they will be evicted from their home, if their parent will lose their job, etc.

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Permalink Reply by T A A on February 15, 2011 at 5:37pm

I just reread your OP and realised you were asking not only about home schooling but also about private/religious schools. I've already commented on the home schooling part, so I'll stick here to the private schooling.

In Canada, private schools receive public funding and divert good teachers from the public system with higher salaries. A great many Canadians are unhappy that private schools benefit from public funding, but apparently not enough of us to make a change. Grade standards in Canada have changed tremendously and the 'pressure' of passing grades was considered too much for young shoulders and now few students are held back, no matter how poorly they perform. IMO the standards for pass/fail in class needs to be increased with better testing, and there must be minimum testing on all main subjects that is equal no matter the source of schooling.

 

In class discipline in Canada's religious/private schools is stronger so problem kids are better held in check in that context. But private schools are also notorious for bullying. The public system must be cautious to not 'cleanse' its behaviours so strongly and have a strong physical education curriculae which allows kids to be physical and competitive outside a chair/desk situation. Phys Ed, music and art have lost much favour in Canadian schools. The public school system no longer values the path of general/universal education, it now has become simply a training centre for future employees. The art of critical thinking has been nearly completely lost.

 

So if a parent wants their kids in private schools, then it should be completely at their own cost, as long as private schools are attaining the agreed upon educational standards. It seems our standards (both in USA and Canada) which are at fault, more so than teaching itself.

 

We often hear in the news about how teens in the USA need special prep to past the SATs in order to reach higher education, that is indicative to me of faulty yearly assessments and letting students move up in grades when they should be held back. Our governments need to increase funding to the public school system, just a small fraction of the multiple military invasions we have around the world could pay for that.

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Permalink Reply by scLovely on February 20, 2011 at 3:36pm

OK. So some things make me wanna reconsider my stance on this. I went to Libert High School here in SC and it made the headlines yesterday :)

Seeing as how our district did not catch our principal embezzling 100s of thousands of scholarship dollars until now, I have lost a lot of faith in our school systems. And reading the comments from Liberty High School students on the news link, I know the school I graduated from didn't teach them how to spell, punctuate, or communicate properly. http://www.atlibertytosay.com/2011/02/exclusive-liberty-high-school...

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