I was talking with a 9th grade social studies teacher and she does a little "test" at the beginning of the school year to see where kids are at. She told me 1/3 of her class didn't know where the capital of the US was. We had those memorized by 2 or 3rd grade when growing up.
Teachers Union on full display.
As are the parents.
When we pay big bucks for a service as we do for education, we shouldn’t have to double and triple check every aspect of it just to see if we got our monies worth.
An astute parent recognizes the teacher has her/his hands full just getting the basics pounded into the heads of the misfortunate.
An astute parent will recognize that his own children are worthy of more than the typical public education teacher can afford to offer.
An astute parent will pick up the slack with personal time, tutoring, or transfer to better schools.
Great response Idaho. In my home we view our children’s time in school as a foundation. A foundation that needs to be built upon and expanded by the parents. I understand that in today’s society many parents both work usually so they can afford new cars and fancy toys. They choose to place “things” above their children’s education and money before morality. It’s easier for them to ignore their ultimate responsibility and put the entire onus of molding intelligent, caring, responsible young people onto the teachers and the school.
In my experience the parents of students in private schools were the worst offenders. They figured that since they were paying big bucks $$ for their children’s education that they shouldn’t have to lift a finger to further that education. I had friends that I’d gone to elementary and middle school with whose parents, come high school, put them in a private school. Those friends of mine were good kids until they got to high school. Their parents slacked off and put the the responsibility of child raising on the school. I remember thinking that private schools took good kids and turned them into monsters. That’s an ultra simplified view but it’s not far from the truth.ime
I was talking to the nurse that took care of me during my night at the hospital post back surgery back in November and she started asking me about our children. I told her about our children and that both were 4.0 students. Our son was a fantastic athlete a QB and captain of the football team and a very sweet and well liked kid. Our daughter is a talented athlete in her own right. She’s a great softball and volleyball player and she too is well liked and respected by the teachers and students at her school. Her goal, which she’s on track for, is to be Valedictorian. The nurse (Asian) was stunned that a redneck cracker like me was able to produce 2 intelligent children that were straight A students. Those types of kids are usually Asian or East Indian, not white. She asked how we did that and I explained that my wife and I are involved in their education and their lives. We made sacrifices that allowed us to be present AND involved. The sacrifices that we made enabled us to volunteer at the schools, coach their sports, be home when they got home and make dinner (not fast food) so that we could sit around the supper table and discuss their day. After supper they did their homework and we were available to help them if they needed it.
There is much effort involved in raising good kids but it’s the most important job that we’ve ever had and we took/take it very seriously. Thankfully we made those sacrifices because we are blessed with amazing, conservative, God fearing young adults. If we’d have trusted the school, whether public or private, to fully educate our children I don’t think the results would’ve been the same.
