Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
There is no doubt a ton of wasted money in the public school system, but there are real, legit reasons for the increased prices as well. For example, a private school can pick and choose how many students it lets in and which students it lets in. In a way this allows them to pick the cream of the crop. Of course there are going to be kids there that don't like school, but overall when parents are paying handsomely out of pocket they will be more engaged and overall there will be better kids that are easier to teach. Public schools don't get this luxury. They are often overcrowded and they have to handle every kid that comes to them. This means the troubled kids, the slow learners, those with special needs etc. When you are forced to deal with the masses you will have to spend money to deal with the variety of situations that are going to occur.
Certainly schools can do better with the money and could be run better, but to suggest that private school tend to cost less per kid and are better without qualifying why doesn't tell the entire story.
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Sly turned me on to a book called Practice Perfect. It is actually about a consulting company that works with educators to improve their teaching... but the lessons of course apply to everything. Learning is learning. Teaching is teaching... regardless of what is being learned or taught, the core methods and how the brain itself learns is the same.
Reading it and understanding what it actually takes to be outstanding at anything, the personality traits that are required, the passion that is required and the dedication that is required and based on my life experience with teachers, I just can't imagine a a bright future for our public schools. Even those that actually want to teach or that have passion for it, are often mediocre at actually teaching... meaning, just showing up and going through lesson plans and liking kids, does not constitute effective teaching.
My view is that the education system needs to be radically changed in this nation, that unions need to be kept out of it and that children need to be put first. People need to stop acting like money makes for better education, when we are being crushed by a world spending far less... and most importantly, parents need to be involved and start demanding more from their kids as well, which is also missing.
Anyway, to me, education is like discussing the best chair placement on the deck of the Titanic, arguing which chairs are more comfortable... or where to place pencil sharpeners. The system has been failing for many many decades and not improving in spite of MASSIVE increases in spending.