How good (or bad) is the public school system in the US?
 

Most people are concerned about health insurance these days (which I personally think it's just a concept, an utopia because when we really need, we better have some clean - or dirty - cash to pay the bill and skip the line ;-), but what about education?

Some people say that it's one of the best public schools in the world, but in most movies all I see is folks sometimes broken afraid of having to take their children out of private school.

It's just one doubt in my mind. I bet someone here can help me clarify this.

:helpme

P.S. 1: Here in Brazil we have the worst public schools. We also have the worst private schools. :1orglaugh

P.S. 2: I believe that education should be open, and unique for every person or groups with the same interests since childhood, not the same thing for everyone. Too much time learning things we wont use at all just because we have to follow the system.

Fuck "the system". :1orglaugh

I pay more than $1000 a month in school taxes, have no children, was told I would be arrested if caught trespassing on the outdoor basketball court again on Sundays when the school is closed.

You probably know my opinion.

You have to ask? :1orglaugh:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Many kids are going straight from school on to jail. :upsidedow

WTF and why?

i went to private school

In reality it varies greatly depending on where you live. School budgets rely heavily on local and state taxes so schools that are in areas that have more money tend to be of a higher quality than those in poor areas. In my state you can go to a high school in one city that looks like a college and is fantastic and then travel 30 minutes and be at a high school that looks like a prison.

There is one thing that really bothers me about many grade schools (schools for kids up to 8th grade). They don't fail anyone anymore. When I was in grade school you had to achieve a certain grade level your 7th and 8th grade years to graduate. If you didn't meet the minimum you didn't graduate and you either had to retake 8th grade or go to summer school to make it up. That doesn't happen now. My nephew literally failed 15 of 18 classes in 8th grade and they let him graduate. One of his teachers told my brother that they will only hold kids back if the parents ask them to. The reason is that with the No Child Left Behind bill that Bush passed schools now get money based on graduation rates so many schools now just graduate everyone so they can get paid.

That's exactly what is causing problems around where I live.

The district I live in, we pay as ass load of money in taxes, more than any other district around and is now one the worst! Teachers quitting, the asst. principal was caught sleeping with a 16 year old, etc.

The freshman class of 2013 has lost about 1/4 of its students in the first 30 days. Teachers say the administrative class wont support them and forces them to push kids through because they don't have enough room. Now they are getting unqualified teachers to come in. One used to teach 2nd grade and now teaches English and History to 11th and 12th graders -- she admitted on the news she has NO CLUE what she is doing :1orglaugh:1orglaugh

Oh, and the admins are getting paid MORE money this year than prior.

Today, school kids learn how to count to potato.

have a uncle who is a teacher outta California

he's convinced they are told to mismanage things

My kid goes to school here in the US, she's in 8th grade. We went to the open house not too long ago, and I noticed something that surprised me... Think about this for a moment - what exactly is a school? What does a school have? At the end of the day, it's students with books and teachers teaching them. It's really not different than it was thirty years ago when I was a student. The desks and the books are the same - the books are better now - the chalkboard has been replaced with a white board and markers, and the overhead projector has been replaced with a camera over the teacher's desk or they use a laptop to stream to a projector on the whiteboard. Now they have computers with a single monitor in every room. They also have a computer lab and a library, and a gym.

All in all, they have the same exact stuff I had when I went to school, with some improvements.

The teachers seem fine too. They are teachers because they really want to teach, and enjoy working with kids.

The new "core curriculum" is coming online. If I understand correctly, we will begin teaching kids harder stuff and then testing them on it - and being firm in the process. This seems to have worked well in some states, such as Massachusetts.

At the same time, why do we teach some stuff we teach? Take algebra for example. I've never needed to solve for x or plot a graph. Ever.

I think we are doing okay and I think this new system will make it better.

Some areas of the US give public schools their own grade... example: "A" school would be considered a good school with kids achieving higher test scores. This is public information just need to look around and see if the area you are considering has ratings.

Every city/suburb's public school system is different, but I guarantee that they are (almost) all much better than what the media and kids tell you.. :2 cents:

A lot of kids that I know that go to private schools are pretty dumb and socially retarded, too. Their parent's money is all that they see..

Something I've noticed about kids recently... The book smart kids are really stupid. They can tell you all about the Inca Empire, but if you don't have a leash on them at the mall you WILL loose them because they don't pay enough attention to their surroundings.

One kid my daughter was friends with... She would be walking but looking at something else, getting distracted, and would walk right into walls because she wasn't paying attention. Straight A student, but couldn't freaking walk without getting hurt.

Yep, that's what I was talking about.

I worked with hundreds of students for FIRST robotics in the past, both from public schools in urban areas and big groups of home schoolers (Ones who have very rich parents and hire private tutors daily), and the home schooled kids only know how to repeat things from a book and not how to think or do things for themselves..

Malcom X school?

I went to public and private. I wouldn't send my kids to public.

In the years that I was attending school...I cannot recall ever having had a teacher that really taught me anything or motivated me to learn. I taught myself for the most part because I had an interest in learning. I spent a great part of my time in the library reading books. I could read all types of books...and did...by age six. Words that I did not understand their meaning and/or could not pronounce...I would look to the dictionary or ask someone older than me. Other kids that had an interest in learning did well in school and those that didn't have an interest in learning...which was the majority...for the most part did not do well.

That's confusing 'public' with 'inner city'... :2 cents:

Were the Breakfast Club kids modern day geniuses?

There are two reasons that they teach kids algebra even though most of them will never use it in their adult lives. First, teaching kids how to do something difficult is a good thing. Not only do they learn how to solve the problem, but they learn how to overcome big obstacles and it helps them learn how to learn which is a skill they will use in their lives. Second, many kids will use it. They will go on to go to college and learn technical skills that require math, but they may not realize that in an early grade when they are learning algebra. Here they teach algebra and in grade school and it gives kids a math foundation they can build on. Those who decide 3-4 years later that they want to pursue a technical career already have the foundation in place.

A lot of it also does have to do with the administration and teachers as much as the budget. If you get good people working in a school they can do a lot even if they don't have a ton of money. At the same time bad people fuck up a school that has plenty of money.

Suburbs = OK
City = Horrible

In the city I live, 5 out of every 100 students who start Kindergarten will go to College. And 1 will graduate.

We like living in the city, so thankfully our kids will go to a Charter School, run by a private company. My oldest is in Kindergarten and is already doing work that her cousin, who is in 2nd grade, is doing.

http://uncommonschools.org/

Sure you have, you're just not bright enough to realize it. :1orglaugh

You have to understand the US is widely varying in demographics and life through out the different areas of the country. There are parts of the country you could go to and not even understand what the people are saying the dialects are so different.

The median income in my town is $104,000. Where I live we have some of the best schools in the country. However you drive 20 minutes NW to Downtown Denver or one of the shittier suburbs they have some of the worst. That's only 20 minutes apart from one another.

So when you ask how good (or bad). The US has some of the best schools in the world, and some of the worst schools in the world. On average, I would say our education system could be a lot better, specially for the underprivileged citizens of the country.

I'm always amazed when people say they don't use algebra. I use algebra on a daily basis. And sure, I may need it more than others, but everybody uses algebra at some point in time during the week. It's just so ingrained into their mind that they don't realize it's algebra.

If you buy anything at all (gas, clothing, snacks, videogames) throughout the week, you use algebra.

A world of people knowing math worse than they already do? Amazing.

I can see to an extent the problem solving is useful, but the level of algebra my 7th grade kid was doing was more difficult than what I did in college.

At the same time, teaching kids a skill they will never need... Is nothing more than a waste of time.

They are teaching it earlier and earlier. In the 80's when I was in high school I took Algebra my sophomore year. It was available in 8th grade if you passed a test and got into the class. Now they are teaching it to 6th graders.

One big problem is US schools is that all of your kids text books come from one place : Texas.

They are forcing BIOLOGY text books to include CREATiONISM
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tag/te...xtbook-changes

And worse, or just as bad, they are forcing text books to include challenges to Evolution and Climate change. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/...limate-change/

And don't forget how they also tried to CHANGE HISTORYL http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ans...-mess--de.html

Fucking idiots.