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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (119688)	12/27/2000 10:42:46 AM
From: Mr. Whist	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

You raise some excellent points. I had a similar chat with an editor of the local newspaper a few years ago. I asked him why the local paper devotes so much space every day to high school jocks who play basketball and football and run track, and so little space to a kid from an inner-city school who achieves a scholarship to an Ivy League school. Why not devote more space to saluting kids who excel in school as opposed to those who run for touchdowns? I think your daughter's "egghead" concern speaks volumes about how society as a whole views education ... and the role of educated young ladies in society: "We want quarterbacks and volleyball players, not scientists or female business executives, dammit!"

To: jlallen who wrote (119688)	12/28/2000 10:06:43 PM
From: Wayners	Respond to of 769667

I don't believe more money is the solution You've got that right. District of Columbia audit should be next where more $ per pupil is spent than anywhere else in the US. Still can't figure out why they have the worst building facilities. Now read this: Detroit Public Schools officials have fired three more school employees in an ongoing investigation of missing and embezzled money in the city's schools. A dozen audits released by the district late Wednesday showed it fired office personnel at Kosciusko, Grant and Courville elementary schools amid questions about missing school funds. A bookkeeper at Barbour Magnet Middle School was released for job abandonment, a school official said. All cases will be turned over to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office for further investigation, said Virgil Lobring, the school district's chief of staff. "We still have 216 school audits to complete. We'll release them as we get them done," he said. The audits eventually will include every Detroit public school, the first time the schools have been audited in more than 10 years. Audits of Detroit's 29 high schools, released last month, found hundreds of thousands of dollars missing, incorrectly recorded or misspent. One bookkeeper pleaded guilty to embezzlement and two others are facing criminal charges. Two principals were fired.

To: jlallen who wrote (119688)	12/28/2000 11:59:08 PM
From: Johannes Pilch	Respond to of 769667

You are right. More money will not help. Nothing will help. The schools are quite hopeless-- for certain students. Your daughter does well because she has a father and mother who hold her to standards of excellence and who show by their actions they believe in her. She may act embarrassed by you. She may even be embarrassed. No matter. In her heart she knows that you really care and expect, even demand, that she rise to her potential. That is an extraordinary gift to give a child. Without it, it is a rare child who would amount to much-- a very rare child indeed. Many students simply do not have that, and no school can give it. Without it, you may spend a hundred thousand dollars per child and you will still fail.

To: jlallen who wrote (119688)	12/31/2000 3:00:19 AM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 769667

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I hate to say it, but I think one of the best things to do would be to drop athletics from public schools. That is not a very popular thing to say, but I believe it would do much good for the system. 1. it would reduce costs of supporting public athletics, which only represents a minority of the school population in any case. Children who wished to participate in athletics could participate in after hours community organized athletics programs, just like little league, soccer, and many adult athletics groups are organized. 2. Removing athletics from the public school would remove participation in athletics as a dividing social factor in public school. 3. Education should be constrained to basics - reading and writing, mathematics, history and the humanities. ie a proper liberal arts grounding. Another matter that should be investigated, IMO, is all year schooling. The justification of summer break was that children needed to help out in the fields, which obviously no longer applies to the vast majority. The system wastes effort by reteaching the same thing year after year after year. I can not remember any subject matter that could not have been condensed and done with by the time I was 16. Something else that would be worth looking at is the German model of trade schools. Not everyone is served by going to college, and a lot of skill is wasted by shunting aside the "unambitious" kids to "flunky" classes. Perhaps if you challenged them with subjects they are suited to and enjoy, they wouldn't seem so unambitious. I think someone who rebuilds a classic car on the weekends for fun is just as worthy of an education as someone who solves quadratic equations on the weekends for fun. Just some of my opinions. :) Derek