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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (60)	9/25/2001 3:44:14 PM
From: Kenneth E. Phillipps	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15516

I fear for the public school system. Many conservatives wish to destroy the public school system because it affords an opportunity to the poor and under privileged a chance to succeed in society. I owe a great deal to the public school system. I came from a large, blue collar family and was able to graduate from law school because of an excellent public school in Minneapolis and Seattle. Don't let them get away with destroying the public school system. It is a foundation for our democracy.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (60)	9/25/2001 8:16:33 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

"The court said it will hear three related cases arising from a program that provides tuition aid to parents of nearly 4,000 students who have left public schools in Cleveland that their parents felt were failing." I don't have kids but, in part, I feel the failure of the public school system is because the public schools are regulated by politicians.. The public schools depend upon the state for money and the schools are regulated by the states. Also, politicians set public school teacher's salaries. Consequently, politicians, instead of the people who are most qualified to teach, are allowed to make decisions about your children's education. For instance, a politician doesn't tell your doctor how to treat you if you are ill, although, unfortunately, there have been changes in the medical system by insurance companies that allow bureaucrats without medical experience to interfere increasingly with your medical treatment so that may not be a good example but it might provide a similar example of what is going on in the public school system. When I look around the best students I know have parents that are intensely involved in every aspect of their children's lives, but, in most instances, the parents have basic university degrees and perhaps advanced university degrees as well so these students have good role models, and the parents understand and make their children understand that they must study and work very hard if they hope to attend university and find a good job. It is the students without good role models that I worry about. These are students whose parents refuse to assume any personal responsibility for their children's success. These students could be in private or public schools. The parents might be wealthy or they might be poor, but they act as though the school has total responsibility for their children's education. In short, they use the school as a baby sitter. There are quite a few parents in Washington State who teach their children at home. I don't know how well it works out. There isn't any reason to believe that these parents won't be successful. I wondered about their science training, but I was told that the Pacific Science Center in Seattle offers courses for children who are taught at home. Then, there are kids who fall through the cracks for other reasons. They may be straight "A" students but something comes up in their lives that creates havoc such as the divorce of their parents, for instance, and because of personal problems these kids might drop out of school or allow their grades to deteriorate. In other instances, I know children, very talented children though, who won scholarships when the odds seemed against them. Human beings are very complicated, and I think it is unfair to make the public school system totally responsible for a child's success or failure. TP has children. If he hasn't responded to your post, I bet he has some interesting ideas.