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To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (16638)	7/3/2002 8:53:06 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

the most manageable kids- -which tend to be the dumbest I don't know where you get that notion. Some smart kids are unmanageable. Some dumb kids are unmanageable. That's not what I had I mind, rather the kids who can't sit still and pay attention or are sitting in the back of the class arranging drug deals on their cell phones or acting out in class. Not a function of intelligence but of the ability to function in a classroom. A school doesn't need particularly smart kids to perform well. It does, though, need a classroom relatively free of student disruptions. It either needs enough teachers or teachers' aides so the deaf or unruly or distracted kids won't slow the work of the class or else it needs to not accept those kids. If we're going to compare public with private schools, you need to determine where those kids fit in the equation. If you take private schools, let the teachers unionize, pile on a bunch or regulations that require bureaucracy like assuring that a fair share of school furniture comes from minority owned businesses, add more bureaucracy and procedures to either avoid or deal with any complaints and law suits because little Johnny got a C or because there's a lesbian teacher in the school, hire aides to communicate with the blind student and the non-Emglish speaking students or the students who didn't get any breakfast at home, etc., etc., what you end up with, over time, will probably be the same results you get now.

To: Lazarus_Long who wrote (16638)	7/3/2002 10:01:05 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 21057

I always wonder why, in discussions of the deficiencies of American education, so little attention is paid to the real problem. It's not the teachers, the teachers unions, the government bureaucracy, or any other similar entity. It's the parents. If parents do not teach their children basic human ethics and the basic skills of interpersonal relations, no school will be able to manage them. If parents do not provide their children with respect for adults and for legitimate authority, if parents do not teach children to respect themselves and their peers, no school can function. If parents do not instill in their children a desire for education and self-improvement, no school can make anything of them. If parents do not participate in and contribute to the day to day educational process, if parents do not share the responsibility of education, no school can effectively teach. Schools are failing because we have assigned them an impossible task: compensating for the deficiencies of the American parent. There is very little that Government can do about this. I know it's not PC to say it, but I'll say it anyway.