Public Education - Epic Fail
Posted by StormCloudsGathering February 27, 2010
Why is it that parents are willing to send their children into the public school system for 13 years, at the end of which those same children emerge without any trade, without any marketable skills to speak of, and without the slightest inkling of how to survive as adults? The public school system if judged on its results is an utter failure by any measure, and yet most parents send their children without question. Does this waste of childhood, money and potential not anger you? It should.
It would be one thing if the public school system only failed at giving us viable job skills, but unfortunately it does much more than that. Modern education systematically strips away our love of learning and our spontaneity to such a degree that most people never regain these qualities even years after graduation. Modern education is not suited for teaching children to think, as many would like to believe, but rather it teaches children to conform, to obey, and most importantly to perform menial, repetitive task for hours on end. This is not by accident, this is by design. Our system is built to create obedient employees that can think just enough to work an assembly line, but not well enough to question their lot in life, and certainly not enough to challenge those who really pull the strings.
Am I insinuating that public education shouldn't exist at all? No, I'm not. Public education should exist as an option. In fact, I would support publicly sponsored tuition for all students wishing to attend college if those students were qualified and were able to maintain high grades. What I appose is the state monopoly on education.
Monopoly? That's a strong word. Does the state really maintain a monopoly on lower education? Think about it for a second. Local property taxes are used to fund the government run schools. We don't have the option of putting that same money to fund our children's tuition in a private school of our choosing. This means that if we choose to put our children into a private school then we are forced to pay twice; once for the public school system and then again for the private school. This policy is clearly discriminatory to low income families, many of which have a hard enough time paying the property taxes themselves. Moreover, this system which gives the state the power to force payment for their service removes their incentive to compete with non-public education in terms of quality. They have a captive clientele, forced to attend, and unable to escape payment even if not attending. They can't lose.
So is the government the problem? Maybe, but I'm not going to put my emphasis there. Government only has as much power as we the citizens give it, and more often than not when the government is out of control it is because the citizens are not taking responsibility for their own lives. Education is the responsibility of the family. Passing the job on to a school, or any other institution for that matter, does not remove the responsibility.
If public schools are failing it is our duty as citizens to take a stand. I don't mean showing up for PTA meetings or writing your congressman, I mean we need to pull our kids out of the public school system and take responsibility for their education.
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School districts are drawn in accordance to the property tax differential you speak about. Apparently you haven't lived in a large metropolitan area.
Why is it that parents are willing to send their children into the public school system for 13 years, at the end of which those same children emerge without any trade, without any marketable skills to speak of, and without the slightest inkling of how to survive as adults?
Not all is true in that paragraph. Some people have forced changes in the education system so when a student is done he becomes more prepared for the world outside.
Why is it that parents are willing to send their children into the public school system for 13 years, at the end of which those same children emerge without any trade, without any marketable skills to speak of, and without the slightest inkling of how to survive as adults?
Not all is true in that paragraph. Some people have forced changes in the education system so when a student is done he becomes more prepared for the world outside.
Why is it that parents are willing to send their children into the public school system for 13 years, at the end of which those same children emerge without any trade, without any marketable skills to speak of, and without the slightest inkling of how to survive as adults?
Not all is true in that paragraph. Some people have forced changes in the education system so when a student is done he becomes more prepared for the world outside.
"A fully private system would not give you more choice to pick better schools, it would only lead to more money being diverted away from education towards corporate profits. For something as hard to measure as quality of education, would you trust a private system whose 1st priority is showing good quarterly results to stockholders?"
I disagree with this line of thought completely. It would be the case if there were only one other option, but if education were a free market enterprise, then competition would drive the market. I also don't understand the leap to "corporate" education - there are many fine private schools that exist without a profit motive.
I've also wondered for years why logic isn't considered as important as reading, writing and math (to be honest, what I've really wondered, is why no one else pushes the subject).
Homeschooling? Cute? Wow, I've never heard it put that way before.
There is limited access to knowledge in the statement on homeschooling. It presents an assumption a parent homeschooling their child is unaware of libraries; the internet; access to college classes for minors or, most importantly, learn something new themselves.
If you believe children cannot learn unless they are taught, then the statement makes sense.
Unfortunately, for the public education system, children are highly intelligent. They learn because they are human beings. It separates us from the apes, humans don't primarily imitate. Humans initiate, discover and search actively for knowledge.
Since compulsory schooling has only been around since the late 19th century.... I have to wonder how we are not still making animal skin tents or living in caves.
If my five children could only learn what I know, and I've got a couple of those alphabet soup letters behind my name in history, they would be able to recite the Magna Carta. Describe the Battle of Hastings. They could care less. Doesn't work that way. I have a virologist, a lawyer, a dog trainer, some type of computer geek and one too young to make up his mind.
And their father is a diesel mechanic.
Go figure.
I would have to agree with some of your comments, but I do disagree with others. Education is an institution; thus, the students are institutionalized and most independent and creative thinking is abolished or hindered. Since our education was founded on behaviorism, both classical and operant that believe we are merely animals, it is no wonder students act on rewards and instincts instead of creative, independent, logical thinking; they have been conditioned both at home and at school. The federal government needs to get out of the local school districts and let the community run the school. Citizens are not responsible because they were indoctrinated by the same institution. The federal government has far too long been involved with our own individualism. Schools, like our society, are run by collective ideology...group instead of the individual. I sincerely believe once we wake up to the realism of our surroundings and who the great enabler is, there will be a great awakening not only in the public educational system but also in every institution ran by the government. I teach technology, programming, and career exploration, and I can say with complete honesty, the public education system is changing and for the better! I am a teacher in the public school system in Iowa and have been for 21 years; I am also self-employed.
The whole deal with public education is much like how many select their religion!
They choose it because their parents did and their parents did too.
When it comes to public education many are frankly unwilling to see past "the government regulates education therefor it is regulated and valuable". Yeah well, the government takes our money "in trust" there are laws as to how they are "supposed" to care for our "regulated" money......You think governmental regulation matters at all? I mean I am unsure as to why so many people are shocked that the very things the government has been regulating since WWII are now all of a sudden falling apart. This includes education. Going back much farther, but very concentrated since the 60s, lets really think about it here.
Lets see, the government regulated education (our test scores are among the lowest among the developed countries).
Big thing here is that many of our schools went bankrupt, we have been paying for not only the school district in which we live but also the neighboring school district through higher taxes for three years now to keep these "great learning institutions" open. Did I mention they raised our property taxes for what was supposed to be only four years to get them back into the financial green? Yeah well, four years later of these "governmentally regulated" education facilities, their finances are worse and our taxes are being raised an additional $1,000 per year, per household just to keep them out of dutch.....no one has fixed the overspending problem.
Also, has anyone looked at the "required" level of learned academics just to graduate? They are learning stuff in high school today that I honestly think we had mastered in the 5th grade just three decades ago. Teachers have lost the will to learn, the "governmental regulators" only require a "basic test" that each student must pass to "graduate" and as usual, they use that test to dictate the bare minimum effort they need to make to "teach". But because it is regulated, they must use a "measuring device" so this "basic test" becomes the measuring device that determines if schools are doing their job.
Sad thing about this test is that many students don't pass it. And because many students were failing this test in their senior year of high school......the government decided to give each student multiple times to take said test. So now, even though the test was governmentally regulated and required to be passed in the senior year, schools can issue the test from grade 9 on. If at any time the student passes "minimum results" they never have to take it again. My kids passed this basic test in grade 7 and never had to take it again because the "governmental regulation" was satisfied. Sad but true!
Now, I pulled my kids from public education when they were below the 5th grade. Mainly because my son was bored to death, I donated my time to assist his teacher to figure out why my son was acting up. OMG, I wanted to cry myself.......they were learning stuff I think that was 1st grade level when I was a kid. I didn't make my decision on a whim, I sat through his class for an entire three months before I realized........they simply were not teaching.
So I brought my children home for homeschool and was forced at the end of each year to put them through a test administered by the school district each and every year. By the time the second year of homeschool ended, the children were passing their stupid tests at a high school level and the "minimum academic test" administered by the governmental regulators, the one that tells the government our educators are educated........Well the children passed this test after just two years of homeschool.
I look at our budget, our collapsed infastructure, our economy, our banking system, the FDA (lmao), homeland security, we all know what happened when the government started regulating farms------we now rely upon foreign countries and all their lethal chemicals to feed us.
Hello, really? Just how bad does it have to get before everyone wakes up and realizes that everything regulated by our government has fallen apart, feeds the richest of the richest and sucks the blood out of anyone earning less than $100,000 per year?
Thomas Jefferson stated "A government afraid of its people is progress. A people afraid of its government is tyranny"
We have put too much faith in our bought and paid for greedy government and all its regulations. They have ruined our Nation and our way of life through all the money and "perks" the special interest groups have paid them. They are not here for the American public and about regulating us into a "healthy" environment....they are about following the special interest money and allowing the corporations who would kill their own mothers for the sake of personal wealth.
Wake up!
Beautifully written piece, thank you. My children have never been to school, and so long as I am able, I will continue to keep them out of it. They expand their minds every day on their own and are hungry to learn, create, and explore the world around them. There is no cable television, no video games, no mindless activities in our home. They are surrounded by books, art supplies, nature, and many other unschooled/homeschooled children. They are allowed to follow their passions and be free. I only wish I had been given the same opportunity as them and I only hope they appreciate it when they are grown.
Thank you, again.
In response to: "Home schooling? Home-schooling your kid may sound cute, but by definition, it leaves your kids at best as educated as you are, and only in the fields that you know. It isn't fair to your kids to decide that for them."
Well, anyone can have an opinion about home schooling.
Personally, I have home schooled four children - two through high school, two through 6th grade, so I have more than an opinion, I have experience -(and strong opinions).
Why did I decide to home school my children? Because I didn't think it was fair to them to subject them to the public school system - it was obvious that I could easily offer more.
What I didn't know (most history, most math, a lot of science, any literature - sorry I was taught in the public schools), I learned. Or I found the best books and curriculums and just guided as we learned together.
Some topics I had them research and teach me what they found! Scientist friends taught them science. Grandpas taught them about WWII. They; welded, sewed, cooked, built forts, dissected animals, played games. We backpacked and went on road trips. Other Home school teachers put together classes, parties, events. One son became an "Eagle Scout"! The Home school community is so large and dedicated and packed with resources, it's amazing!
How did they turn out? Not perfect, but.....
They all LOVE learning. Three read widely, deeply and Constantly.
They listen well and have strong personal opinions.
They are kind, generous. funny, unique, brave.
All three are completely at ease carrying on conversations with most anyone - street people, CEOs, three year olds - ANYONE. They all have lots of excellent friends.
Each one is now pursuing their own educational interests, through either private classes, university, or self-teaching. They all have reached beyond me, and will continue to reach far beyond me in their chosen fields of interest.
They say that they are glad that they were Home-schooled.
The idea that one average teacher, can teach 30, largely uninterested, (even antagonistic), kids anything much, is pretty idealistic. But then tie the teacher's hands behind their back - greatly restrict what and how they teach, then focus everything on book learning and passing the government tests! That's a recipe for killing young minds.
If Home-schooling is "cute", then our current public school system is criminal - it's a massive waste of money and time. A giant babysitter, that actually dulls bright minds, and creates unhappy sheep instead of an aware empowered citizenry.
Both systems have good and bad points.
But really, can government ever do any better than it does?!!
It's the nature of committees to produce average results.
It's the nature of monopolies to produce bloated, clunky systems.
It's the nature of those in charge to be afraid of empowering those beneath them.
I know that Home schooling isn't for everyone, or every child.
AND, public schooling isn't for everyone either.
I'd like to see the government much more open and encouraging to private schools and home schooling.
AND... I'd like them to change what and how they teach our kids in the public schools.
For starters, just imagine if our nation's youth were taught PRACTICAL math!
What I mean is - how our financial system works. Teach them about commodities, stocks, the banking system, the history of money, how to invest, borrow, run a business, budget a household.
The political classes couldn't blatantly lie to them about their money schemes. The Banksters couldn't sell them awful loans. The Corporate ad-men, insurance gangsters and credit card companies would be faced with savvy negotiators!
You know, it's pretty simple - teach our children real-world, usable; math, science, health, etc. Teach them how to think, and research, and debate. Teach them how to speak publicly, and to write well. Give them great books to read every day. Have them exercise every day!
Mostly though - overarching all else - instill in them the LOVE of learning.
I don't know that I taught math so well, (or any other subject for that matter), but I figured out what made each subject useful to them, and interesting, then I enthused about it and developed THEIR interest, and now, as I say, they have reached beyond me as they on their own pursue a life of learning.
And can the public school system at least TRY to make these subjects interesting?
Once you've done that one small thing you've mostly done your job!
IF ON THE CONTRARY, YOU'VE MADE THESE FASCINATING AND USEFUL SUBJECTS BORING, AND NOT RELEVENT TO REAL LIFE YOU'VE PARTICIPATED IN A GIANT EVIL!
Local property taxes follow a progressive scale, somewhat, as richer people are required to pay more (because they own more expensive properties). So, a poor family pays less than a rich family, if both decide to send their kids to public school. In other words, the public system actually favors lower income families, not the other way around as you said.
A fully private system would not give you more choice to pick better schools, it would only lead to more money being diverted away from education towards corporate profits. For something as hard to measure as quality of education, would you trust a private system whose 1st priority is showing good quarterly results to stockholders? Then, if the government was to provide help for poorer families to go to private schools, that would essentially be taking people's taxes to pay for businesses profits, not something everybody would agree on doing.
But, if you still equate private education to "freedom" somehow, then I guess you favor a mix of private/public education. Let's look at that. Well, first off, if public education is crap (which I agree it is, in the US), then private education essentially adjusts itself to be slightly better than that crap, to convince the privileged that it's worth paying for it (sometimes it's true, sometimes not). Instead of being purely driven by profits, the level of education is still mostly dictated by what the public system does.
It then follows that the level of education is purely dictated by how well the public system does.
To get a real idea as to what the right ratio of public/private education is, look to other countries, essentially all other industrialized countries out there, who beat the US education system hands down (by all indicators including math, reading, writing skills, history, geography, etc...). They're all 100% public. That is your answer. Go ahead and look it up: from France to Israel to China to Japan, public education has proved (proven? :)) superior.
How do they do it, you may ask? Well, they don't have this crazy aversion to taxes like here in the US, and so they fund their education systems appropriately, just like they do with health care. In the US, we've got lower taxes so we can all afford flat-screen TVs and a car each, but unless you're in the top income bracket, your education and health care is gonna be crap. Yes, sadly, the government is the solution here, and yes, everyone has got to keep on top of it, for it to work.
OK, so I guess there's one more thing, right? Home schooling? Home-schooling your kid may sound cute, but by definition, it leaves your kids at best as educated as you are, and only in the fields that you know. It isn't fair to your kids to decide that for them.
Finally, just to address the false talking point I hear about all the time: the US private university system is the best in the world. Yes you can argue that lots of private universities in the US are better than abroad, which is true (although less and less, as time passes). But a majority of the grad students who built these universities' reputation mostly come from India, China, and the rest of the world, nowadays (because the non post-grad education system in the US is such a failure). And the money comes from private corporations who fund university research to benefit themselves. In other words, we've outsourced the post-grad system, while maintaining the universities on US land for now, and the curriculum is decided by private profits, essentially favoring technology, business, etc... at the expense of everything else lots of people may be interested in (even if it's not profitable).