Who thinks our country has a bad Public School system?

Question

I am from New orleans, and our Public school system may be worse than most, but this is ridiculous. Read this article:
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/metro/index.ssf?/base/news-21/1178084761114070.xml&coll=1

First of all, the incident is bad enough. A student got in a fight with her teacher. But read the article closely:
"Patricia Lewis, 18, a sophomore"....

She is 18, and a Sophomore in High School!!!!
A sign of the times?

Answer 1

If I had even thought about hitting a teacher, my mother would have tore me a new one into next week.

Kids today have absolutely no respect for anyone other than themselves. They are coddled by birth by their parents to think they are special and better than everyone else and can do no wrong. Parents need to start parenting and then schools will improve over time.

Answer 2

No amount of funding will ever make students better. It is the parents that are the difference. Generally those school systems that do well are the ones whose parents are active with their own child's learning.

A school system (I believe it was St. Louis but I can't remember exactly) put so much money into the school system that every kid had a laptop, best resources, small class size, and had so much money left over they were picking up kids in taxi's to spend it. The result was a huge decline in the scores of the students.

Until parents can and do make their children respect authority and learn how to think for themselves (not just spit out what they were taught) the school system will never be fixed. Don't blame the public servants, blame yourself for the failure of your own child. If they are struggling, help them, not expect someone else to do it for you. If they are a troublemaker, nip it in the bud. Often kids are troublemakers because of lack of attention, discipline, and/or structure. All these come from the home (not school, tv, peers, or anything else).

Answer 3

I did read the article closely. I think that it is a shame that the 20 year veteran has been laid off without pay. I happen to think that teachers need combat pay if they have to continuously deal with students who have no respect for those who are teaching them topics that will better their lives.

This 18 year old girl has been given many chances to better her life and it seems to me that if she had had some continuous help from her community, family, etc. things might just be different for her. She may have acquired self respect with the right kind of encouragement.Who knows, the article wasn't that in depth.
All I know is that these problems do not stem from bad schools, they stem from the community, their values and families that surrounds the schools. The community obviously needs to work harder at whatever problems are existing there. Probably drugs, lower income families, lack of education as a whole, and lack of substantial income (jobs) in that area.

Answer 4

I agree that our country OVERALL has a bad public school system. There are areas though that have excellent schools. Public schools can vary but overall they should be better. Some states just completely short change their educational system. CA's, my home state, education system has gone downhill ever since the passage of prop 13 severley limited it's funding capabilities.

BUT you can't blame it all on schools, teachers, and funding. One of the biggest problem, as your article points out, IS the students. Poverty, lack of role models, bad values, and bad parenting also play a huge part in our sorry public school system. If some schools are filled with people who don't have proper work ethic and sense of self responsibility then the school will fail no matter how much money you throw at it. Parents and students need to take responsibility for themselves and their PEERS.

It's kind of like the whole chicken and egg situation. Poverty and poor values leads to bad schools. But bad schools also lead to poverty and poor behavior too.

Answer 5

Yes but I dont' think its entirely the school systems fault.
Parents should be held responsible for their childs success and failures. They stopped ensuring kids did their homework, and let them play video games instead. Kids got ignorant.

As for the teacher/student relations, I do not believe a teacher who is barely 22 should be teaching a bunch of teenagers. They are not equipped. They should stay with the elementary school until they are older and know how to control themselves better.
We started letting young teachers teach highschools, and they started having affairs with students, or yelling, screaming and having tantrums.

Answer 6

Yes, I'm in complete agreement. The public school system is in shambles and most parents who can afford it try to find private institutions of education for their children. This is a very sad reflection on society in general and not just New Orleans. If only a portion of the funding wasted in Iraq had been diverted to revamping the educational system perhaps this and countless other confrontations could have been and those that will be, avoided.

Answer 7

Any school system that proudly turns out functional Illiterates, Indoctrinates children and not teach them needs to be shut down and re-organized. Parents should be more involved, see what is going on in the schools and given a choice as to where their children attend school.

Kids who are violent and troublemakers should be separated from the rest and sent to a different setting immediately! No child should have to attend a school that is a concentration camp, because of those that disrupt and are violent.

Answer 8

The problem with public schools is the inequality of the funding. An affluent district will have better resources, better teachers, higher test scores, higher graduation rates and higher college acceptence rates. We need to equalize the funding to public schools instead of basing it on district tax revenues.

Previous post - what the **** does the North American Man Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) have to do with education?

Answer 9

The PS system began to deteriorate in the early 80s and have been going downhill ever since.

Quality Public Education is the best investment any country can make as it returns major dividends for decades. Just think, for every 1.5 decades of quality education, you receive, on average, 4 decades of high productivity, low/no crime, fewer health problems and much more. Better neighbors, better service, on and on.

Answer 10

I didn't click your link. I never click links but...
I think it's bad. Our local high school principal was arrested for having pot. Gimme a break! And he's the example for our kids.

I heard on Fox News (yes I said Fox) that two teenagers beat up their teacher at school and broke his neck. They will not be serving any jail time.

Our teachers can't discipline our kids. It's a shame. No wonder things are so messed up.

*Not to mention the fact that the school system is set up primarily for the benefit of girls. Boys tend to learn differently and need more hands on and activity projects. It needs a revamp

*Oh...one more thing...a school out here is teaching classes that they speak Spanish till noon and English till school ends. Sign of the times or what?