Issues in Education

[Bodhisattva]

Florida’s voucher system isn’t “choice.” It’s a massive transfer of public money into private institutions with almost no oversight. Public schools have to take every kid who walks in the door. Voucher schools don’t. They can turn away students with disabilities, behavior challenges, LGBTQ kids, or any child who needs real support. That’s not empowering families—it’s letting schools hand-pick the easiest students and send the hardest ones back to underfunded public classrooms.

Funny how I chose to send my kid to a better school and it's not called a choice. Sure felt like a choice since I had more than one option. Whatever. I'll take quality schools over garbage schools. I leave you to choose garbage schools for your kids if you wish.

 

[Bodhisattva]

The day after my high school graduation, I could truly understand what someone feels like when they are paroled from prison. I hated every single day of my jr high and high school years. I vowed: never again.

While my elementary school years sucked, we moved to the Eastern Shore later, and I ended up going to Fairhope HS. Better quality comparatively than what Mobile County had to offer. Lily's experience was many times better.

 

[Huckleberry]

Funny how I chose to send my kid to a better school and it's not called a choice. Sure felt like a choice since I had more than one option. Whatever. I'll take quality schools over garbage schools. I leave you to choose garbage schools for your kids if you wish.

I’m happy that you were able to send your kid to a better school - a better public school. I support that 100%, though for some people not as well off transportation can be an issue. My point is that simply calling something school choice doesn’t make it a good thing. The current movement smacks of anti-public school sentiment much more than it does of benefiting the student. Saying that one is for school choice while ignoring the inherent problems in the system doesn’t help anyone.

 

[Its On A Slab]

While my elementary school years sucked, we moved to the Eastern Shore later, and I ended up going to Fairhope HS. Better quality comparatively than what Mobile County had to offer. Lily's experience was many times better.

Yeah, my beef with public schools began in the 5th grade, when I was told that I could no longer go to school with my friends. And was redirected to a rural, substandard school way out in the sticks. No alternative.

Some in my neighborhood tried to use false addresses or uncles/aunts who lived in the school district. But there was always the neighborhood Karen (in those days, we called them "Narcs") who would turn you in.

 

[Bodhisattva]

I’m happy that you were able to send your kid to a better school - a better public school. I support that 100%, though for some people not as well off transportation can be an issue. My point is that simply calling something school choice doesn’t make it a good thing. The current movement smacks of anti-public school sentiment much more than it does of benefiting the student. Saying that one is for school choice while ignoring the inherent problems in the system doesn’t help anyone.

I'm not for tearing down public schools or promoting private schools. I'm for promoting good schools, regardless of what type they are. My wife and I made the best decision we could for Lily. I trust you to do the same for your kids. And I extend that choice to everyone else. I'm more than comfortable letting people have the choice to make good or bad decisions. I've seen far too many well-funded garbage schools that are allowed to continue existing because to do something different is "a war on public schools." That's the battle cry of fools and the dishonest. Bad schools should fail.

 

[Bodhisattva]

Yeah, my beef with public schools began in the 5th grade, when I was told that I could no longer go to school with my friends. And was redirected to a rural, substandard school way out in the sticks. No alternative.

Some in my neighborhood tried to use false addresses or uncles/aunts who lived in the school district. But there was always the neighborhood Karen (in those days, we called them "Narcs") who would turn you in.

Ah, the Karens. Where would we be without roving bands of chunky busy-bodies using there self-appointed authority to enforce good order and discipline (as they see it)?

 

[Tidewater]

Here is an example of how to teach American history.

If schools across the country taught the history of the Southwest this way, there would be no "stolen land" garbage or the people who wished to slander the United States would be hooted off the stage.
This video is entertaining, it does not side-step the issue of chattel slavery, and it shows the American side of the story.

 

[75thru79]

Here is an example of how to teach American history.

If schools across the country taught the history of the Southwest this way, there would be no "stolen land" garbage or the people who wished to slander the United States would be hooted off the stage.
This video is entertaining, it does not side-step the issue of chattel slavery, and it shows the American side of the story.

Highly entertaining as well as informative. This "reality based" view of history, with a little humor mixed in, is how we should teach it. I get so sick of the revisionist view where societies that did not adhere to today's politically correct viewpoint of oppressor versus oppressed were evil and nothing good every came out of it.

 

[Bodhisattva]

Here is an example of how to teach American history.

If schools across the country taught the history of the Southwest this way, there would be no "stolen land" garbage or the people who wished to slander the United States would be hooted off the stage.
This video is entertaining, it does not side-step the issue of chattel slavery, and it shows the American side of the story.

That was great. My first masters degree was in Latin American Studies, and having lived in Texas for several years, I'm familiar with the history of our relationship with Mexico. But, it's been a while and that was a really good refresher. The modern self-loathing rant about stolen lands and colonialism is a lazy as it is stupid. No context is provided, much less any actual history.

I've been in a few debates about "giving the land back." I always ask, "To whom?" The answer is always, "Mexico." Funny, the Mexicans displaced Spanish, who displaced various native tribes. Go to any historical site in South Texas and you'll learn about the various native tribes that once lived there, who displaced those that came before them, who were displace by those that came after them. Repeat for hundreds of years. You'll go through dozens of tribes only academics have heard of before you'll get to the more familiar ones like the Comanches.

Oddly enough about people world- and history-wide: they tend to move around. Go to any patch of land on the planet where people are, and there will have been people who were there earlier. Control of any land has been churned countless times. But, the self-loathing, American-history-hating crowd only applies their razor-sharp historical knowledge on the lands within the US. They don't apply it anywhere else. In many cases, it takes a lot of expensive education to be extremely dumb.

 

[jthomas666]

View attachment 54168

Great, another Florida “education” bill that does nothing for education. If it’s not vouchers draining the budget, it’s performative gestures like hanging portraits of Washington and Lincoln while classrooms can’t afford supplies.

I have no problem with hanging portaits of Lincoln and Washington in schools. That said, merely hanging the portraits isn't going to accomplish much, save perhaps to enrich whoever produces the portraits.

As Huck said, it's merely performative. Portraits will not install any principles into the students, not will it teach them of the nation's history.