Hey all, I was just curious, to all the people who attend government-run schools, what's it like there, education-wise?

Too much standardized testing?

Too much homework, or not enough?

Drama aside, what's it like in the classroom? Are teachers actually teaching you things, going through the process of how to do the work, or are they just lazy and "teaching to the test" or whatever?

I'm just curious...because I came out with an editorial this week titled:

Two reasons to oppose more funding for government schools

Read it here: http://forum.freestateproject.org/index.php?board=6;action=display;threadid=5402

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aspestice insulation

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You mean asbestos? And field is "i" before "e".

My advanced algebra teacher (who is a coach) had to call the english (english!) teacher in to demonstrate graphing functions of x and y, because it had "been so long since he did this stuff." So he's not one of those good coach/teachers. He's one of the sucky ones. I did have a couple who knew most of their stuff (like the biology teacher/coach.)

And, that was mean. Rubbing it in, that is.

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WHY do I get stuck with the football coaches for teachers!?

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Oh, I had a football coach for my teacher in Trig, but he got his degree from UCLA. I didn't like the guy but still he had the credentials and he knew his math.
Sorry to rub it in but I just had to.

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I had one teacher who had a Masters from Harvard, one that had a Masters at Yale, one had a Masters from Dartmouth and one had masters from Stanford.

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I. Hate. You. Ihateyouihateyouihateyou.

WHY do I get stuck with the football coaches for teachers!?

At least I'm homeschooled now and leaving next year for my lovely college/highschool combo.

I don't really hate you. I do, however, greatly envy you. Oh, how odd. My hand looks a bit green...

My school is in horrible condition. We are trying to pass a bond to build a new one. There are major electrical and plumbing prolems, it's not safe in an earthquake (and i live in washington where we are still waiting for our big one), have aspestice insulation and the ceiling tiles either have leaks or fall. We need money.

It would also be nice to have a new set of books in the library. Nearly all of the books in there are severely outdated and there isn't a very large collection to begin with. Luckily we are getting some money for technology (and replacing our old macs) from the Bill and Milinda Gates foundation.

I really don't like how many things are taught at my school. I do have one teacher with a masters in english from one of the best colleges for teacher certification in the country, one with a doctorate in the subject he teaches and one with a long history of working within the feild she teaches and with teaching itself. I feel confident in these teachers, they're outstanding. Then I have one spiteful teacher who was set to work in her feild until her husband got a job teaching out in the middle of nowhere, there aren't any jobs for people like her out here so she just teaches classes related to her feild and she is horrible. Then we have a few courses taught by, essentially, basket ball coaches who need the money and get it because we need the personell.

Public schools suck. But that doesn't mean you should deny them of funding, in fact it should prove just the opposite.

I do not like how much of our schooling is based on testing. You cannot convince faculty that a subject is worthy unless it's on some standarized test.

I am trying to get my school to pick up the slack in the science department and I found myself, as I tried to sway my audience, referring to the fact that science is on the ACT and IOWA and will soon be on the WASL. Science is immeasurably important to all of our futures and I really shouldnt have had to rely on this fact.

The fact that our test scores tend to be lower are probably because of how our schools are structured, but also largely, as someone else said, because of the fact that we have no entrance exams and have learning disabled students.

I would have liked to have gone to a more challanging and competitive school, but it's not as though my family could afford it, and my little brother is learning disabled besides. The main thing about public schools is that the student has to work a lot harder to get a lot out of it. The opportunities and challenges of academia aren't handed to them the way they are in private schools.

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I say government schools because that's what they are: they're run by the government, for the government.

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Why am I not surprised by this coming from Joey. The reason private schools are called private is because they owned by the PRIVATE sector. The reason "government" schools are called public is because they are owned by the public, or did you forget we are the government.

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Privately-run schools or home schooling has statistically fared much better in comparison to the government school system.

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Source and what were they using as a reference point as doing better? Testing? I thought you were against that Joey? Also do your statistics factor in the fact that private schools test potential customers and more often then note do not except anybody with learning disabilities or learning problems or anybody who scores low on the tests.

My high school was arguably one of the best in the country, even compared to private schools. This is partly due to the fact that I lived in rich town; the average property value was about 2 million dollars. Overall I have to say my school taught me the necessary skills. I was out before they started implementing the exit exams so that was never a problem. Also another reason my school was so good was due to the fact of having high quality teachers. Just to show you what I mean I tell you where all my 4 English teachers graduated from. I had one teacher who had a Masters from Harvard, one that had a Masters at Yale, one had a Masters from Dartmouth and one had masters from Stanford. Basically all my teachers in every subject had a Masters or better from an Ivy League college, so that explains a lot. Also we didn't have a lot of focus on testing, we maybe spent like a month on practicing for the STAR test but they implemented that pretty well into the curriculum. Also we had about a month of practice for the SATS, which I got a 1490, not sure if it was the schooling or maybe me.
Overall I would rate my high school a B+, the only thing I didn't like were the elective that were provided, nothing really available outside of the standard stuff.
Overall I must say the one thing I disagree with is the testing they have implemented into the schools, also so does my mother and her associates; my mother is a teacher at a local public elementary school.

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Anyone who has, at the end of each semester, missed two or fewer days of school, can opt out of the final exam for any class in which he has a "B" or higher grade.

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But that's not fair! What if you have been sick 3 times in the whole 10 weeks! That's not a lot, but it means that even if you have an A+ in a class you can't skip the exam. Well, in my school there is no way to get out of final exams, no matter how good your attendance or grades. Well that kinda sux too, but at least its fair to every1.

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jen, I um, didn't know or I forgot you were from Texas; what part

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South central. About half way between Houston and Austin.

Love, Jen.

jen, I um, didn't know or I forgot you were from Texas; what part?

And I agree, too much freakin' time and money is used teaching to the stupid standardized tests. What's needed is more emphasis on reading, writing, and math skills.

But therein lies the entire plot; students cannot think for themselves. They are slaves and they are robots to the State.

The No. 1 tool of the Government to indoctrinate its subjects is the school system.

I say "government schools" because look at private/public; well, private schools are ALSO opened to the public are they not? Depending on whom, but still, it's a public school.

I say government schools because that's what they are: they're run by the government, for the government.

Privately-run schools or homeschooling has statistically fared much better in comparison to the government school system.

The USA used to be high up on all these basic learning skills; we're about 14th now.

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Oh, yes. I forgot. Every freaking reward system they set up in the schools is based on attendance, not grades or anything like that, so they can get their damn funding. Kids with D's and perfect attendance get ice cream and cookies, while those of us with A's who have missed three days get nothing.

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My school has a system in place that encourages good grades and attendance. Anyone who has, at the end of each semester, missed two or fewer days of school, can opt out of the final exam for any class in which he has a "B" or higher grade. So straight-A students who keep their attendance up can stay home on test days altogether. It's a nice system, and it works. Maybe you should suggest something like it to your school, if you're tired of what they're doing.

Yeah, don't you hate it when those kids stand up in class and they read " The car would not start ........be......because! the........*somewone whispers engine* yeah that was, ummm, fro-frozen."
It's kinda sad, one teaching assistant I talked to said that living wage here is around 17000 a yr, she now gets paid around 13000 and her salary just doubled last year (that would be like 6500 a year!)
Maybe the money goes somewhere, but we difnately need more.

Oh, yes. I forgot. Every freaking reward system they set up in the schools is based on attendance, not grades or anything like that, so they can get their damn funding. Kids with D's and perfect attendance get ice cream and cookies, while those of us with A's who have missed three days get nothing. No, I didn't want the ice cream. It's the principle of the thing. Their priorities are in all the wrong places. They cut out the Gifted and Talented program and the H.O.S.T.S. (helping one student to succeed) program (which was actually effective) to build a new gym. The THIRD gym. 400 students. Three gyms. Do the math. Plus, the HOSTS program was about the only one I've ever seen successfully teach kids to read, and since they ended it, I would bet that at least 10% of the high schoolers are actually illiterate. They cannot pronounce the word "because" when reading out loud in class. I have witnessed this on several different occasions, and it infuriates me.

Okay, NOW maybe the ranting is over.

*growls*

I hate our damn texas public school system (or at least our school.)

When even the football team writes essays that say more funding should go to academics rather than sports, you know there's a problem.

They teach the TAKS (formerly TAAS) test more than they do the actual subjects.

There are twenty five coaches to four hundred students. All of the advanced math and science courses except one are taught by coaches.

I am embittered. The texas school system can bite me. The amount of taxes people in my town pay are ridiculous, and what do we get out of it? Nada. Zilch. Zip. Zero.

Rant over. Love, Jen.

Government school...well, up here in the North, we like to call them "public schools". Unless I completely misunderstood you.

I'm a product of the government school system.

I'm a product of the Texas government school system, where it costs $6,500 - $7,000 per student to "educate" them.

I agree with you on one major thing; two actually: school districts should be doing their own thing without being mandated by the state or federal government; in fact, the Department of Education needs to be abolished because nowhere in the U.S. Constitution does it even say that department is needed (or legal).

No Child Left Behind is a big joke, and it's not just that fed money is being cut, it's that there IS no money coming from the feds for many of the programs schools have to abide by.

Rural schools are funded mainly by states; for instance, two smaller ones here where I live have about 85 percent of their budget paid for by the state.

Total privatization, if implemented fully, would actually work, because if you have, say, 500 schools in one geographic area, then the competition levels of each school would be so great, that you could attend school there for dirt cheap; teachers would actually have to TEACH in order to get paid.

The problem with schools now is that they're funded even if they do BAD.

In Texas, we have total private schools, public, and charters.

Charters are funded by the state (taxpayers). Public, independent school districts are paid for by local property taxpayers -- we cannot keep soaking our homeowners. We just can't.

And then we have high-priced private schools. There are few private schools compared to the thousands of public schools.

I haven't SEEN the effects of a totally private system, but if schools are funded via state money rather than local property taxes, I could support that.

However, also in Texas, if two or three rural districts are struggling, such as your case, then I would consolidate them.

Let's get one thing straight here: if you try to establish equity (equal funding) and freedom (vouchers), you'll end up with neither.

If we're going to make schools publicly-funded, do it statewide, not locally.

If we're going to privatize it all, then let's turn those THOUSANDS of schools into private ones.

(charters, by the way, are funded publicly, ran privately; some do well, others do not)

Because I'm a candidate for a public school board, I cannot just come right out and say, "Okay, let's just privatize everything."

I can, however, remain an advocate of fiscal conservatism. Guys, we cannot keep shouldering our middle-class and elderly, fixed-income folks with more and more taxes. We just can't.

Joey, have you never been to public school?

Well, I'm a product of two public schools. I could tell you personal horror stories about my teachers, classes, tests, etc, but I do believe I got a good education.

Believe me, Joey, public schools do need the money-- at least where I'm from. In my building, for example, the ceiling caves in on occasion, the sewage system has backed up into classrooms, and we've had school called off because the heating system doesn't work properly. There's no air conditioning, and the last list of health hazards an inspection team came up with... My school couldn't begin to afford to deal with them. I'm talking about my second school, of course. The first one was closed down due to cut funding. It faced many of the same problems.

Besides the buildings falling apart, it's difficult to attract qualified teachers, because we can't afford to pay them decently. I've had some terrible teachers-- teachers who should've been fired. But the school boards never considered firing them, because they literally had no alternatives.

And Bush has cut funding for rural schools in his budget for 2005. As far as I can tell, he is trying to choke off rural education and urbanize all of it. It's grossly unfair to the kids and parents who live where I do. Some of them have to shuttle themselves or their children 35 or 40 miles to the nearest school in the nearest city.

Public schools can and should do better; you're right about that. But they do need funds. And those funds need to be spent at the primary discretion of local officials, not the feds or the state.

Out of curiosity, do you favor privatizing education, some kind of voucher program, or some other alternative? If so, what and why?

Homework can range from average to (in some cases) overwhelming.

Some teachers are burnt-out, others are excellent and/or brilliant (example of the later: Mr. Guglimio).

When it comes to standardized tests, I honestly can't say. I have no idea how accurate they are, outside of determining whether or not a school is really failing. Quite honestly, I don't care so long as they don't just teach to the test and make other stupid decisions.