Future of Education

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are miserable. Schools are full of problems. What could be done to revamp public education? How about privatizing education and giving people vouchers for online schools, homeschools, or privates? Could there be some radical change in the next century or will the system remain as is? Thoughts or ideas?

Privatizing is what the conservative are trying to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay teachers more. Better pay = better teachers.

It’s more the parents who are in a position to change things.

But listen. The majority of school systems don’t have a lot of high or even moderate earning but checked out white collar parents, who could just get a little more involved or come down a little harder on their kids behavior and then everything would be wonderful. The majority of school systems have overworked and overwhelmed parents at best, and absent or abusive parents at worst. Never mind the language barriers. Kids are being essentially raised by the streets in many cases. So I guess you can say, oh it really is the parents in many cases. But you absolutely can’t rely on the parents to improve the quality of the schools and the quality of the students. It isn’t happening. But those kids still deserve a good education so they hopefully don’t end up like their dead beat parents.

This is an honest statement. My kid attends a Title 1 and is having a great experience with great teachers. My kid also has two committed and loving parents, a safe and happy home, food, access to healthcare, no drug use or guns in the home, etc.

I mean, if you could waive a magic wand and make sure all kids had that, it would be awesome. But it will never happen, and there is no amount of "you need to shape up and be responsible" that will make it happen. And you can't police/jail parents into it because then you're just adding to the discord and trauma in the home, right? The parents might deserve it in some cases but it doesn't actually help the kids.

One thing I've realized is how many of the kids at our school have parents who are straight up too young and immature to be good parents. We know some parents who are a total mess, but we also know the grandparents (who do a lot of the parenting) and they are respectable middle class people. The parents had kids as teenagers, sometimes multiple kids with multiple people, they are simply never going to be functional parents. It was over before it began.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you really, truly think that parents are at the solution, I highly recommend supporting very robust sex education programs, and freely available birth control and abortion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay teachers more. Better pay = better teachers.

It’s more the parents who are in a position to change things.

But listen. The majority of school systems don’t have a lot of high or even moderate earning but checked out white collar parents, who could just get a little more involved or come down a little harder on their kids behavior and then everything would be wonderful. The majority of school systems have overworked and overwhelmed parents at best, and absent or abusive parents at worst. Never mind the language barriers. Kids are being essentially raised by the streets in many cases. So I guess you can say, oh it really is the parents in many cases. But you absolutely can’t rely on the parents to improve the quality of the schools and the quality of the students. It isn’t happening. But those kids still deserve a good education so they hopefully don’t end up like their dead beat parents.

This is an honest statement. My kid attends a Title 1 and is having a great experience with great teachers. My kid also has two committed and loving parents, a safe and happy home, food, access to healthcare, no drug use or guns in the home, etc.

I mean, if you could waive a magic wand and make sure all kids had that, it would be awesome. But it will never happen, and there is no amount of "you need to shape up and be responsible" that will make it happen. And you can't police/jail parents into it because then you're just adding to the discord and trauma in the home, right? The parents might deserve it in some cases but it doesn't actually help the kids.

One thing I've realized is how many of the kids at our school have parents who are straight up too young and immature to be good parents. We know some parents who are a total mess, but we also know the grandparents (who do a lot of the parenting) and they are respectable middle class people. The parents had kids as teenagers, sometimes multiple kids with multiple people, they are simply never going to be functional parents. It was over before it began.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you really, truly think that parents are at the solution, I highly recommend supporting very robust sex education programs, and freely available birth control and abortion.

I’m a secondary teacher and this is correct.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are miserable. Schools are full of problems. What could be done to revamp public education? How about privatizing education and giving people vouchers for online schools, homeschools, or privates? Could there be some radical change in the next century or will the system remain as is? Thoughts or ideas?

Privatizing is what the conservative are trying to do.

The vouchers won't be sufficient to cover a decent education. Maybe if you're okay with indoctrination, it will be subsidized. Also, this helps offset costs for the wealthy who rely on private anyway to avoid mixing with the poor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pay teachers more. Better pay = better teachers.

It’s more the parents who are in a position to change things.

But listen. The majority of school systems don’t have a lot of high or even moderate earning but checked out white collar parents, who could just get a little more involved or come down a little harder on their kids behavior and then everything would be wonderful. The majority of school systems have overworked and overwhelmed parents at best, and absent or abusive parents at worst. Never mind the language barriers. Kids are being essentially raised by the streets in many cases. So I guess you can say, oh it really is the parents in many cases. But you absolutely can’t rely on the parents to improve the quality of the schools and the quality of the students. It isn’t happening. But those kids still deserve a good education so they hopefully don’t end up like their dead beat parents.

This is an honest statement. My kid attends a Title 1 and is having a great experience with great teachers. My kid also has two committed and loving parents, a safe and happy home, food, access to healthcare, no drug use or guns in the home, etc.

I mean, if you could waive a magic wand and make sure all kids had that, it would be awesome. But it will never happen, and there is no amount of "you need to shape up and be responsible" that will make it happen. And you can't police/jail parents into it because then you're just adding to the discord and trauma in the home, right? The parents might deserve it in some cases but it doesn't actually help the kids.

One thing I've realized is how many of the kids at our school have parents who are straight up too young and immature to be good parents. We know some parents who are a total mess, but we also know the grandparents (who do a lot of the parenting) and they are respectable middle class people. The parents had kids as teenagers, sometimes multiple kids with multiple people, they are simply never going to be functional parents. It was over before it began.

So I guess what I'm saying is that if you really, truly think that parents are at the solution, I highly recommend supporting very robust sex education programs, and freely available birth control and abortion.

I’m a secondary teacher and this is correct.

I agree with this but would add that some of the grandparents who are raising them aren’t all “respectable middle class people”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are miserable. Schools are full of problems. What could be done to revamp public education? How about privatizing education and giving people vouchers for online schools, homeschools, or privates? Could there be some radical change in the next century or will the system remain as is? Thoughts or ideas?

Privatizing is what the conservative are trying to do.

The vouchers won't be sufficient to cover a decent education. Maybe if you're okay with indoctrination, it will be subsidized. Also, this helps offset costs for the wealthy who rely on private anyway to avoid mixing with the poor.

There's no limit to the size of vouchers. Even a small amount can make the difference to many parents who otherwise wouldn't be able to choose between schools the way richer parents can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are miserable. Schools are full of problems. What could be done to revamp public education? How about privatizing education and giving people vouchers for online schools, homeschools, or privates? Could there be some radical change in the next century or will the system remain as is? Thoughts or ideas?

Privatizing is what the conservative are trying to do.

The vouchers won't be sufficient to cover a decent education. Maybe if you're okay with indoctrination, it will be subsidized. Also, this helps offset costs for the wealthy who rely on private anyway to avoid mixing with the poor.

There's no limit to the size of vouchers. Even a small amount can make the difference to many parents who otherwise wouldn't be able to choose between schools the way richer parents can.

Sure, governments have unlimited funds, and $10,000 makes it easy to pay for a $60,000 tuition.

[Anonymous]

We have to start leaving some kids behind. We are spending 80% of our resources on 20% of the kids who aren't even trying and who actively ruin everyone else's educational experience. I grew up in a small upstate NY town and smart kids got kicked around by the thugs so they had to dumb themselves down. And before wokes start screeching racism, our school was 99% white. Thugs come in all colors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have to start leaving some kids behind. We are spending 80% of our resources on 20% of the kids who aren't even trying and who actively ruin everyone else's educational experience. I grew up in a small upstate NY town and smart kids got kicked around by the thugs so they had to dumb themselves down. And before wokes start screeching racism, our school was 99% white. Thugs come in all colors.

+1 I have some extended family in an upstate NY district, they get free breakfast and lunch for all students because so many would qualify anyway. It was never a good area but the drug crisis hit hard. And it’s strongly majority white. Same story in many small towns throughout the Midwest and Appalachia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have to start leaving some kids behind. We are spending 80% of our resources on 20% of the kids who aren't even trying and who actively ruin everyone else's educational experience. I grew up in a small upstate NY town and smart kids got kicked around by the thugs so they had to dumb themselves down. And before wokes start screeching racism, our school was 99% white. Thugs come in all colors.

+1 I have some extended family in an upstate NY district, they get free breakfast and lunch for all students because so many would qualify anyway. It was never a good area but the drug crisis hit hard. And it’s strongly majority white. Same story in many small towns throughout the Midwest and Appalachia.

Yep. When I was in school, so many of us got free lunch that no one even knew lunches weren't free for everyone everywhere. I support free lunch for everyone and a few other programs that are proven effective. But wokeness is simply making things worse for most kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have to start leaving some kids behind. We are spending 80% of our resources on 20% of the kids who aren't even trying and who actively ruin everyone else's educational experience. I grew up in a small upstate NY town and smart kids got kicked around by the thugs so they had to dumb themselves down. And before wokes start screeching racism, our school was 99% white. Thugs come in all colors.

This is something that's not understood by most people over 40 who don't work in classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have to start leaving some kids behind. We are spending 80% of our resources on 20% of the kids who aren't even trying and who actively ruin everyone else's educational experience. I grew up in a small upstate NY town and smart kids got kicked around by the thugs so they had to dumb themselves down. And before wokes start screeching racism, our school was 99% white. Thugs come in all colors.

This is something that's not understood by most people over 40 who don't work in classrooms.

If you have kids complain about how much time the teachers spend with certain kids instead of teaching, you understand

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are miserable. Schools are full of problems. What could be done to revamp public education? How about privatizing education and giving people vouchers for online schools, homeschools, or privates? Could there be some radical change in the next century or will the system remain as is? Thoughts or ideas?

Privatizing is what the conservative are trying to do.

The vouchers won't be sufficient to cover a decent education. Maybe if you're okay with indoctrination, it will be subsidized. Also, this helps offset costs for the wealthy who rely on private anyway to avoid mixing with the poor.

There's no limit to the size of vouchers. Even a small amount can make the difference to many parents who otherwise wouldn't be able to choose between schools the way richer parents can.

Desirable schools would just raise tuition by the amount of the voucher. Just imagine the grounds or library if a school could charge 100k knowing half would be paid by taxpayers

[Anonymous]

We have to come to grips with the idea that schools can only do so much. So much time and money has been wasted on fads that mostly benefit academics, admins, and consultants.

Most of the time we’d be better off directing those funds toward a child tax credit or expanded EITC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pay teachers more. Better pay = better teachers.

It'a more than money. They need respect and time to plan and teach. They need parents to parent and if kids are constantly disrupting then admin needs to send them home. The behaviors are ridiculous in classrooms.