The classroom and the global economy are competitive, contact sports. Were I a parent or scholar in Asia, I would be thrilled to know that my competition was wasting so much time and energy on a topic that could be easily distilled down to a quick, "class, please respect each other. At school I always used the service https://ukessay.com/thesis-writing-help that helped me write thesis. Now I see all the shortcomings of the education system. Now open your text books to page one". We would still be behind the Chinese who doubtlessly skipped that first sentence and saved the time to focus on work, but at least we would still have a fighting chance.

I'm scared of what the public school system around here in northern Virginia will look like five years from now. The desirable schools will be stuffed over capacity with stratospheric in boundary real estate prices. The less desirable schools will continue to decline. It will start looking like Atherton in McLean unless they rewrite the zoning code like Palo Alto.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. It had much more challenging STEM and smarter, more driven kids.

Class size wasn't smaller, I'll give you that.

We don't believe that STEM is the be all and end all or that elementary school children should be "driven" or that there are children (or people) who are not smart.

That is the exact attitude that I am glad to be away from.

Agree with above in regards to STEM from someone who was a science major and now in the medical field. We don’t need or want our child to be in a STEM driven school or have a “STEM” education before college. A broad humanities education is more important to us. Of course this curriculum would include STEM classes. Then if the child has an interest in STEM, can major in that in college.

I cannot tell you how many people in my field are STEM focused at the exclusion of all else. No soft skills, poor writing and communication skills, no interests or conversations about anything except work, poor social and people skills. They just grind away at their job and never are the ones selected for management, director, or leadership roles.

I teach in a Title one school and very few students are on ADHD meds even though they have ADHD. Usually it is because their fathers won’t allow it. These students are all Hispanic. It must be a cultural thing. My ex DH is Hispanic and he was very opposed to our son being given medication for ADHD. Oh well. I am in charge and I know when our son is suffering.