Replies to post #18636 on Zeev's Turnips Talk Politics (ZTTP)

[sarals]

sounds like the bottomline is we've gotten lazy.

and it translates as substituting spanish for english in schools when english is the textbook of scholarhip in most foreign countries.

Now I could rant about that issue for a while. When my oldest daughter was in grammar school, they bused her to a district that was primarily latino. Many of the classes were taught entirely in Spanish even when English speaking only kids were present. The Christmas program was in Spanish. And the really galling thing was when they did testing to support the funds for all this, they included my daughter who spoke only English in the group needing bilingual help.

Frankly, I don't think they did any of those kids any favors, it only made it more difficult for them later in life.

[sarai]

brain, We are approaching the end of the school year, and we have discussed public ed many times. My littlest is in a small (warm, fuzzy), private school with very small class sizes and an individualized, developmental approach. In a very nurturing environment, his 1st grade class is finishing the year almost one full year ahead of our public school in reading and more than a year ahead in math. My child struggled a bit with reading initially but he's finishing right there with the rest of the class. And he's sad to see the school year end. We are very pleased with the school, it's education and the entire experience.

Our public school is one of those "high achieving" NJ public schools, and it has become a pressure cooker for parents and students alike, including very young students. To the defense of public ed. they have become too bogged down with bureaucratic BS, standardized testing, and have been forced get involved in issues that have nothing to do with ed. But the question is why should parents and students be tied to public ed when the private sector usually does a better job often with the same amount of money, or less??... It makes a compelling argument for school vouchers and not just for "failing" districts. But NEA and NJEA are very strong unions/lobbiests, I guess....