PDA

View Full Version : You're a bad person if you don't send your kids to state schools




WM_in_MO
08-29-2013, 02:42 PM
Oh boy, here we go:
(PS cleaning it up a bit)
So now if you have kids and don't want them in the brainwashing centers known as public school and you take them out (For whatever reason) you're part of the problem.

Yea lets just ignore how badly public schooling is ran by the DOE and others :rolleyes:

SCREW YOU KIDS EDUCATION, OUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY, UNTERMENSCH

http://living.msn.com/family-parenting/the-family-room-blog-post?post=ab228ffc-1e99-4b37-a7b8-0b6a4c3fb240

Wealthy parents should forgo a private education for their children and instead invest in the public school (http://living.msn.com/family-parenting/what-to-expect-grade-by-grade?icid=blogmsnliv=blog) system. That’s the argument writer Allison Benedikt makes this morning in an article forSlate (http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/private_school_vs_public_school_only_bad_people_se nd_their_kids_to_private.html) headlined, "If you send your kid to private school, you are a bad person." Her reasoning is compelling.
http://media-social.s-msn.com/images/blogs/000c0065-0000-0000-0000-000000000000_00000065-07e2-0000-0000-000000000000_20130829154658_0829_publicschool.jpg
If all parents would send their children to public school, the schools would get better, Benedikt wrote. After all, it’s usually the parents who rise up to make changes to the system, and if more parents supported public education, well, it would get more support. Things would be more likely to change.
“Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract,” the writer argues. “Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.”

In short, if parents have an investment in the public school system, they’re probably going to make its improvement a priority.

“There are a lot of reasons why bad people send their kids to private school,” Benedikt wrote. She lists family tradition, religion and prestige as some of the less compelling reasons, but there are admirable reasons, too: a better education, solutions for learning issues, the desire for them to get a decent job.

She argues that the latter reasons are exactly why everyone should send their kids to public schools: to improve the system for everyone.
“I believe in public education, but my district school really isn’t good! you might say. I understand. You want the best for your child, but your child doesn't need it."

Benedikt writes that if you can afford private school, chances are your child will come from an environment that allows them to overcome “a perfectly crappy public school.”
“She will have support at home (that’s you!) and all the advantages that go along with being a person whose family can pay for and cares about superior education — the exact kind of family that can help your crappy public school become less crappy.”

What do you think of the argument? Are parents who send their children to private schools doing a disservice to the public school system?

DamianTV
08-29-2013, 03:00 PM
Brainwashing Techniques
http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/inside-the-mind/human-brain/brainwashing1.htm


In the late 1950s, psychologist Robert Jay Lifton studied former prisoners of Korean War and Chinese war camps. He determined that they'd undergone a multistep process that began with attacks on the prisoner's sense of self and ended with what appeared to be a change in beliefs. Lifton ultimately defined a set of steps involved in the brainwashing cases he studied:

1: Assault on identity
2: Guilt
3: Self-betrayal
4: Breaking point
5: Leniency
6: Compulsion to confess
7: Channeling of guilt
8: Releasing of guilt
9: Progress and harmony
10: Final confession and rebirth

Each of thes*e stages takes place in an environment of isolation, meaning all "normal" social reference points are unavailable, and mind-clouding techniques like sleep deprivation and malnutrition are typically part of the process. There is often the presence or constant threat of physical harm, which adds to the target's difficulty in thinking critically and independently.

We can roughly divide the process Lifton identified into three stages: breaking down the self, introducing the possibility of salvation, and rebuilding the self.

(article continues on link)

Most parents today are already brainwashed by Public Education. This is just a reinforcement of what they've already been indoctrinated with in order to get as many of each sequential generation to follow the path of Brainwashing their children. What part of the statement issued do you think fits the profile of Stages of Brainwashing? I'll highlight it for you.

Cutlerzzz
08-29-2013, 03:11 PM
Lol even the left wing slate commenters are tearing her apart.

ravedown
08-29-2013, 03:16 PM
what is the date? April 1st? this was actually published? this didn't come from a 7th graders FB post? it's an incoherent mess? what editor would allow this under their masthead?

heavenlyboy34
08-29-2013, 03:18 PM
shouldn't the OP read "Untermenschen"? My German is very rusty. :/

RonPaulFanInGA
08-29-2013, 03:19 PM
"Send your kids to a failing school to be taught by the government if you love them!"

heavenlyboy34
08-29-2013, 03:20 PM
"Send your kids to a failing school to be taught by the government if you love them!"
or the terrorists win.

WM_in_MO
08-29-2013, 03:26 PM
shouldn't the OP read "Untermenschen"? My German is very rusty. :/
Dunno, I googled it for spelling

cjm
08-29-2013, 03:49 PM
what is the date? April 1st? this was actually published? this didn't come from a 7th graders FB post? it's an incoherent mess? what editor would allow this under their masthead?

I asked myself the same questions.

Scrapmo
08-29-2013, 04:31 PM
Typical progressive. "public schools are terrible....We NEED more kids in public schools!!!"

We should all just sacrifice our children to the beast and maybe, just maybe in 50 years or so of practicing on our children, the government can straighten out the mess it created.

Scrapmo
08-29-2013, 04:36 PM
I bet her kids go to private school.

RickyJ
08-29-2013, 04:39 PM
"Send your kids to a failing school to be taught by the government if you love them!"

I wouldn't do that to my kids, but if they wanted to go for the purpose of educating the teachers and other kids then I would let them.

Natural Citizen
08-29-2013, 04:45 PM
Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract,” the writer argues. “Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.”

This is the absolute truth. One school at a time is what it takes, unfortunately. I think many (libertarians in particular) tend to think in the abstract regarding the issue with public education. The RFID thread was a great example of that. The kid stood up and fought for her rights and won. Many in the libertarian community offered no help or even a bit of interest because by default they thought in the abstract. "Oh, we don't like public education and so we don't care that her rights are being violated...it's ok if a judge sits in a courtroom and calls her religious view secular...she's on her own". But she won without them. Take it for what it's worth. because this is how it gets done. To just politicize it with viewpoints on web pages doesn't get anything accomplished. It just advertises the abstract perception and solicites others to not take the initiative to cause change from within that system. Problem.Reaction.Solution.

Legend1104
08-29-2013, 04:46 PM
Typical liberal socialist reasoning. Your child is not as important as the community. You should not just be concerned with your childs education and future but that of the communities child.

The Free Hornet
08-29-2013, 05:52 PM
Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract,” the writer argues. “Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.”


This is the absolute truth.

Being the absolute truth and being good are not the same. Charge me with a death-penalty eligible crime and I'll fight the system like nobody's business!!!!! That's the absolute truth but I would be crazy to needlessly put myself in that situation.

She's not arguing that she sacrifice nor does she state her role in improving education. AFAIK, as a non-parent citizen, I can lobby to "improve" the state-run education almost as effectively as a parent could. Certainly volunteering is an option (or does that break a union thing?). She isn't offering her own kids as state sacrifices either. She is getting on her coworkers case - possibly rightly so if they are illiberal policy wonks from Slate - for not sacrificing their own children.

Her 'absolute truth' essay is brilliant in its stupidity. The only presented alternative to ending a coercive, state-managed system is the willful sacrifice of children. I won't hold my breath ...

Also, you might note for future that private schools don't require this level of parental involvement save for a few busybodies, those with a passion and/or talent for it, and other exceptions. We outsource education like we outsource making gasoline or raising chickens. Because in those scenarios the ability to take our business elsewhere is a motivator for good. They either satisfy a concrete need with a value proposition or they go out of business (or fail as a non-profit - they go out of 'business' too). Few people would take the money a typical state-run education costs and willfully spend it at a state-run institution when superior or less costly private options are available. The university system might be an exception for many fields.

Natural Citizen
08-29-2013, 06:03 PM
Being the absolute truth and being good are not the same.

So you're saying that you don't want to fix it? And that you just want to replace it? That's not realistic.

There is no amount of lobby that will address it correctly because most are misguided and seek only control themselves. This takes first hand experience in seeing it from within the actual system, knowing and understanding what is coming down the pike and then approaching it conformingly. Much like what I've heard many say about fixing the GOP.

I think you're talking about political processes moving forward moreso than addressing education and it's shortcomings. What I'm talking about is addressing what is actually wrong with what is in place and the actual act of educating. Political lobbies see these kids as numbers just the same as the DOE in many cases do. Parents have more power than they think and I believe that lobbies act to disrupt the means for them to see that.

Teachers understand what is wrong for the most part and through them much can be accomplished up the ladder as long as parents themselves are concerned. And it's very easy in my opinion to get things done from within the education system.

The Free Hornet
08-29-2013, 06:14 PM
So you're saying that you don't want to fix it? And that you just want to replace it? That's not realistic.

I want to end it, not mend it. It should be eliminated and not replaced.




There is no amount of lobby that will address it correctly.

There are two choices here:

1) I give my opinion
2) I shut the fuck up

Not on the table is where I stick my tongue up establishment ass.



I think you're talking about political processes. What I'm talking about is addressing what is actually wron with what is in placfe with the actual act of educating.

I'm giving my opinion whether or not it is politically feasible. When/if the will arises to end coercive-funded/slave-attended education, that movement can count on my support. Don't expect me to misrepresent my opinion.



Teachers understand what is wrong for the most part and through them much can be accomplished up the ladder as long as parents themselves are concerned. And it's very easy in my opinion to get things done from within the education system.

Two things of "what is wrong" for state-employed teachers to fix:

1) End mandatory attendance (the "slave" part)
2) End coercive financing (the "wage-slave" part)

If state-employed teachers can accomplish these two simple feats, they will have earned much respect. I'll also welcome them in the private/voluntary sector where money ought to be earned, not stolen.

Natural Citizen
08-29-2013, 06:19 PM
I want to end it, not mend it. It should be eliminated and not replaced.





There are two choices here:

1) I give my opinion
2) I shut the fuck up

Not on the table is where I stick my tongue up establishment ass.




I'm giving my opinion whether or not it is politically feasible. When/if the will arises to end coercive-funded/slave-attended education, that movement can count on my support. Don't expect me to misrepresent my opinion.

Wow. That's actually a great presentation of genuine honesty in what you believe. And it's basically what more parents need to do.

This is not a movement though what the author was talking about. It's just the simple act of taking responsibility as parents and educators and getting it done. A few times I've managed to get entire classes out of taking exams. I'm not talking classes of 30 or so. I mean the whole class of whatever year it was at the time. Hundreds at a time. And then change followed. Teachers were able to prepare them properly because people spoke up. Teachers get a bad rap but they know what the problems are. Synergy must be able to function between them and parents to get things right again. But it must start with an aware minority of concerned parents from within the system itself. Otherwise the teachers just view these people as incompetent and not even concerned with what is happening. And then the teachers end up having to hear from their superiors "See?...I told you parents didn't care so now we have to do it our way". This may not be popular with people but it's the way that it is until people get with it and start becoming part of the solution at the heart of the problem and where it actually relates to the students daily life.

Now, I'll be honest here. I have very little faith in many, many parents these days and so I see where the lobbies who oppose education can slide in thereand try to assume some theoretical position of filling the void but rarely do they ever approach the act of education and it's many woes . After all, these are the parents feeding their kids every useless trinket on the free market that is designed as a weapon of mass distraction in the first place and these lobbies support the furthing of this market style of creating consumers instead of critical thinkers who would ultimately disrupt the phenomenon down the road. In fact, many of the parents now are products of the Reagan era when the lobbies were finally allowed to practice this tyranny against the natural learning processes of the youth.

MRK
08-29-2013, 06:56 PM
“Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract"

What in the world does this mean?

The Free Hornet
08-29-2013, 07:04 PM
Now, I'll be hones here. I have very little faith in many, many parents these days and so I see where the lobbies who oppose education can make assume some theoretical position of filling the void but rarely ido they ever approach the act of education and it's many woes.

You should have little faith in the parents. It is not their job to educate at the grade-levels generally. I would have little faith in them sewing their kids clothes or taking out their tonsils because it is not their god-damn job to do so. The "lobbies who oppose education"?! What? Where? Who? They don't exist as lobbies because there is little-to-no-money in promoting freedom. If you are talking about blowhards like me and the rare voice in the rare "think tank", then you are using a confusing choice of words.



After all, these are the parents feeding their kids every useless trinket on the free market that is designed as a weapon of mass distraction in the first place.

What universe do you live in? Who is teaching free market principles and what is a "useless trinklet on the free market"? Kids likely spend 40 hours a week in their state-mandated indoctrination and you compare that to some Archie Bunker shaking his fist at the establishment a few minutes each night? You're smoking something.


In fact, many of the parents now are products of the Reagan era when the lobbies were finally allowed to praqctice this tyranny against learning processes of the youth.

What exactly are you talking about? Why would you want Federal control of something you admit to be a "One school at a time" problem?

What is "this tyranny against learning processes of the youth"? What is the "tyranny"? I'm all for ending the influence of money in coercively financed endeavors (mainly because I'd like to end coercive financing) - to the extent reasonable, desirable and possible. However, I don't harbor the illusion that that particular nuance of our system is much at blame. The problems we have are not unique to us as a country so the exact nature of our lobbyists is a minor concern (IMO). If you have a plan to return DC to the swamps, I'm all ears!!!!!!!!!

phill4paul
08-29-2013, 07:09 PM
I'm a bad person because I don't like being stolen from to pay for others kids to go to a school that if I had children I wouldn't send them to. Puppy mills.

shane77m
08-29-2013, 07:13 PM
I want to be a horrible person but so far there are not any private schools close enough.

Acala
08-29-2013, 07:20 PM
So you're saying that you don't want to fix it?

Public education cannot be fixed. Ever. Why? Because government ruins everything it touches eventually. Why? Because it is corrupt at its core, being based on violence. So the solution is to kill public "education" as soon as possible however it can be done. Abandoning it is a really good way to help kill it. Every child you sacrifice to it makes it stronger. Every child you shield from it makes it weaker. Public schools are the foundation for all of the other evils perpetrated by our government. Kill it now and forever.

DamianTV
08-29-2013, 08:07 PM
Let me ask everyone a question real quick.

If you had the opportunity to Home School your children and could do it however you wanted to, would you follow the model of the Public Educational System by teaching them to be able to pass tests, or would you throw Grades right out the window and instead encourage them to think about how to arrive at an expected answer?

Maybe a better question is what could you do as a totally free person that had all the time and resources you needed to for educating your children, how specifically would you approach topics like Math, Science, P.E. Music, History, Critical Thinking, etc?

XTreat
08-29-2013, 08:15 PM
So you're saying that you don't want to fix it?

No I don't want to fix it. I don't think it can be fixed.

Acala
08-29-2013, 10:03 PM
Let me ask everyone a question real quick.

If you had the opportunity to Home School your children and could do it however you wanted to, would you follow the model of the Public Educational System by teaching them to be able to pass tests, or would you throw Grades right out the window and instead encourage them to think about how to arrive at an expected answer?

Maybe a better question is what could you do as a totally free person that had all the time and resources you needed to for educating your children, how specifically would you approach topics like Math, Science, P.E. Music, History, Critical Thinking, etc?


I would give them a role model of someone who loves to read, think, learn, and do productive things. Then I would provide them with the resources they need to pursue what interests them. And then I would get out of the way. I would try to not force MY view of what is important upon them. They will figure that out on their own. The most important thing is to not crush their natural love of learning by trying to cram them into some preconceived mold.

Rudeman
08-29-2013, 10:30 PM
Just plain idiotic. I'm tired of this passing the blame shit.

catfeathers
08-30-2013, 03:15 PM
Let me ask everyone a question real quick.


Maybe a better question is what could you do as a totally free person that had all the time and resources you needed to for educating your children, how specifically would you approach topics like Math, Science, P.E. Music, History, Critical Thinking, etc?

My son was "casually" educated for most subjects. We did a lot of different things for Science, one was a computer program to learn about electricity. For P.E. he rode his bike, climbed in the hills and hiked with his Boy Scout troop. He was exposed to a lot of different kinds of music, he wasn't interested in playing any instruments. For History he learns best from videos and video games, of all things. He learned a little German by using an online program. I mostly just used textbooks for Math and English. Strangely enough those are the classes he didn't do well in when he tested for college.

madengr
09-01-2013, 07:56 PM
Wow, what an idiot. I guess I'm double plus ungood since I have both kids in private school.


http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/private_school_vs_public_school_only_bad_people_se nd_their_kids_to_private.html



Send your kids to public school, even if you can afford private. Future generations will thank you.
Photo by BananaStock/Thinkstock
You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So, pretty bad.
I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good. (Yes, rich people might cluster. But rich people will always find a way to game the system: That shouldn’t be an argument against an all-in approach to public education any more than it is a case against single-payer health care.)
So, how would this work exactly? It’s simple! Everyone needs to be invested in our public schools in order for them to get better. Not just lip-service investment, or property tax investment, but real flesh-and-blood-offspring investment. Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract. Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.
And parents have a lot of power. In many underresourced schools, it’s the aggressive PTAs that raise the money for enrichment programs and willful parents who get in the administration’s face when a teacher is falling down on the job. Everyone, all in. (By the way: Banning private schools isn’t the answer. We need a moral adjustment, not a legislative one.)
There are a lot of reasons why bad people send their kids to private school. Yes, some do it for prestige or out of loyalty to a long-standing family tradition or because they want their children to eventually work at Slate. But many others go private for religious reasons, or because their kids have behavioral or learning issues, or simply because the public school in their district is not so hot. None of these are compelling reasons. Or, rather, the compelling ones (behavioral or learning issues, wanting a not-subpar school for your child) are exactly why we should all opt in, not out.
Advertisement

I believe in public education, but my district school really isn’t good! you might say. I understand. You want the best for your child, but your child doesn’t need it. If you can afford private school (even if affording means scrimping and saving, or taking out loans), chances are that your spawn will be perfectly fine at a crappy public school. She will have support at home (that’s you!) and all the advantages that go along with being a person whose family can pay for and cares about superior education—the exact kind of family that can help your crappy public school become less crappy. She may not learn as much or be as challenged, but take a deep breath and live with that. Oh, but she’s gifted? Well, then, she’ll really be fine.
I went K–12 to a terrible public school. My high school didn’t offer AP classes, and in four years, I only had to read one book. There wasn’t even soccer. This is not a humblebrag! I left home woefully unprepared for college, and without that preparation, I left college without having learned much there either. You know all those important novels that everyone’s read? I haven’t. I know nothing about poetry, very little about art, and please don’t quiz me on the dates of the Civil War. I’m not proud of my ignorance. But guess what the horrible result is? I’m doing fine. I’m not saying it’s a good thing that I got a lame education. I’m saying that I survived it, and so will your child, who must endure having no AP calculus so that in 25 years there will be AP calculus for all.
By the way: My parents didn’t send me to this shoddy school because they believed in public ed. They sent me there because that’s where we lived, and they weren’t too worried about it. (Can you imagine?) Take two things from this on your quest to become a better person: 1) Your child will probably do just fine without “the best,” so don’t freak out too much, but 2) do freak out a little more than my parents did—enough to get involved.
Also remember that there’s more to education than what’s taught. As rotten as my school’s English, history, science, social studies, math, art, music, and language programs were, going to school with poor kids and rich kids, black kids and brown kids, smart kids and not-so-smart ones, kids with superconservative Christian parents and other upper-middle-class Jews like me was its own education and life preparation. Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house did the same for me. In fact it’s part of the reason I feel so strongly about public schools.
Many of my (morally bankrupt) colleagues send their children to private schools. I asked them to tell me why. Here is the response that most stuck with me: “In our upper-middle-class world, it is hard not to pay for something if you can and you think it will be good for your kid.” I get it: You want an exceptional arts program and computer animation and maybe even Mandarin. You want a cohesive educational philosophy. You want creativity, not teaching to the test. You want great outdoor space and small classrooms and personal attention. You know who else wants those things? Everyone.
Whatever you think your children need—deserve—from their school experience, assume that the parents at the nearby public housing complex want the same. No, don’t just assume it. Do something about it. Send your kids to school with their kids. Use the energy you have otherwise directed at fighting to get your daughter a slot at the competitive private school to fight for more computers at the public school. Use your connections to power and money and innovation to make your local school—the one you are now sending your child to—better. Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.]

XNavyNuke
09-01-2013, 07:58 PM
Where is that whipping emoticon?

Smart3
09-01-2013, 08:21 PM
Where's the Renounce American Citizenship button?

randomname
09-02-2013, 04:38 AM
You are a bad person if you send your children to private school. Not bad like murderer bad—but bad like ruining-one-of-our-nation’s-most-essential-institutions-in-order-to-get-what’s-best-for-your-kid bad. So, pretty bad.

I am not an education policy wonk: I’m just judgmental. But it seems to me that if every single parent sent every single child to public school, public schools would improve. This would not happen immediately. It could take generations. Your children and grandchildren might get mediocre educations in the meantime, but it will be worth it, for the eventual common good. (Yes, rich people might cluster. But rich people will always find a way to game the system: That shouldn’t be an argument against an all-in approach to public education any more than it is a case against single-payer health care.)

So, how would this work exactly? It’s simple! Everyone needs to be invested in our public schools in order for them to get better. Not just lip-service investment, or property tax investment, but real flesh-and-blood-offspring investment. Your local school stinks but you don’t send your child there? Then its badness is just something you deplore in the abstract. Your local school stinks and you do send your child there? I bet you are going to do everything within your power to make it better.

And parents have a lot of power. In many underresourced schools, it’s the aggressive PTAs that raise the money for enrichment programs and willful parents who get in the administration’s face when a teacher is falling down on the job. Everyone, all in. (By the way: Banning private schools isn’t the answer. We need a moral adjustment, not a legislative one.)

There are a lot of reasons why bad people send their kids to private school. Yes, some do it for prestige or out of loyalty to a long-standing family tradition or because they want their children to eventually work at Slate. But many others go private for religious reasons, or because their kids have behavioral or learning issues, or simply because the public school in their district is not so hot. None of these are compelling reasons. Or, rather, the compelling ones (behavioral or learning issues, wanting a not-subpar school for your child) are exactly why we should all opt in, not out.

I believe in public education, but my district school really isn’t good! you might say. I understand. You want the best for your child, but your child doesn’t need it. If you can afford private school (even if affording means scrimping and saving, or taking out loans), chances are that your spawn will be perfectly fine at a crappy public school. She will have support at home (that’s you!) and all the advantages that go along with being a person whose family can pay for and cares about superior education—the exact kind of family that can help your crappy public school become less crappy. She may not learn as much or be as challenged, but take a deep breath and live with that. Oh, but she’s gifted? Well, then, she’ll really be fine.

I went K–12 to a terrible public school. My high school didn’t offer AP classes, and in four years, I only had to read one book. There wasn’t even soccer. This is not a humblebrag! I left home woefully unprepared for college, and without that preparation, I left college without having learned much there either. You know all those important novels that everyone’s read? I haven’t. I know nothing about poetry, very little about art, and please don’t quiz me on the dates of the Civil War. I’m not proud of my ignorance. But guess what the horrible result is? I’m doing fine. I’m not saying it’s a good thing that I got a lame education. I’m saying that I survived it, and so will your child, who must endure having no AP calculus so that in 25 years there will be AP calculus for all.

By the way: My parents didn’t send me to this shoddy school because they believed in public ed. They sent me there because that’s where we lived, and they weren’t too worried about it. (Can you imagine?) Take two things from this on your quest to become a better person: 1) Your child will probably do just fine without “the best,” so don’t freak out too much, but 2) do freak out a little more than my parents did—enough to get involved.

Also remember that there’s more to education than what’s taught. As rotten as my school’s English, history, science, social studies, math, art, music, and language programs were, going to school with poor kids and rich kids, black kids and brown kids, smart kids and not-so-smart ones, kids with superconservative Christian parents and other upper-middle-class Jews like me was its own education and life preparation. Reading Walt Whitman in ninth grade changed the way you see the world? Well, getting drunk before basketball games with kids who lived at the trailer park near my house did the same for me. In fact it’s part of the reason I feel so strongly about public schools.

Many of my (morally bankrupt) colleagues send their children to private schools. I asked them to tell me why. Here is the response that most stuck with me: “In our upper-middle-class world, it is hard not to pay for something if you can and you think it will be good for your kid.” I get it: You want an exceptional arts program and computer animation and maybe even Mandarin. You want a cohesive educational philosophy. You want creativity, not teaching to the test. You want great outdoor space and small classrooms and personal attention. You know who else wants those things? Everyone.

Whatever you think your children need—deserve—from their school experience, assume that the parents at the nearby public housing complex want the same. No, don’t just assume it. Do something about it. Send your kids to school with their kids. Use the energy you have otherwise directed at fighting to get your daughter a slot at the competitive private school to fight for more computers at the public school. Use your connections to power and money and innovation to make your local school—the one you are now sending your child to—better. Don’t just acknowledge your liberal guilt—listen to it.

h ttp://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2013/08/private_school_vs_public_school_only_bad_people_se nd_their_kids_to_private.html

TruckinMike
09-02-2013, 07:11 AM
Same ol' delusions OR a continued attempt at destroying the nation. Its a mixed bag of idiots that really believe along with those that are pure evil.

ClydeCoulter
09-02-2013, 07:36 AM
I noticed, yesterday, a news report that Indiana just forgave charter schools here 92 million in debt.

thoughtomator
09-02-2013, 08:54 AM
If you don't want your kid socialized with and normalized into a violent, ignorant savage, you are a baaaaaaad person.

Paulbot99
09-02-2013, 10:47 AM
When I have kids, I will be a baàaad person.

leverguy
09-02-2013, 11:28 AM
I suspect the author must have received a public education with that kind of reasoning. And in fact parents are fixing the public education system by refusing support in places where it obviously doesn't merit it. Its the free market solution that the liberal-progressive blinders prevent her from seeing.