I am disgusted with Public Education. My wife and I both made careers in Ed. Things have changed a lot. Mostly for the worst. Public Education wastes too many resources trying to educate those who either can't be educated beyond a certain level, or don't want to be educated. I don't want to sound like an elitist, but the "cream of the crop" so to speak isn't being served well at all. I would guess that the ratio of spending for the lowest 10% vs. the upper 10% (in intellectual ability) is somewhere around 10 to 1. Mediocrity is encouraged. Superior intellect is punished.
I gladly write a tuition check each fall to send my sons to Christian school. That check isn't small; we could easily make the payments on two modest new cars with the money we spend on tuition. I have two primary reasons for this choice. First, I don't believe in a valueless education because education is inherently values-driven. If you don't explicitly teach values with which I agree then you are, by definition, teaching values with which I disagree. I want my children's education to be coupled explicitly with the Christian values I intend to give them as part of our relationship. (I understand that some who read this will classify me as an "extremist", which is usually a term people employ to excuse themselves from the detailed thought required to evaluate my position and proffer detailed disgreement. If this is how I am to be tagged, I'm okay with that.)
Second, the public school district in which I live (Columbus City Schools) is so corrupt and so buffoonish that I could never in good conscience allow my children to fall into their clutches. Your desription above describes nearly all (if not all) of public education; it surely describes the clown show that is Columbus City.
I asked my wife if she wanted to homeschool. Had she said yes, we would be doing it. I am also quite certain we would do a bang-up job of it because it would instantly be a passion, and a full-time job for her and a part-time job for me. But she said no, so we use an alternative.
But evaluation of the alternative we employ shows that it is only a few degrees removed from the complaints offered in this thread about public education. The private school has admissions requirements but they still cater to the mediocre in the classroom. The teachers are surely of no better quality than those found in a typical suburban public school and the administrator doesn't strike as a particularly intelligent man. I confess I don't know him well so I'll withhold judgement about his character until I do actually know him.
What's the difference? My wife and I. WE are involved in our children's education. WE write the check. WE talk to the teachers and the administration when necessary. WE review all their work that comes home. WE spend extra hours per week in the evening engaged in extra reading, writing, and arithmetic with our young skulls full of mush. WE set the standards; WE measure for compliance to the standards; WE perform work to correct deficiency relative to OUR standard.
Three weeks ago we received a document from school stating that one of our sons was selected to participate in a remedial reading program funded by the Feds. There was no place on the form to decline; rather, there was some B.S. "agreement" on the back of the form that required us to acknolwedge his participation in the program. Say what? My wife and I discussed what this meant, our principles, and what our measured response would be. My wife contacted the school administration to inquire about the test, its standards, our son's results, etc. She then met with the school's new principal who knew very little about it so he invited a teacher to the meeting who did know about it. We discovered...
... the "test" was assessed at the end of the previous school year. At least four months had elapsed since that test was administered. This meant the results were stale, at best.
... our son's teacher's assessment is that he doesn't need any remediation. This is what I thought also. I read with him at least twice per week and while he's not a stellar reader, his skills seemed age appropriate.
... the program has as lower threshold for inclusion in the private schools because the private school readers generally score better than the Columbus City students. Thus, our son wouldn't even have made the radar had he attended a public school.
We flatly declined the program. I send my kids to a private school to reduce government interference. We'll continue to work with them to achieve a level of excellence that we set and that will be reflected in their schoolwork. Not only am I capable of doing this, but really, I am the only one who CAN do it.
It's true that I don't like public education. I object to its very concept. Nonetheless, it is the system that plagues us today so my response as a parent is to ensure my children succeed despite it.
