…that is our educational system It’s run for the benefit of the administrators and teachers’ unions, not the children.
[Update a while later]
It’s not just a waste of money, it’s criminally stupid:
Skylar Torbett, also a junior, said administrators told him, “They said the candy canes are weapons because you can sharpen them with your mouth and stab people with them.” He said neither he nor any of their friend did that.
Next thing they knew, they were all being punished with detention and at least two hours of cleaning. Their disciplinary notices say nothing about malicious wounding but about littering and creating a disturbance.
“It was at 7 in the morning, before school even starts, so I don’t what we’d be really disrupting,” said Cameron Gleason, also a junior.
And they wonder why people home school.
My oldest grandson is a first grader in San Diego. My son tells me about how in his meetings with the teacher, she goes on and on about what he and my daughter-in-law are supposed to be teaching my grandson. He says to himself, “Isn’t teaching your job?” but fearing reprisal against his son, he says nothing.
So, despite paying over $5000 a year in property tax on a 1200 square foot townhouse, they spend thousands more sending my grandson to supplementary math and reading classes. They also spend a lot of time working with my grandson. To all appearances, his first grade class is just expensive day care.
And to keep cheap unskilled labour off the market.
Link formatting fail on the Update A While Later…
Department of Education total budget 1980-2009: $2.1 Trillion, wasted.
Might as well have converted it all to one dollar bills and burnt it in a furnace, at least then it would have provided some heat.
Cecil,
But think of all those greenhouse gases! Horrors!
Take the entire revenue allocated to the Dept of Education, divide by the number of students, cut checks that are only redeemable at educational facilities.
Public education is a millstone hanging around the neck of California. It ties up 40% of our total budget at a time when the state is financially sinking. To echo John Derbyshire, bulldoze the public schools, cart away the rubble and sow the ground with salt.
Let private schools compete for students and their tuition in the open market, which will drive down costs and raise the quality of education, while simultaneously ending the moral abomination of making the state responsible for the education of children (which keeps educators unaccountable for poor education and/or their liberal propagandism) rather than the parents. We’ll also be able to dispense with the nannying silliness associated with the government control of school lunches.
But there is hope, this might just happen. It might even be inevitable: http://www.davidbahnsen.com/index.php/2010/11/10/the-solution-to-all-californias-problems-is-coming/
LarryJ, there is likely very little reprisal to be expected for your grandson from a first grade teacher. A lot of teachers have educational viewpoints that align more with parents than with the administration line.
My wife taught both K and 1st grade several years ago and it was not that unusual for the parents to announce in the first parent-teacher meeting that they would not accept ANY homework assignments until their child hit the 4th grade. Most teachers are thrilled when parents come to those meetings anyway. Parent participation at those meet and greets generally means those students are going to be brighter and better adjusted socially than those students with parents that never make the time to come.
The point I was making is that my son’s impression is that the teacher expects him to do all of her job. Now, my son has been working with my grandson for years (he’s a very spoiled kid who wants for nothing and I didn’t even get to do the spoiling) but my son isn’t overly impressed with the Rancho Bernardo school system so far.
When Steven Brill (not exactly a conservative) starts tearing into the teacher’s unions, you know that people are starting to wake up. Check out his long series in the New York Times Magazine (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/23/magazine/23Race-t.html?pagewanted=all).
In Brookline, Massachusetts, Gerardo J. Martinez, principal of a public school has written parents to notify them that in January the school will begin weekly recitations of the Pledge of the Allegiance over the PA system. This is because Massachusetts law and school district policy require that public school teachers lead students in the Pledge at least once a week. Failure to do so can result in a fine of up to $5.
Included with the letter were permission slips for parents to sign to support their children “in feeling comfortable and confident in the decision on whether or not to participate.” Mr. Martinez said that neither students nor teachers can be mandated to participate in the pledge; it’s a personal choice. He also enclosed a copy of the Pledge which included definitions of its wording. “Under God” translates to “there is one Supreme entity for every citizen.”
Sarah Wunsch, staff attorney for the ACLU in Boston, is troubled by the use of permission slips. She wonders if students will be bound to participate, based on parents’ signatures on the slips. District Superintendent Bill Lumpini said they will not; the slips are intended to encourage discussion among parents and students. Mr. Martinez hopes the children will then understand why he will be reciting the Pledge once each week.