American Education, yet again.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

That's very absolute of you, GC...

Fortunately, history has also shown that it's very wrong. You see, it's not that long ago you had such a national reform of every nook and cranny of your educational system. This was after the Russians launched Sputnik, and the US threw a hizzy fit over their inadequacy. This resulted in sensible educational policie, ie. gathering all the professors in one place and letting them fix everything.

So, all you need to do is wait for China to have some major breakthrough, and you'll have a proper educational system again.

So all we need is another Cold War with its fears of being annihilated? Easy Peasy!

By the way, Horetore, USA education in the late 1950s was predicated on fewer than 1 in 5 needed college and a heavy emphasis on science and the (USA label) 3R's

[HoreTore]

So all we need is another Cold War with its fears of being annihilated? Easy Peasy!

By the way, Horetore, USA education in the late 1950s was predicated on fewer than 1 in 5 needed college and a heavy emphasis on science and the (USA label) 3R's

Yeah. This terrorism nonsense isn't going to do it. You could try giving Al-Q some ICBM's with nuclear warheads, that should but The Fear back in Washington.

If not, I guess hoping for another Mao with scientific know-how and an aggressive foreign policy is your best bet.

The increased focus on science was one of the direct results of what I was talking about btw.

[Kadagar_AV]

3.) clone Horetore. Public schools needs passionate teachers probably.

They also need objective ones, not on some socialistic neo-feminist crusade.

[Riedquat]

CAÑON CITY, Colo. — A Colorado Springs 6-year-old was suspended from school this week for kissing a girl on the cheek and hand, according to a report.

Something is so wrong.. I, living in a third world country never imagined a thing like that could happen here...

HoreTore said it all in the OP... I'm speechless!

[HoreTore]

They also need objective ones, not on some socialistic neo-feminist crusade.

I know you struggle with the concept of being able to have several conflicting ideas in your mind at the same time, so I will simply leave you with a quote from Aristotle:

"It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

[Kadagar_AV]

I know you struggle with the concept of being able to have several conflicting ideas in your mind at the same time, so I will simply leave you with a quote from Aristotle:

"It is the mark of an educated man to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it."

For that to be applied though, you need to be an educated man. Your thoughts also need to be entertaining, and vice-versa.

[HoreTore]

Your thoughts also need to be entertaining

I rest my case.

[Kadagar_AV]

If you quote, at least quote whole sentences. The meaning of the sentence often gets lost otherwise.

I thought you'd know that, but you went to teachers college, aight?

With that said, your thoughts actually WOULD be better off if they were entertaining. It would of course still be the same drivel, but at least it would have some comedy value.

[The Lurker Below]

Actually, you end up getting a decent (if not world beating) wage and a fairly good retirement package.

All you have to do is play the bureaucracy's game by its rules, put in your years at your repetitive little hamster wheel of learning, and not rock the boat.

So I like you well enough but the honesty and truth of this statement makes me want to throw up on you. Dodge quick!

[Noncommunist]

I'd say I'm doing just fine in college despite the public school system, not because of it. Either way it sucks.

You only have two options though: 1.) Reform based on the latest science regarding how people--especially young children--learn things. This reform would need to be expensive and thorough, and free from reactionary interference. So it probably won't ever happen on a national level. Which is good, because even on a state-level there are really no particularly great public school systems. We not only need new techniques, we need new bureaucratic institutions that are more efficient than the ones we have now in pretty much every way. Daunting task on a state level, impossible task on a national level.

Or... 2.) Screw the poor, only educate those who can afford private schooling. Some will yell and scream about vouchers, but that could never replace the public school system without massively overcrowding and reducing whatever debatable quality advantage private schooling actually has.

Bottom line is it sucks. Even should a state have relatively good public schooling, our nation-wide system for higher education is far from adequate. We'll always have the best elite schools, and I don't see why we shouldn't always have the best private elite colleges (after all they're not hurting anyone), but the average community college is just pathetic. The whole educational system needs rebuilding, and it won't happen until some states pass sweeping educational reforms that actually work. Only thing that will happen nationally is maybe some kind of student loan relief.

What if we were to ban private schools and homeschooling? Then rich people would be forced to place their children in public schools and would have a far greater incentive to improve the schools which might lead to many of the reforms mentioned.

[Montmorency]

Children in private schools tend to do well because they come from well-off families, not because their private-school educations are so much better.

Case in point: public high-schools are very well represented on lists of top high-schools in the US.

[HoreTore]

Children in private schools tend to do well because they come from well-off families

Indeed.

The only advantage a private school has, is that it can happily ignore the shifting political winds of the complete idiots who make up the so-called "education debate"(which is nothing more than a collection of the clueless determined to prove their ignorance). Whether this is good or bad depends on whether or not said private school is run by people with brains, however.