Dennis Prager’s book on Hard America, Soft America sheds some great light on this problem.

Realistically, I’d say that no one is unteachable if held to account. And yes maybe parents have to be dragged kicking and screaming into participating or risk punitive curtailments of their ‘rights’ & freedoms. Perhaps, everytime little Johnny gets a D, the parent(s) have to pay a fine equal to 1/10 of their monthly income. This is but just one option to be tested and explored.

Just as a gardener has to prune a tree to maximize the output, there has to be a way to prune away the factors that marginalizes the education process.

For starters that means raising standards and enforcing discipline. Students are not ‘little people with valid perspectives’ or whatever the catch phrase du jour may be. They are children to be shaped and molded. In the case of black kids, that means ‘acting white’ or suffer the consequences of not applying themselves to the 3 Rs.

As long as we have the let-it-be culture, there is no imperative for them to exert themselves. Would you rather a small percentage get hit with this bitter truth or 50% of the student body obliviously drifting along to a life of shortchanged hopes and dreams? Which is crueler?

At this late stage we have had at least 2 generations critically damaged by the liberal elites. Of course any course correction will involve hard decisions and yes even pain. But to let things drift along for another generation or two is unconscienable, not to mention a drain on society at large.

http://www.issues-views.com/index.php/sect/1000/article/1017

Thanks for your comments..I am also the daughter of a public school teacher and and am amazed at the vitrolic comments aimed at teachers, who simply are trying to do their best under the circumstances they are dealt with. Does my mom have plentry of complaints about the administration, the union and uninvolved parents? Sure she does, but she still doesn’t write off the CHILDREN, even the ones deemed unreachable (which often translates to POOR AND MINORITY) by some of the folk on this thread. I remain in awe of being with my mom in public settings and how past students will come and tell my mom hello and how much they appreciated her trying. Quite often, after the past student has left my mom will mentioned how that person gave her HELL in the classroom.

I guess you never know how you will impact someone do you?

And to those who think some children are unreachable/unteachable, thank God you chose another career path.

Competition is the key. It makes us all try harder. What would your response be La Shawn to those who worry about fractionalization of America into say Christian, Muslim, Liberal, Conservative…etc. via voucher funded schools?
How could that be avoided, or do you think it should?

Right now, even though I believe it is changing somewhat, our schools and colleges seem to be fully gov’t funded liberal run schools without competition. The problem.

I am not bashing Chrisian education. My original post was about ‘private schools’ which should not be ( and I did not intend to mean) exclusivly Christian.

But as a Christian (which I proudly am), I do not see any child (we are talking about children) as un-reach/teach-able. And a weird thing popped up as we took this rhetorical journey…the idea that some were/are doomed to fail.

This is the main divergence of the Public/Private school mandate. The public school-woeful as SOME are, has a mandate to teach ALL children, without regard to what their home or personal situation may be. WHEREAS the Private school benefits from being free from that burden.

In pointing out that one gets to choose its students, AND has the benefit of parents who get to choose the school (thus showing a level of involvement,) I was not demeaning the success of CHRISTIAN schools. I was pointing out that the two differ in operation as well as mandate.

You got a little defensive because you read private to mean Christian; and while all Christian Schools may be private, ALL private schools are NOT Christian. There was nothing in my original comment to suggest such a thing; beyond your determination that I am a liberal (a wrong determination, I must add).

My point about you taking the “higher paying public school job” was intended to show the irony of the words higher.paying.Public.School.Job- which seems almost oxymoronic.

The truth in this lies in the middle. Many Private schools do a fine job educating their students (on average) and perhaps the worst private school is better than the worst public school; but one must acknowledge that the two are very different. I never said ‘you have it easy because you teach in private school’, though that is exactly what you inferred from my comment. I stated that to SOME degree the two differ. A point that I think you acknowledge, because of the level of defenses that went up.

Renee- You are right, my ‘welfare’ statement created a negetive connotation and gross generalization that is wrong and was unintended. You took me to task on that matter, and I apologize.

All my other points, though, are right on the money. As economically conservative as I may be, and believe you me I am, I do not think that the market is equiped to handle some social situations. At least not in a developed nation.

What some have suggested on this blog harkens back to before the founding of this country.

Another question is parental invovlement. Much as WW alluded to in his piece that LB highlighted, there are many things that were taught in the home by most everyone in the past. Parents have a duty to educate their children at home and not leave all the education to the “professionals.” Too many children are showing up to school without that education from home that is so needed. Therefore they start way behind, have a desire to fit in and not have attention drawn to their shortcomings and presto…..behavior problems. But of course, as long as parents have a bailout program (fed govt.), then many will have little or no interest in taking education seriously at home.

Note that I am talking about some parents, not all!!!

BTW, private schools are less agenda driven (not any less political), and I will for sure take a job at a private school in the future than return to public education. My experiences have taken whatever naivete I held about being a difference maker in public schools and turned it on my head.

I hope we can ALL work together to solve our education problems.