Grading the Public Schools

[SouthKona]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

My God. I agree with Tim!

It is almost unbelievable ..... but I DO TOO (well, 95% of it).

[timkona]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

I keep trying to convince you idealogues that I am the first RepubliCRAT of all time.

[SouthKona]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

you idealogues

Thank goodness the world has not tilted out of orbit after all, now TimKona and I are back in disagreement again.

[timkona]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

It should not be surprising that you would agree with several of the positions I take on several different issues. The world is not RIGHT or LEFT. It is both, depending on the issue. And I am not "middle of the road" on any issue.

You gotta read "The Bell Curve". Put's the institution of education in a whole new light.

[SouthKona]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

It should not be surprising that you would agree with several of the positions I take on several different issues.

Actually, it is not that I so often disagree with WHAT you are saying, as HOW you are saying it. (Please, no PC lesson).
But, let's not go there, we are getting along so well for now.

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

I graduated from public school. Spent my entire K-12 existence in them. Was surrounded by many gifted kids, had good teachers, and experienced enough rigor that I was bored in many of my college classes.

My children attend public schools (Hawaiian immersion/PCS). The staff is committed and the parental involvement is quite high. Aside from the legislative and administrative hoops that the schools endure, I am satisfied with the degree that my kids are being challenged and developed.

Sweeping statements of our public schools as failures ignore the bright sides.

[TuNnL]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

The kids must get the basics of behavior, discipline, morality, as well as the 3 R's. If the former is not available in the home, that makes it even more imperative that it become the standard in schools. We can have basic morality without the interference of the "god" thing. But we cannot have basic morality in the schools if the teachers are continually stripped of their authority and absolute power.

While recently I have actually sided with timkona on certain things, I believe this is his first post that I completely agree with - 100%. This micromanagement thing by the BOE of the DOE has really spiraled out of control.

[damontucker]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

so TuNnL then...what are your 3 R's?

[TuNnL]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

Readin,’ wRitin,’ and Running Computer programs?

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

Readin,’ wRitin,’ and Running Computer programs?

How about:
Readin,’ wRitin,’ and HawaiiThReads?

[waioli kai]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

In addition to the single Hawaii public elementary school attended over the past ten years by my children is another elementary school in the district where I and my wife have occassionally taught. As a teacher and parent experiencing such direct HI public education experience, my current position of teaching two different required high school science courses to mostly 9th and 10th graders has resulted in my possession of some very mixed opinions regarding the public education system in Hawaii.

Assigning a grade to each elementary school I would give each a B+, while for the high school where I teach, into which these aforementioned two schools' students are headed, I would grade it with the same leniency I grant too many of its/our students: a D-, and that is being gracious.

As no doubt in so many of our public high schools, classroom discipline is a big problem. For those students who care not one wit about being "left behind", those students should either be put in a disciplinary-work bootcamp for a few months and/or turned over on a full-time basis to our society's workforce: either one of or both such experiences should then be sufficient to allow such would-be students the experience they need to make a well-reasoned choice about whether or not they want to take advantage of the 12years of free education our society affords them.

[timkona]

Re: Grading the Public Schools

As no doubt in so many of our public high schools, classroom discipline is a big problem

That's what I keep saying. And it's also what 4 of my friends who are teachers consistently say. Only takes 1 brat to screw up an education for 27 other kids.

And thanks to soft-shelled political philosophies for the last 30 years, teachers have been stripped of their absolute authority in the classroom.

Please refer to my signature for further explanation.