7 Reasons to Say Goodbye to Teachers Unions

[QuantaFille]

I think he may have been confused, thinking a "charter school" was a Christian school, because I have heard the same wrong accusation there.... I have worked in Christian schools - we DELIGHTED in taking the problem children, because that's where you could see the biggest change.

That's what I'm thinking too, that he must be confusing the terms for another kind of school. No way we're talking about the same thing.

[DesertBerean]

It would be very interesting to see if all the forced homeschooling has any effect.

[Starlight]

Perhaps you need to widen your sources of reading materials.

Difficult to get much wider than google.

Perhaps you guys need to stop assuming that what happens in your local neighborhood is necessarily the case right across the US.

[Cow Poke]

Difficult to get much wider than google.

It's the same principle as GIGO -- it depends on what search phrases you use.

Perhaps you guys need to stop assuming that what happens in your local neighborhood is necessarily the case right across the US.

Perhaps you ferrners need to stop assuming what we assume!

[Cow Poke]

It would be very interesting to see if all the forced homeschooling has any effect.

One of the things I have heard numerous times is that parents are horrified at the things their students have been learning.

[DesertBerean]

One of the things I have heard numerous times is that parents are horrified at the things their students have been learning.

Wow.

[Cow Poke]

Wow.

Anecdotal, of course, but I have two families in my Church who decided they're going to homeschool - not go back to the public school - because of...

A) math teaching is horrible
2) historical revisionism is astonishing

We have a couple of tutor sessions for math to help students "unlearn" and "relearn" how do do math.

[Thoughtful Monk]

Difficult to get much wider than google.

Perhaps you guys need to stop assuming that what happens in your local neighborhood is necessarily the case right across the US.

This is why I try very hard to only talk about my neighborhood. I have a good idea of what's happening there. The further away I go, the less I know for sure.

Which does bring up the question: why does a New Zealander think he knows anything about what goes on in the US?

[RumTumTugger]

I'm not sure that Congressman is considered a profession although more than a few have made it one.

I've got a study from a few years backs in my notes that I haven't got around to downloading from my previous computer that found that teachers lead the professions with school-age kids in private schools followed closely by doctors and lawyers.

I"d be interested in seeing that study do you have the link or is that one of the things you need to download? I think it would Go over Starlight's head though.

[rogue06]

In my city, I can't think of a single charter school I've seen on the "good" side of town. Not any. They are all in poorer areas where the behavioural issues are substantially worse.

Pretty much the same in Atlanta. When I look at a map of where they are located within city limits there are only two or maybe three anywhere near the more affluent areas. The other eight or nine are in much poorer areas with nearly half of them within a mile or so of some of the rougher projects.

[rogue06]

It's totally possible the area you live in is unusual in this regard. The articles I've read about charter schools nationwide in the US all say the opposite.

It's even more possible that the sources that you cherish and trust have yet again fed you a whole bunch of codswallop.

It appears that if you're well off and don't want to send your children to the local private school your alternative is almost always private schools. For those with considerably less income the alternative is charter schools. That's why you don't seem to find charter schools in affluent areas very often but instead find them closer to poor and working class neighborhoods.

[DesertBerean]

Maybe what we call public schools are actually private schools etc. to Starlight, like in the UK. I still don't understand how that all works.

[QuantaFille]

Maybe what we call public schools are actually private schools etc. to Starlight, like in the UK. I still don't understand how that all works.

Rational Gaze explained it to me. Let me see if I can remember.

Used to be, the only schools available were for the kids of nobility and aristocracy. Then came along schools that anyone could go to, that weren't restricted to certain social classes. You still had to pay of course, but any lower class family that could save up the money could send their child to school. Hence, "public school" because it was open to the public. Then, even more recently, came along government funded schools that were also open to all social classes but you paid for tuition via taxes instead of directly to the school. But people were so used to calling the non-government-funded schools "public schools" that the name stuck.

[DesertBerean]

Rational Gaze explained it to me. Let me see if I can remember.

Used to be, the only schools available were for the kids of nobility and aristocracy. Then came along schools that anyone could go to, that weren't restricted to certain social classes. You still had to pay of course, but any lower class family that could save up the money could send their child to school. Hence, "public school" because it was open to the public. Then, even more recently, came along government funded schools that were also open to all social classes but you paid for tuition via taxes instead of directly to the school. But people were so used to calling the non-government-funded schools "public schools" that the name stuck.

Thanks QF. That does make sense.

[Starlight]

Maybe what we call public schools are actually private schools etc. to Starlight, like in the UK. I still don't understand how that all works.

In New Zealand in the system I am used to, state school = public school = standard free schooling that the vast majority of people attend, private school = expensive elite school that kids of rich parents might go to. As far as I am aware, the US follows loosely that same grouping.