@Theodore
Well anti intellectualism is running rampant and everyone thinks they’re an expert from watching a few videos and seeing some memes. This, as well as the internet being full of misinformation makes our society a wonderful place to be currently (not).
@Theodore
This is also a key point. Because for those that are still delusional, I will break it down, public education in its previous and current state has always existed because society does not know what to do with people who don’t want to work.
Parents taking responsibility for their children needs to increase. I think a lot of parents look at the school as almost like daycare. And then they don’t work with their children after school in things that would help like reading or practicing math. We also need to go back to grading the actual work and quit punishing teachers for failing children because just pushing a failing child through doesn’t help anyone. And giving the power to actually discipline children back to the teachers and schools. Finally, we need an overall message shift in our culture. Being educated seems to be more negative, especially in the last decade, while being uneducated is being celebrated because we’ve decided everyone’s opinions are equal in value and weight about every subject.
@Amalia
Yes parents need to take responsibility. At this point I’m not even worried if they are working with their child on reading and math. I wish they would interact with their child. Get them off of screens. Talk to them. Teach them how to socialize and be a member of society.
@Amalia
Agreed. We focus so much on equity and equality that we can’t see the forest for the trees. It is heartbreaking that there is such a disparity among states and regions in regard to education, but the government continuing to incentivize poor parenting hasn’t worked for decades. Nothing can beat a stable, loving home where a student receives encouragement, support, and appropriate consequences. The government cannot continue to try to fix what parents are not doing. Make school school again, and simply just school. Stop being scared of parents who scream and threaten yet do nothing to improve their child’s quality of life. Parents get away with it because for the past several decades, incentivized programs have allowed them to.
@Amalia
Agree with all of this. The root of the problem is culture, not funding. The difference between different school cultures can be insane sometimes, even within the same district. At one school I subbed for, the kids were constantly disrespecting the teacher in small ways. Nothing crazy, but they would constantly talk over the teacher, be unable to focus on anything for more than a few minutes, etc. A few blocks away, the other school would have kids who never spoke out of turn, followed routines without any teacher direction, and continued routines seamlessly even under a substitute teacher. Same district, and very similar socio-economic status. Only difference was the culture. Also, the whole concept of inclusion needs to be changed. Kids that are hard of hearing, have vision problems, etc. can function perfectly fine in regular classrooms and are the students that inclusion should be for. Kids with disruptive behavioral issues and/or severe learning impairments need to be put in different classes.
Barbara1 said:
@Amalia
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I disagree. School can’t cover everything especially if a student is behind in anyway. Is it schools job to teach students to tie their shoes? Or how about left and right? Skip counting? These are basics that parents need to do with children. Also reading and talking to children at a young age will help them when they go to school but phones and iPads have become babysitters. Students are coming into the schools with lower and lower basic skills from middle class families.
@zodiac
If a students behind, they may need to move them to the correct grade. If you’re reading at a 3rd grade level you can’t be in 6th grade English.
Barbara1 said:
@Amalia
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The parents in the past might not have been able to be as educated and help their children, that’s true. But they were very serious about their children’s education. You were expected to go to school, learn everything you could to the best of your ability, and listen to and respect your teachers. Now there’s much less importance on education and we have grade inflation to mask the true degradation we’ve had. There’s an overall culture that education isn’t as important or useful as it was in the past.
Barbara1 said:
@Amalia
[deleted]
“…experts in foreign languages or history or chemistry…” Where parents are needed most, from an academic standpoint, is those first four years. Simply talking with your baby and toddler, narrating your day, and having simple conversations has a HUGE effect on their vocabulary and their later ability to read and write. Playing on the floor with them. Helping them understand and deal with their emotions. Teaching them to share, delay gratification, manipulate tiny objects, etc. All of these pieces are absolutely vital to their success all the way through their schooling. And if they don’t learn it at 3 and 4, it’s so so much harder on them to try to acquire it later.
Barbara1 said:
@Amalia
[deleted]
School would happily take care of 100% of academic needs for parents. But teachers cannot teach appropriately if children are dis regulated, disrespectful, unprepared, exhausted from not being on a proper schedule and routine at home, etc. Those are absolutely the job of parents. A parent doesn’t need to be a millionaire to be a successful parent. Two working parents can give their children what they need in terms of love and support, plus consequences and discipline. Parents need to ensure they are emotionally and mentally healthy before bringing children into the world, which at the core is at the issue of the parenting epidemic. Abstain or have protected s*x until you’re emotionally and mentally ready to have children.
The link between spending and performance is weak. On the whole, the US spends about 6% of their GDP on education. That’s among the highest of all countries, not to mention the US is exceptionally wealthy as well. Singapore is a world leader, and they spend about 3%. You can also look at places like NYC, where spending is through the roof. We’re talking half a million dollars to teach 20 kids for a month (let that sink in). They have everything a progressive could possibly want, plus immense resources. Yet not even half of their pupils meet the minimum math and ELA standards. Meanwhile states with relatively modest expenditures like Utah do quite well. The reason is that a good education is not expensive. A competent teacher, a quality textbook and children who are there to learn. That’s all you need. Fancy private schools don’t excel because of their amenities, but because the nature of their relationship with their customers ensures that the teachers and students both have an incentive to perform. The teachers don’t want to risk being fired, and the students don’t want to squander their parents’ money. When the bill is paid through taxes, people perceive themselves as not paying a penny. You can see it in their discourse, how they refer to “free” schooling and such. People don’t value things that are free nearly as much. See how much care pupils take when their pencils are freely provided by the school, versus when their parents are having to replace them.
Why are we not investing in it?? We spend $800 billion dollars a year in the United States on public ed. That’s basically our entire military budget. Meanwhile, the cheapest, and arguably most impactful difference you can make in your child’s education can be done at home. Read to your kids. Ask them questions. Make them curious. Teach them not to be shit heads.
@KnowledgeExpert1
It’s hard to teach your kids not to be shitheads when you yourself are a shithead. The question then becomes “why do we have so many shithead parents?”
Scofield said:
@KnowledgeExpert1
It’s hard to teach your kids not to be shitheads when you yourself are a shithead. The question then becomes “why do we have so many shithead parents?”
Because being a good parent is harder than being an apathetic parent (and the same goes for personal character).
@KnowledgeExpert1
I apologize for not clarifying. I was mainly referring to the federal budget on education. The states do spend about $700 billion collectively on education. The Fed supplies about $230 billion on education, of that about $180 billion goes to student financial aid for higher education. That leaves only about $50 billion in funds to spend on K-12 education and Special Education. I should have provided more context, I apologize for the lack of clarity. If you would like sources, see below. I understand I am using round numbers from data collected in the past few years, there may be some minute discrepancies to current figures. https://www.usaspending.gov/agency/department-of-education?utm_source=chatgpt.com&fy=2024 https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=66&utm_source=chatgpt.com
That leaves only about $50 billion in funds to spend on K-12 education and Special Education. “Only 50 bil.” And how effectively do we spend that money? I have lost all faith that pumping money into a broken system is going to fix it.
@KnowledgeExpert1
I agree, the system is broken. I worked in a district where the system is completely failed. Currently working in one that’s at DEFCON 2. Money isn’t the solution. When I say investment, I don’t only mean financial; I mean a willingness by the public to accept the 70 year old institution is broken and seeded with systematic discrimination, and work to fix the damn problem. My argument is the fight for a better future may need to put the spotlight on education and work to address the issues we know exist.
@JosephGeorges
I get what you’re saying in terms of alternative forms of investment as opposed to blanket budget expenditure. I’m not opposed to the government subsidizing education. Unfortunately, I think we’re eventually going to move towards some type of voucher system or tax rebate. Parents expect education to be like a service industry, so we might end up treating it that way. My prediction is that schools are going to get smaller instead of bigger. Give parents more options for homeschooling, online options, vocational-oriented schools, co-ops, etc. The traditional model is effective, to a degree, but it’s not what people want anymore.