Stupid, Stupid Public Schools & Stupid, Stupid Small Town
Greetings from the backwoods, from a public library because very few people here bother to get with the times and get internet access. I got bored and ventured into the library, which always aggravates me. So, on to the rant.
I wouldn't even be here if it weren't for the ludicrous requirements of public schools nowadays. Some who know my previous situation understand how much public schools get on my nerves. I wish we were still homeschooling, but life happens, and you have to bend with it. Dante went back to school today. I have never met his teacher, so I figured I'd pop in, offer to help out for the rest of the school week, blah, blah.
We-ell. Apparently you can't just pop in anymore. The old crone who turned out to be his teacher told me, "I don't think you can do that." Immediately, my spine crinkles up and my first thought is "Oh, really?" I don't like being told what I can and can't do. Pushing that aside, I asked in my sweetest white-person-business-voice, "And how can we make it so that I can?"
Principal's office and Board office visits later, I've discovered how I can pop in and read a book to my child's class. I can take a TB skin test and get a background check cleared by the FBI, and they'll be happy to let me help out in the classroom. My explanation that it didn't take that much to give birth to the child, why should it take that much effort to see him fell on protocol ears. I've been given security clearance by the FBI twice in the past four years. While I'm sure that also means they have a file on me (paranoid, much??), those times don't count because it hasn't been done within the last year. Grr. Teachers like to bitch because parents don't have as much involvement in the classroom as they want to see. Well--when you have such a ridiculous procedure, I'm sure it puts most parents off the process.
It didn't seem to matter that I sat through the entire breakfast period with him, surrounded by children. But if you want to go in and watch that teacher, you'd better get clearance. Idiots. Additional stupidity includes the fact that once I have cleared the check, it stays on file FOREVER, meaning all I have to do is clear it once and get it in their files. Then, I can go murder people and rob banks, and it won't matter--they'll never check up on me again. If you're going to be that persnickety about your rules, at least be logically consistent.
I suddenly realize what a ridiculous wish that is. Scratch that. I'll just deal with the dumbness as it comes.
I have an afternoon appointment with her to discuss Dante, meet the teacher, that kind of thing. I'm sure she'll fill my ear full of how he talks too much, socializes too much, blah blah. That's his personality. I'll probably respond with two questions. First, has she ever considered ways of incorporating that skill of teamwork into her lesson plans (from her looks I bet those plans haven't changed since 1957). And second, why didn't she send a note home about Dante getting beat up on the playground before Christmas break? We get notes home about the most mundane things like how he gets up to sharpen his pencil too many times (hello, body/kinesthetic kids NEED to do that to stay on task). But when something serious happens, they shush. I'm trying to calm down, as I have to be there in two hours, and I'd rather not go to jail this afternoon and get myself permanently barred from the school. Hmph.
So, to avoid destructive behavior, I went directly to my transexual buddy salon owner with a cup of McDonald's coffee and tried to get my blood pressure under control. Lu's place is very calming, and I get $200 cuts for an absolute steal, not to mention the designer things I get access to for having gone to high school with her and being a decent person. She has a special high end boutique that's not open to the public and by invitation only that she takes me to with the keys and lets me shop by myself. It's addictive. It's also calming, so I kvetched there for several hours.
Then I took to the only internet connection in town and headed for the public library. The same building where you can't utter a whisper, but the old biddy behind the desk will talk at top volume about the local gossip of the day. She's still rattling on. I so don't care about her sinus problems. This library is so out of date that the travel books on the shelf (things like Let's Go and Lonely Planet) have information about how to travel on the border of the iron curtain. For fuck's sake.
They don't do interlibrary loans, and the only hope of getting new books into the library is to donate them yourself. Stupid backwards town. I didn't bring my card in, so I was concerned about having to argue my right to be a public visitor on the internet in a public building. Fortunately, she remembered my family, named them all, in fact, and if that were a problem, the woman on the computer next to mine immediately said, "Oh, hi, Virgil. I'll vouch for her."
Ye gods. You can't do anything in this town without knowing the secret handshake and having it verified by others who can vouch that you belong here somehow. I've been giving the town the secret finger since 1995.
--Virgil
posted by contemplator at Wednesday, January 03, 2007
21 Comments:
This is why I am so in favor of deregulation, because of horse shit like this. You know what also burns me? The fact that public schools don't allow their kids to INDEPENDENTLY, VOLUNTARILY pray in school. That is a clear violation of civil liberties. The ACLU has betrayed its Civil Libertarian Roots, and gone into politically correct communitarianism.
Don't get me wrong, I am fully against SPONSORED prayer, led by the teachers. That would be a clear endorsement of religion by the state and municipal governments. Other things that really irritate me about public schools nowadays include the fact that many subjects, like art and science are being taken out of classrooms. Our students are being turned into worker-serfs, designed to study for and pass standardized tests. In fact, I will let you in on a very dark secret: The Public Schools were originally created because corporate lobbyists WANTED the children to be turned into obedient workers, back in the early 20th century. Luckily, good minded people, such as Huey Long and FDR stepped in and reformed it to a certain degree, but only to a certain degree. But in the past couple of decades, the trend seems to have slowly reversed.
In addition, there are so many schools, especially in the south, that spend millions of dollars on sports, taking money away from actual education, making basketball players and especially football players into royalty. To top it off, these pampered jocks domineer over their schools, making the other students into virtual servants. Totally ridiculous. If you saw 'Friday Night Lights', you would know what I am talking about.
Unfortunately, if you go the home schooling route, things will be much more difficult. You cannot of course, home school and work at the same time. I have a cousin who is going to home school, but she is a certified teacher, and has actually taught in public school for a year or two. She is one of the rare types of people who I have no problem of home schooling with, because she has actual experience and knowledge. I am not saying that YOU don't have any, just saying that SHE does. I think schooling is very complex and difficult, and don't believe that the average person should be home schooling any more than the average person should be performing hear surgery on themselves.
Mad Dog, I'd disagree with basically everything you just said about homeschooling, and I'd really try to do it in the nicest possible way. Childhood learning is the most natural and the easiest possible thing a parent can help their child with. The idea that education is hard or takes a degree/experience is completely mistaken. Children exit the womb learning, often developing a vocabulary of several thousand words, with no measurable effort on the part of any "teacher," before they ever reach school age.
Second I would disagree with the suggestion that kids can't pray. A prayer, according the Bible I'm familiar with, is a very personal thing and can be as simple as thinking a request to the god of your choice. Perhaps what you meant was that the school won't let the kids make a display out of their prayer, kneeling in the aisle for example. I'd wager that many voluntary and independent prayers are offered throughout the school before every single test or quiz. The schools may not allow you to force others to pray, but they certainly can't stop a child from offering a prayer to their deity of choice, assuming the prayer doesn't interrupt the class time.
Sam, when it comes to home schooling, how does one know that a particular parent is any good or not? What kinds of checks and balances exist to ensure that the children recieve a proper education? How do you know whether or not the parent is a total wack-job, like Charles Manson or David Koresh? Would you really want someone like that homeschooling a kid?
I am sure that there are many home schoolers who might possess more teaching skills than public school teachers, but from what I have heard, many of them are fundamentalist christians, who refuse to teach their children science, and also teach them revisionist history, usually in ways that place a positive spin on how America is a 'glorious christian nation' and all that jazz.
Studies have been done on home schooled students, and have found that many of them lack knowledge in many areas, and also lack social skills from lack of interaction with other students.
In regards to school prayer, you seem to fundamentally agree with me, meaning that you are against prayer if it is forced upon others, but suppportive if a kid does it on a purely voluntary, non-coercive basis.
How do you feel about what I said prior to the topic of home schooling?
Mad Dog, in your original comment,you ask the question about what really burns you then state in answer, "The fact that public schools don't allow their kids to INDEPENDENTLY, VOLUNTARILY pray in school." That sounds to me like the knee jerk reaction that too many christians have about school prayer, the suggestion that we liberal atheists demand that no child pray ever within the the walls or on the grounds of the public school. Perhaps I misread your intended message.
I have to disagree with you about homeschooling yet again. Part of American freedom is the acceptance by each and every individual of their own responsibility. Sometimes that means that people unqualified to do certain things must be allowed to do those things.
The public schools should exist as an option, no more and no less. They should not be a requirement ever. I don't want kids to fall through the cracks, but it happens in homeschool environments and to a much greater extent within the public school system.
A very small percentage of homeschooled children have the sorts of problems you describe. The majority of studies done involving homeschooling actually indicate that the problems you mention are virtually nonexistent. The socialization question especially has been proven to be a fallacy put forth mostly by people unaware of the reality of homeschooling.
The social environment of the public school system exists nowhere else in life but within the confines of the public school. Only in public schools are we segragated based on age with no thought given to maturity or ability of the individual. Furthermore, what time does there exist to socialize in school? My kids have a social life that involves friends of various ages as well as adults of various ages.
By no means am I a Christian or a Conservative. I only support the right of all to practice their religion, provided that it does not infringe upon the rights of others.
The Following is an excerpt from http://www.adl.org/religion_ps_2004/prayer.asp
"May students pray? Students have the right to engage in voluntary individual prayer that is not coercive and does not substantially disrupt the school's educational mission and activities. For example, all students have the right to say a blessing before eating a meal. However, school officials must not promote or encourage a student's personal prayer. Students may engage with other students in religious activity during non-curricular periods as long as the activity is not coercive or disruptive. In addition, while students may speak about religious topics with their peers, school officials should intercede if such discussions become religious harassment. It is essential that private religious activity not materially disrupt the school's educational mission and activities. Personal religious activity may not interfere with the rights or well-being of other students, and the threat of student harassment and pressure must be carefully monitored. It is also critical to ensure that the religious activity is actually student-initiated, and that no school employee supervises or participates in the activity. Any school promotion or endorsement of a student's private religious activity is unconstitutional. "
This is my view on school prayer. Of course, if the school is private, then is does not matter to me whether or not the school condones/endorses/sponsors prayer.
I support the right for all to home school their children. I just one you are one of those folks who would not want to bring an end to public schools.
correction: I just HOPE one you are one of those folks who would not want to bring an end to public schools.
I would like to see an end to the public school system as we know it, but my ideas for what would work well as a public school system would never actually happen. I'm not against the idea of a public school, I just don't think they know what they are doing in regards to how children learn, and I think the entire system, like too much else in our country, is dominated by playing to the lowest common denominator.
And thank you, Virgil, for letting us take over your comments. Thank you for not kicking us out.
Um, hold on a second.
Last I checked, private schools cost $20,000 to $30,000 per year, which is roughly the same amount of money that the average american worker makes.
Suppose the kid only has one parent, works a minimum wage job, just to pay the bills? Suppose that parent did not have time to home school the kid, nor had the money for private school?
By the way, there's nothing to worry about from Contemplator. She and I are good friends.
You know what, Sam? Disregard the last comment, except for about Contemplator.
I just noticed that you said in a previous post that public school should be voluntary, which is something I also support.
Contemplator, I'm just glad you're back.
As I don't have kids and have been homeschooled or in "church"/"private" schools my entire life, I don't have much to input on these comments except that, from my own experience, I feel that I missed out on a lot when it came to education. I am smart and just finished college with honors(after a 16 year absense). My entire education before college was from a "Christian" perspective and I feel that I learned more in my 3 years of college than I did my entire 12 years of schooling before college. I don't think all homeschoolers have it wrong, but I am opposed to those that slant history or any other subject to fit their own religious beliefs instead of just teaching the facts. What a shock for those kids when they get to higher education (unless they go to a college that follows their beliefs as well) and hear the real and whole story.
Kari, I just visited your blog and I think it looks really nice. Did you design it?
Mad Dog, Thanks for the visit. I did not design it. It's a Google blogger template, which now gives you the option to change the colors, fonts, and the position of things on the page. Glad you liked it.
Sam--hey, if somebody learns something, I'm not going to stop them. :) I'm with you all the way on your explanations of homeschooling. I think it's rather silly to throw up arguments about whether a parent is "fit" for schooling their child when we don't have tests for determining whether a person is "fit" to become a parent in the first place. Moreover, most pubic schools aren't "fit" to be handling the children that come to them anyway. It's a parent's right to do what's best for their kids.
Mad Dog: just so you know, lots of people work and homeschool. And lots of people make a success of it. Some people I know even band together on certain subjects so that single parents can work while their kids learn. Then the single parent takes a turn at something to help things even out. That's human ingenuity. When you want something badly enough, you'll figure out how to make it work. Stop selling homeschoolers short! The studies you claim to have seen (and failed to cite, incidentally) do not represent the homeschooling experience I had with my son nor that of the 50 families or so that were in our homeschooling group. HSing isn't a rigid formulaic thing.
Oh, and incidentally, while we may be friends, I've known Samuel longer. I trust him to represent himself well, and even when he gets pissed, it's still great to watch!
Kari: I, too, feel that I learned way more in college than I ever did in public school. I think it was mainly because I was in charge of my own education; I had more interest in those things I chose to pursue.
"When you want something badly enough, you'll figure out how to make it work. Stop selling homeschoolers short!"
If you read my comments, nowhere did I say that all or even most homeschoolers are inferior to public or private school teachers. But you do have to admit that some are probably better than others. All I did was present some worst case scenarios. You come across as quite angry here. Am I reading this right?
I have no doubt in my mind that you possess good teaching skills. But I think you should admit to me at least one thing. You are not the average mother. You are a highly educated and motivated person, with a charitable and understanding personality. You possess more education than most people. You also teach college classes on a regular basis. Do you see where I am getting at?
I support a parent's right to home school, but I also support the existence of public schools. Perhaps it is because I come from a superior school system in Trumbull, Connecticut, in affluent Fairfield County that I am so biased in favor of public schools.
I will admit that I have been spoiled by it's quality. I think that because I have seen an example of a healthy and productive school system, and now notice that most of the rest of the schools in the USA are substandard, I feel that the solution is to reform the schools, and emulate the stronger ones. Europe also seems to have some good schools.
Your next question will probably be "Where the hell is this money going to come from?" My answer is that if we stop paying to protect wealthy nations that can afford their own armies, get out of Iraq right now, end corporate and giant farm welfare, end no-bid military contracts and end the war on drugs then there will be plenty of money left over to fix the schools. The best way to direct the money is to give it it to the teachers to provide incentives for those with more talent to stick around, especially in the inner cities.
"Oh, and incidentally, while we may be friends, I've known Samuel longer. I trust him to represent himself well, and even when he gets pissed, it's still great to watch!"
Look, I'm not trying to compete for attention here. This is not a personality conflict, at least not on my part. I only want a rational discussion on the facts and nothing more.
Your comments verbatim:
Unfortunately, if you go the home schooling route, things will be much more difficult. You cannot of course, home school and work at the same time...I think schooling is very complex and difficult, and don't believe that the average person should be home schooling any more than the average person should be performing hear surgery on themselves.
I only get "angry" when people start talking about things they know nothing of, and then defend their generalities without admitting that they could be wrong. What on earth do you know about homeschooling, hon? By saying "of course", you imply authority that you do not have. I've homeschooled. Samuel continues to homeschool. Ask him whether or not they're spectacularly educated and wealthy (and Sam, if you are, be generous!). I won't get into a debate about whether or not I'm a fantabulous mother. But most of the people in our homeschooling group were fairly average, whether they wanted to believe so or not. It's quite possible to homeschool with only a high school education and a working class income. I've seen it done and continue to know people who do it to this day.
I agree with your assessment about making public schools better. But my child shouldn't have to be the guinea pig. For that matter, even if they were fantastic, and most of them aren't, your experience isn't the norm, I would still expect my right to educate my child myself if I chose to do so. Public schools as they stand need to evolve into something else. No one disputes that. So the argument needs to resolve with handshakes all around.
Your comment about the fact that I'm your friend so there is "nothing to worry about" got under my skin. Particularly since you and Bambi have clogged up one post with your ridiculous fights back and forth, specifically after I asked you both nicely not to. I've known Samuel's internet personality for a while, so I know how he represents himself even when sorely tested. It's not about competing for attention. But you will notice that Samuel thanked me (not that he needed to, really) for letting the two of you discuss something on what is essentially my space to discuss things.
You're still a guest in my house, you know.
Haven't you people learned? Don't screw with someone who has a link to a dominatrix site on her blog.
Justin--I've actually got other links that I haven't taken the time to sidebar yet.
Curious?...
Curious and slightly terrified. :)
Mwa-ha-ha-ha! Perfect...
Incidentally, are you up for moving Baldwin Beers to Connor Coors on Wednesday night after class? I know it's a corny name, but it was spur of the moment...
ooooo HELLO! 8-)
I support the right to home school. I don't see why everyone thinks I say otherwise.
Contemplator, I am sorry about the friends comment. I did not mean to come across as taking you for granted. I only wanted to explain to Samuel that you are usually quite a tolerant person, and don't usually come down hard or heavy on those with dissenting opinions.
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