Get the Kids Out - 0f public school

[happymommy]

I have a good hunch that you can do a very good job teaching your children. I brought my kids through fourth grade and decided that the next best step would be Catholic school until public Jr. High. My sister has brought her oldest of five all of the way up to college level. Her oldest has taken about two years worth of classes at a local reputable private university free of charge. I’m not sure how it works but being home schooled student living within a certain boundary she qualifies to attend for free credit classes….not a bad deal. So my niece is actually 18 and ready for her junior year in college.
Anyway – my sister and I were just average to above average students. With all the resources online and communities of home schoolers around ( and growing in numbers ), I’m sure you can be successful. My children are both honor students and have just about finished 4 and 6 year degrees.
First you and your husband must feel a need and calling to do so. Pray about it.

Thank you very much! We have been praying and researching, but are very torn. Our kids love to learn, they love school and I don’t want to ruin that for them. I’m not too worried about the extra stuff, our oldest plays soccer, the 2nd is in dance, plus R.E. In our town, I don’t know if this is standard or not, but homeschool kids can play in all school sports, even in high school, they can be in the band and work in the theater in High school. So I know the extras will be there. But our oldest loves science, I’m terrible at math and science. I don’t want her to miss out on learning something, because I don’t know it. We just need to pray about it and then pray some more. A friend of ours lent me her copy of Catholic Education: Homeward Bound, by Kimberly Hahn and Mary Hasson. I’m going to read it and then talk with her some more about what she uses, maybe even sit in with her a few times before we decide. I might try some lessons this summer and see how it goes.
Thank you again for you kind comments.

 

[Beautiful]

They can do it for 1/4 the cost because they are not required to education ALL children. They can pick and choose which children to educate. How many Catholic schools have complete programs (education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, etc) for autistic children, developmentally disabled children, severely dyslexic children, deaf children, blind children, wheelchair bound children, etc?

My daughter, who is mildly autistic, was kicked out of Catholic school because the teachers did not know how to handle autistic behavior and they could not afford to send their teachers to training.

Most Catholic schools can’t address special needs within their walls. New York public schools are required to outsource their help not only to homeschoolers but also to students with special needs in private schools. Your daughter would not have been kicked out of a Catholic school in NY.

Also - public schools are required to provide transportation for private school student within their district…yes - a free - tax paid bus ride to school.

 

[chinchiller]

I’m on the fence about this issue. On one hand, I am thankful for my years in public education. I was exposed to many beliefs and many viewpoints. It made me turn away from my parent’s Baptist church and start exploring my options. I bounced around from one religion to the next for five or so years (though never seriously practicing any of them). Through that time, I still prayed fairly regularly and constantly felt a pull back to Christianity, though I kept rejecting it. In the last six months or so, I’ve had a strong pull to Catholicism. I finally made the decision to find a church and start attending weekly, with the intention of going through RCIA the next time it comes around. I truly don’t believe I would have gotten here if it weren’t for my public education.

On the other hand, in my current area (not my home town), the Catholic school system (a whole system!) scores significantly higher across the board (and the public schools perform terribly). It’s so expensive though and I feel the way they go about having it paid is pretty underhanded, but I won’t get into that. I also have some close friends whose children were bullied by a teacher and the principals didn’t do anything to stop it. I’ve also considered home-schooling, but, unless I’m a stay-at-home-mom, I won’t be able to even consider it. I wish there were magnet schools here.

It really is a weighing of the pros and cons of the schools in your area.

 

[buffalo]

Most Catholic schools can’t address special needs within their walls. New York public schools are required to outsource their help not only to homeschoolers but also to students with special needs in private schools. Your daughter would not have been kicked out of a Catholic school in NY.

Also - public schools are required to provide transportation for private school student within their district…yes - a free - tax paid bus ride to school.

They could if they were funded.

 

[buffalo]

They can do it for 1/4 the cost because they are not required to education ALL children. They can pick and choose which children to educate. How many Catholic schools have complete programs (education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, etc) for autistic children, developmentally disabled children, severely dyslexic children, deaf children, blind children, wheelchair bound children, etc?

My daughter, who is mildly autistic, was kicked out of Catholic school because the teachers did not know how to handle autistic behavior and they could not afford to send their teachers to training.

They could be funded, or work closely utilizing the resources the publics have in co-operation with the Catholic School.

The issue is there is no will to do this.

 

[Lil_Cat]

I have no problem with Muslim schools as long as they respect the laws of our country and don’t try to raise terrorists or deny women’s rights.

Notice in my op I said fundamentalist Muslim schools. You would still have to let people send their kids to that school if everyone has a voucher.

Its a slippery slope.

 

[PaulinVA]

They could be funded, or work closely utilizing the resources the publics have in co-operation with the Catholic School.

The issue is there is no will to do this.

Why should I, as a taxpayer, support multiple school systems, public and private?

 

[buffalo]

Why should I, as a taxpayer, support multiple school systems, public and private?

Why should I as a taxpayer be forced to support only one? One that I happen to not like at all.

 

[mpi]

I say nobody should pay for anyone else’s education. Scrap the public school system as it is the Communist’s foothold into our lives.

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

Notice in my op I said fundamentalist Muslim schools. You would still have to let people send their kids to that school if everyone has a voucher.

Its a slippery slope.

You have a point there and the potential for abuse in Fundamentalist Muslim schools makes me uneasy. But I think this should be dealt with as we deal with potential abuse in Muslim religious institutions which are not banned in the USA. If there is reason for suspicion of terrorist ties, they are investigated by the Police, FBI, and dealt with appropriately. You may also remember the recent Church of LDS-type sect case where there was forced marriage of a minor and suspicion of polygamy. However, if the Church of LDS wants its private schools, I think they should be allowed to have them. One bad apple does not justify discarding the whole basket of fruits. There was gay child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, we hear every now and then of public school teachers having sex with their 13-y.o. students, etc. We should deal with such issues without shutting down and discarding the whole system.

 

[PaulinVA]

Well, I don’t want to sound mean, but I really don’t want my tax money supporting the Baptist school down the road or the Islamic Saudi Academy or any other of the private schools.

It confuses me when people who have taken their children out of the public schools still want services from that same system.

 

[Lil_Cat]

You have a point there and the potential for abuse in Fundamentalist Muslim schools makes me uneasy. But I think this should be dealt with as we deal with potential abuse in Muslim religious institutions which are not banned in the USA. If there is reason for suspicion of terrorist ties, they are investigated by the Police, FBI, and dealt with appropriately. You may also remember the recent Church of LDS-type sect case where there was forced marriage of a minor and suspicion of polygamy. However, if the Church of LDS wants its private schools, I think they should be allowed to have them. One bad apple does not justify discarding the whole basket of fruits. There was gay child abuse scandal in the Catholic Church, we hear every now and then of public school teachers having sex with their 13-y.o. students, etc. We should deal with such issues without shutting down and discarding the whole system.

I do think you have a point, but I just don’t know how wise it is to (essentially) give the government control over private schools. You would have to be accountable to the state for what you are teaching. The idea of vouchers seems kind of pointless to me because that government would have a hold on the entire school system, not just public schools.

I wasn’t talking about abuse in Muslim schools. It actually never occured to me until you said it. I’m just seeing the potential for terrorist cells to be paid for by the US Government all because people want to send their kids to Catholic school with their tax money. Yes, I know that’s a stretch, but I think the reason we got into this morality mess we’re in now is because we didn’t look far enough down the line. We looked short-term and didn’t consider that something good that we did today could have disastrous consequences that we didn’t think about.

I do think that each family needs to make the best decision for themselves. Just because someone goes to public school doesn’t mean that they will not have any faith. The parents are the most important teachers and should take this role more seriously.

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

I don’t stand on firm ground about the Islamic communities in the USA, I have not met them and don’t know enough about them. But with the Baptist or Jewish communities, we should recognize that they are taxpayers and if they want to handle the education of their children in their own private schools, instead of delegating it to the government and the public school system, it seems to me that they should have a right to do so. When you the taxpayer get a school voucher, you essentially receive back your own money that you paid in the form of taxes, and you bring it to the private school of your choice. It’s not that you receive a handout from the government, because you already paid for that with your taxes. To me, the current system seems unjust in the sense that it collects my tax money for the purpose of education, and then it gives nothing back to me if I choose to send my child to a private school instead of the public school system.

An interesting survey found that the majority of public school teachers in one metropolitan area send their kids preferentially to Catholic Schools. That says something to me. They know their own school system best, and they don’t trust their own children to it. They choose instead the large sacrifice, compared to their modest salaries, to put their children into private Catholic Schools.

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

I do not think the public school system should be totally abandoned and left to whither away, but why not let parents put their kids into better functioning private schools if they prefer to do so.

This system even reminds me of the blunder of Communist countries regarding the management of agriculture. They failed to recognize that private farms are more efficient and more productive. They forced farmers to cede their lands to the government, and then these farmers were invited to join government-run, centralized agricultural operations. The result was a drastic reduction of agricultural output and food shortages, because the government-run system was quite simply less efficient than the private farms that it replaced.

 

[sanctamaria17]

OK, saying most Muslims in America can have vouchers to send their kids to Muslim school as long as they “don’t oppress women or turn their kids into terrorists” is a lot like saying people can send their kids to Catholic school as long as they don’t molest children or bomb abortion clinics…

Also, if these schools are so terrible, why aren’t you doing something? At least for other parents who really have no other options? With Catholic schools shutting down, not being as orthodox, or just being too expensive (and yes, there is such a thing as too expensive when it comes to school), I bet public school IS the only option for many Catholics. I mean, we’re Catholics, doesn’t our faith call us to look out for others and speak out against injustice?

Seriously, talk to parents, join the school board, fight the good fight, but don’t turn up your nose at someone for “not being holy enough” because they couldn’t afford a Catholic school and they couldn’t homeschool.

 

[PaulinVA]

This system even reminds me of the blunder of Communist countries regarding the management of agriculture. They failed to recognize that private farms are more efficient and more productive. They forced farmers to cede their lands to the government, and then these farmers were invited to join government-run, centralized agricultural operations. The result was a drastic reduction of agricultural output and food shortages, because the government-run system was quite simply less efficient than the private farms that it replaced.

Yes, yes. We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us. How does this apply to public schools? They pretend to teach us and we pretend to learn? No, I think public schools are better than that.

 

[mpi]

Yes, yes. We pretend to work and they pretend to pay us. How does this apply to public schools? They pretend to teach us and we pretend to learn? No, I think public schools are better than that.

Public schools are liberal indoctrination centers. It is the home of anti-catholicism. The very attendance of a secular institution like this for 30+ hours a week sends a signal to children that Catholicism is secondary, and that God is secondary.

We both agree that religious educational institutions shouldn’t receive a dime in government funding. We can see how gov. funded religion is working in athiestic Europe. Where we disagree is that I think that all public school teachers should be fired and that I should get to keep my tax dollars. I think people should find their own way to educate their children. This would lead to the church educating more Catholics, instead of the socialist teachers.

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

Public schools are liberal indoctrination centers. It is the home of anti-catholicism… I think people should find their own way to educate their children. This would lead to the church educating more Catholics, instead of the socialist teachers.

Yes, when I hear that the teacher in a CA school took the 8-y.o. kids on a field trip to attend a “gay wedding”, it makes me wonder: is this the best possible use of time and my tax dollars? Is this why really poor European and even African countries have a better education as measured by SAT scores and other parameters, than the USA (talking about the first 12 grades)?

 

[PaulinVA]

Where we disagree is that I think that all public school teachers should be fired and that I should get to keep my tax dollars. I think people should find their own way to educate their children. This would lead to the church educating more Catholics, instead of the socialist teachers.

Some people, unfortunately, couldn’t educate their children if their lives depended on it.

Your plan would kill the American Dream of bettering oneself and doing better than the generation before. You would just fling the disadvantaged onto the street. Don’t you know that in some school districts half of the children get their only good meal every day at the local public school?

No, public education isn’t perfect. Since private schools follow the same educational model, they aren’t extremely different, from that point of view.

So, I agree we need to revamp how we handle education in America - but it’s how we educate, not necessarily who is doing it.

 

[buffalo]

Some people, unfortunately, couldn’t educate their children if their lives depended on it.

Your plan would kill the American Dream of bettering oneself and doing better than the generation before. You would just fling the disadvantaged onto the street. Don’t you know that in some school districts half of the children get their only good meal every day at the local public school?

No, public education isn’t perfect. Since private schools follow the same educational model, they aren’t extremely different, from that point of view.

So, I agree we need to revamp how we handle education in America - but it’s how we educate, not necessarily who is doing it.

And the existing plan is one to brag about? The results are dismal. 47% of Detroit adults are illiterate. The solution is always - more money.