Get your kids out of government schools

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Our students have music and art twice a week for 40 minutes each and PE three times a week for 40 minutes. The organized play in PE, I think had taken the place of recess time children used to get in school. Our younger kids get two 20 minute periods of recess a day, but our older kids are only guaranteed one. (Our boss encourages teacher to take them for a second recess as much as possible, but it isn’t always possible.) They get a library “lesson” once a week that is generally based on something they are doing in their regular class, and a second 20 minute “check out time”. Computer class is no longer a thing. We don’t even have a lab anymore. The gadgets are so thoroughly part of instruction time, a separate class is no longer useful or practical. They also get two sessions a week in the STEM lab, which is amazing! This has taken the place of regular classroom science instruction.
 
Evelyn Glennie is profoundly deaf and the first professional solo percussionist in the world, I find her sorely inspirational. I can’t post links at present, but look her up on YouTube…

How to truly listen | Evelyn Glennie
 
This sounds a bit catastrophic (especially if you just replace public schools with vouchers) but the transitional period (which could take years) would be rather… messy.
 
Are you replying to my post or the one I replied to ?

I agree with you BTW, which is why I’m confused on why you replied to me

Jim
 
The one with DavidCarm (fellow Carmelites?). Your post sounded rather catastrophic in regards to ending public schools (though I would agree there’d need to be a mechanism like vouchers for those like the poor, working and maybe the middle classes). Either way, starting from scratch would be quite a transition.
 
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Gertabelle said:
They don’t charge $20-30K a year because they offer such excellent amenities. They charge that much to exclude the middle and lower classes, to create a space for the wealthy to be separate.
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Yes, that is exactly how all upper-class niche markets work. You could call it “prestige pricing”. In some cases, sales actually go up when you raise the price. My point was precisely that this is the way that private schools currently function (generally speaking - there are exceptions), as a result of the current climate (or market - if you’re not allergic to that term). Change the climate dramatically, and you will open up a market gap, which some enterprising person could make money off of. It’s no more a fairy-tale than Walmart is.
 
I’ve heard of her. One of my deaf students is profoundly deaf and has had cochlear implants since the age of 18 months. She is incredible! They always said that those things allowed no perception of pitch and made music a very unpleasant experience, but I’m telling you right now that girl can perceive pitch. I don’t know how she does it. If she can hear it through the implants or senses it through vibration, but she can tell low notes from high notes, she can sing a melody recognizably, and she can identify and sing the notes in a major chord. (Not always the correct one or the correct octave)
 
One of our middle schools adopted daily P.E. at recess time and discovered that middle school drama plummeted: the kids were too busy to stand around and gossip! It was a great move.
 
Gertabelle said:
And what about those who cannot afford tuition?
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It would definitely be rocky for some (maybe most?). Ideally, the funds currently taken by taxation would be returned to the parents - of course those who are actually poor, and pay very little in taxes, would have difficultly. This would be a good case for personal or institutional charity.

Realistically, I don’t expect public schools to disappear overnight - although I certainly hope they are eventually phased out by the private market - I was merely addressing the question of how prices would fall. I never made the claim that they would fall sufficiently enough for all to afford it, although that is a possibility if the change were gradual enough.
 
Socrates92 said:
It would definitely be rocky for some (maybe most?). Ideally, the funds currently taken by taxation would be returned to the parents - of course those who are actually poor, and pay very little in taxes, would have difficultly. This would be a good case for personal or institutional charity.
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Why not vouchers? There does need to be an option for those in need.

To be fair to public schools, I think most are decent enough but people’s expectations for them might be rather… ambitious. For example, seeing education as a pathway or ladder out of poverty makes sense but there does seem to be social determinants that can impact success like coming from a struggling home (think single parents who try their best but only have so much time), a school can only do so much so having community supports could help.
 
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Learning appropriate social skills is also important, but requires either a lot of regulation or a commitment to deregulation. (and being okay that it won’t work for all kids and bullying is going to happen.) Having the kids run in a circle is much easier.
 
Look her up on YouTube. She says that she hears through her head, her arms, her hands… She is quite right. Our ears play a tiny part. Stand in a cathedral when an organ plays… it goes right through your physical being, no ears required.
 
And I was educated well enough (without extensive homework) to go on later and earn a bachelors’s and an advanced college degree…
 
Allegra said:
You ought to see this changing soon. “The Book Whisperer” is the biggest thing right now and kids are encouraged to choose their own books. (within reason)
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So many things in this thread predictably got my teacher blood boiling, so I was going to stay out of it until I saw this. ❤️❤️❤️ I love the Book Whisperer! So does every Reading teacher I know.

One of my favorite quotes from it:
(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
RCIAGraduate said:
I know I’m being nosy but do you think the good Catholic Schools have to be expensive or do you think a good orthodox school with a strong spiritual life, faith culture and catechism program need not be expensive. To be fair to the Diocese of San Diego, I think they’re definitely trying to promote Catholic Education (FIAT Catholic Schools, Bishop Flores Scholars), it’s just easier said than done.
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No, good schools don’t have to be expensive. The good one in our diocese I was referring to is actually cheaper than many others, and less than half of my son’s current Catholic identity school that costs 20k a year.
 
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