Public Schools

Children don't go to public school to "get saved." They go to school because their parents want them to be able to get a good job and because the govt requires some kind of schooling and because public schools mostly function as government child care. "Winners" and "losers" refer to economic/social classes, not saved and unsaved.


>so you do it to the best of your ability and the providing for you or your family is takes care of itself, or in reality, the Lord takes care of it.

OK, agree. But "best of your ability" is more a theoretical goal than a practical day to day outcome. No one gives 100% 100% of the time. Life must be balanced between work, play, and rest. In my line there was ALWAYS overtime or outside work available. I'd ask The Wife if she wanted more money and she always declined. I always told her to keep spending until the money ran out but it never did. I think God rewards by causing one to be satisfied with an old car and whatever.

I know people who have retired on 50% more than my pension and are still holding down two jobs. Boggles my mind but I thank God that they are working hard and paying much in taxes. <G>

That being said The US is still the best country in the world and there is no economic reason why anyone should live in slum conditions unless they are recent immigrants.

Before WW1 the only people who went to college were those who didn't need a job because daddy was rich. Even doctors and lawyers apprenticed themselves. Between the wars things got technical and engineers, etc needed college. After WW2 the GI Bill let millions go to college. They went to get good jobs, not to be educated, and that started our big middle class.

When I graduated from HS 90% of the available jobs were open to HS grads. Now days 4 year degrees are dime a dozen and soon one will need a degree to drive a garbage truck. Read someplace that this recession, people who never finished HS are in better shape than people with 4 year degrees.

 

So you believe that soon it will take a four year college degree just to drive a garbage truck...

...but people who never finished highschool are in better shape than people with four year degrees?

That makes sense to you?

And you deign youself capable of deciding who is a "winner" and who is a "loser"?

 

Or, become a machinist! Now, we get so much of our manufacturing done in foreign countries, it is becoming a lost art.

 

I enjoyed teaching high school. I was lucky because I had a terrific admin who would stand behind me and didn't go in for all of the liberal "you don't want to hurt their self esteem" nonsense. He also had no problem telling the union to go take a hike (although his words to them were much saltier than I should repeat here), which endeared him to me pretty much immediately.

Our VP was a Marine who was a pretty strict disciplinarian and who encouraged us to come up with "creative" discipline.

Detention didn't really get the message across and suspension is really nothing more than a couple of days off. What kid sees that as a punishment?

So instead of detention, we would assign the kids to cafeteria duty (which they found extremely embarrassing, standing behind the counter in a hair net and serving pork and beans to their friends), or to Saturday clean up detail, in which they had to give up six hours on a Saturday to work under the maintenance staff. And the maintanence guys always saved the dirtiest, most disgusting jobs for the students.

The worst part of this was that, in New Jersey, high school football is played on Saturday afternoon, not Friday nights like the rest of the civilized world. So while they were cleaning toilets, they could hear their friends across the street, cheering and screaming and having a good time.

That said, I ran my class like a college class. I gave them a syllabus on the first day and explained to them that my classes are not hard, but do require that they work. I showed them more respect than they were used to getting from adults and I held them to a much higher standard. They knew that I would do anything to help them, but wouldn't accept any disrespect or disobedience from them.

Because of that, I had very few discipline problems and had a lot of success with them.

We're currently homeschooling our own children and I've often thought about going back to teaching when we're done.

Kids today are just so out of control and the boys, especially, need role models.

 

Being able to read, write in English, and do arithmetic will always give a great advantage over those who can't.

That being said, these days, for many students, it takes an additional two years of junior college to get a high school education. I think that high unemployment will be around for many years, maybe until WW3. Now that we have a service economy <G> many of our rotten paying service jobs - bank teller, store clerk, shelf stocking - need some ability in the "three rs." Under conditions of high unemployment, if an employer can get a person with 2 years of college for the same cost of a high school graduate he will hire the college person.

BUT junior college is CHEAP CREDITS! A kid with something on the ball can get almost a year of credits by taking APCs in high school. A legit 4 year school is NOT cheap. The typical 4 year college grad (which takes 5 years for most kids these days) will NEVER break even in times of high unemployment when considering costs plus lost work time. The only decent jobs a 4 year degree will get you are GOVERNMENT jobs.

A kid shouldn't waste time in college unless he know what he wants to do and it requires at least a master's. The average kid would be dollars ahead by finishing high school and getting a good UNION apprenticeship, electrician, plumber, crane operator . . . Even truck driving school should have a better pay back than 4 years of college and college loans.

The public school boards around here claim there goal is that every kid who WANTS to go to college should be able to go. That's plain crazy! Half the money in the public school system should go to trade schools.