Originally Posted By gurgitoy2 Please, like private schools don't "indoctrinate" just as much. It's just that you disagree with what the public schools teach. I went to a private Christian school all my life, and it sure as heck was "indoctrination"...
Originally Posted By Longhorn12 I learned more by 2 years of public high school than I did during the majority of my private school days.
Originally Posted By Labuda I'm not surprised to hear that, Longhorn. When I was a senior, we had two girls transfer in from a private Christian school. Their grades at that school were near-100 and were high enough to place them at the top of our class. Then, by the end of the year they had dropped quite a bit because they weren't able to keep up with the work at my school. They ended up ranked #s 24 and 25 or so in our class.
Originally Posted By mele The opposite was true for me. It took me 2-3 years to get back up to the same level of education in public school after one year of private school. But, yeah, private schools (the religious ones) are heavily into "indoctrination". Never in public school did I feel like I was being brainwashed into anything...other than the belief that I'd need to learn geometry because it would be useful to me in my adult life. ;-)
Originally Posted By SuperDry Regarding public vs private schools: I think it varies dramatically based on the quality of the local public school system. Where I grew up, we had good public schools, and as such, pretty much the only kids that went to private schools were the ones whose parents really wanted them to go to a religious-based school. I don't recall ever meeting any of the private-school students that seemed particularly bright, and the private schools always under-performed the top public schools in academic competitions. A quick check on this reveals that it's still the case today. But in areas where the public schools are horrible, many parents that have the means send their kids to a private school, assuming they haven't just moved to a better school district. In those areas, the private schools tend to out-perform their public counterparts.
Originally Posted By fkurucz Public vs. Private schools ... Your Mileage May Vary. We have a decent to good public school district in our town, especially considering how poorly they are funded. We have some good private schools here as well as some mediocre ones. Our local Parrochial skids score high in the ITBS tests, which is not surprising as most of the kids come from upper middle class homes. The local Lutheran school isn't as good (which surpises me) and there are a few Fundy schools where they focus on the "three Rs" and teach the kids that there were dinosaurs during biblical times.
Originally Posted By ecdc You gotta hand it to Republicans, when they decide to be douchebags about something, they go all-in. Their latest move is to demonize...wait for it...teachers. Yup, teachers have been vilified (mostly by Fox News) as lazy, part-timers (they're off by 3PM, insisted a couple of talking heads) who suck on the taxpayer teat without earning it. Jon Stewart had a great, yet sad, bit on this. I don't know why I let these soulless mouth breathers keep surprising me with just how low they're willing to sink, but here we are. You heard it here, teachers: your gravy train to Easy Street has made its last stop.
Originally Posted By Mr X I'm wondering who they'll select for demonization next. They are already dipping deep into the pool for "bad guys", so deep that they're going after the folks who used to be respected and admired. The only bad guys they're skipping, it seems, is corporate robber barrons, aka "the untouchables". Who knows? When they run out of bad guys, they just might have to back track. Watch for it.
Originally Posted By ecdc Nah. Next up is probably firefighters, with the irony that it's the 10th anniversary year of 9/11 forgotten. Librarians haven't taken a big hit. There's plenty of scum left for the Republicans to attack.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^Where I live most librarians are paid about $20/hr and are not union (no pension, just a 401k). I gues the GOP won't be happy until everyone but the managerial class is paid minimum wage.
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<I gues the GOP won't be happy until everyone but the managerial class is paid minimum wage>> This is what gets me so upset - why are these people so against raising the standard of living for everyone in this country? Shouldn't that be the goal of the government - to help make our lives better, not worse? For some reason, the GOP, and even some of the Democrats, seem only concerned about making life better for the top 2% of the country, and everyone else can just go hang. It's really very sad when you think about it.
Originally Posted By ecdc I want so badly to have hope, but I am more and more convinced that we are watching an empire in its twilight.
Originally Posted By velo >>This is what gets me so upset - why are these people so against raising the standard of living for everyone in this country?<< because desperate people make better puppets?
Originally Posted By plpeters70 <<because desperate people make better puppets?>> Probably true, but what I don't understand is why they want puppets to begin with. What is the motivation behind all of this - greed? A lust for power? A little of both? I guess I just don't understand people that think this way. How could someone who already has enormous wealth want more - even at the cost of other people's happiness. I guess I was just naive, but I truly had thought we had grown beyond the "robber baron" mentality, but I guess I was wrong. There really do still seem to be people who only care about taking as much as they can, and screw everyone else. And the saddest thing of all is that they seem to have convinced an enormous amount of people that they're better off with them in charge - all while they slowly take away as much as they can from them.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>I gues the GOP won't be happy until everyone but the managerial class is paid minimum wage.<< Are you kidding? The GOP hates the minimum wage. It's socialism.
Originally Posted By gadzuux >> I'm wondering who they'll select for demonization next. << Nurses. Whadda buncha commies they are, huh? Providing direct care to the sick and wounded, devoting their lives to healing people, and tending the wounds of others. What do we need with that anyway?
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "Nah. Next up is probably firefighters, with the irony that it's the 10th anniversary year of 9/11 forgotten. Librarians haven't taken a big hit. There's plenty of scum left for the Republicans to attack." Already happening here in Long Beach, CA. The vocal "tax advocacy" groups are arguing for volunteers, saying the firefighters really don't do all that much to justify their pay and pension overall, not to mention their horrible union.
Originally Posted By SuperDry <<< Nurses. Whadda buncha commies they are, huh? Providing direct care to the sick and wounded, devoting their lives to healing people, and tending the wounds of others. What do we need with that anyway? >>> And, did you know that nurses in public hospitals spend a lot of time providing care to ILLEGAL ALIENS!
