Ack, I of all people should know better, I never read the toss, but then never expected I would come close to abusing it myself. One really doesn't think about the time consuming ordeal of having to find and delete the problem posts and search out the others. I will remember that in the future before I blow my top. sorry Boss, go easy on my punishment, did I mention I'm old and post menopausal? Ya ya no excuse.. lol

Boo, that was probably not about you. You're... kind of sweet, even when you're arguing, because you're arguing your true position, that has no hidden agendas, and are quick to admit if you have been wrong.

This isn't offensive. True and confident. I can live with that.

I think three 12 week sessions with 3 weeks or a month inbetween would be better than two 18 week semesters with one long summer between them..

i think it would also help do away with the year-behind students.. if you are born after such and such a date in the late summer/early fall, you have to wait a whole year before you can get into kindergarten. at least that was the case where and when I grew up. may be different now.

nonetheless kids would be able to get into school without having to sit out that extra year. mid-semester arrivals wouldn't be such a big deal..

I think there's alot of upside to it.

that said, I don't think it's ther domain of the federal government to make that decision. 9th and 10th amendments.. it should remain in the hands of the states.

it would be good for the state of education for students in all the states to view themselves as consumers of education rather than subjects as they're often treated and schools as service providers that compete for students. parents ought to be able to choose where to send their kids to school public, private, or charter. schoolss that can't keep their student body intact because of administration or poor teaching standards or practices get out-competed, dry up and eventually closed down..

wasn't the california prohibition overturned?

apparently, california law states that all kids must be taught by accredited teachers...including those that are home-schooled. i'm glad, however, that they chose to rethink their position on this one. every family has a different dynamic, and as such a difference in approaches is needed. some kids just learn better in smaller environments, or maybe they can't handle the rigors of school.

my inability to home-school has more to do with the fact that i'm a single mother and have to work to feed said kids.

i know that our community has discussed year-round-schooling several times...and we're still considering it.

so far, one of the major holdbacks seems to be non-custodial parental visitation.

Ok bare with me here.

Many of you are concerned about government involvement in schools, well the thing is I have never known it to be any other way, and I am almost 60 years old. Why is it such a feared thing all of a sudden?

You guys also say you are concerned about finances and the cost of education so why are we making things so complicated with private, charter etc. I don't understand why we would have to have so many options for parents to deal with. Dont we want a society where people learn to live together in some sort of harmony?

Why not have public schools where the education is equal to a private school. It seems to me that it's not 'always' better to have more choices, it's more confusing and more difficult for parents and the kids, no? Not to mention unequal due to finances and geography.

Everyone is so worried about what their particular children are going to be exposed to. To me that is strange, because in the end these kids need to be aware of reality, it's no wonder we adults don't understand each other, we have all been separated by our own parents fears of this or that, so we grow up already disliking half of society.

I went to both catholic school and public school, in 9th grade I was in public school twiddling my thumbs literally because I already knew the material. So yes catholic school was more advanced, but tell me why public school can't be as well. And why do these charter schools pull money away from public schools. Oh and what the heck is a charter school anyway?

When I was completely out of school and on my own I discovered what I did not learn in catholic school and frankly that bothered me, it's as if my parents did want me to learn certain things like things about science, so I would be completely unprepared for an adult conversation about such things. I sometimes think we are all at fault for the way society is today, paranoid and frankly a bit off our rockers in some ways.

Everyone is so concerned about indoctrination but that can be said about private schools and heck you can be indoctrinated in your own home. I know I was.

Aw shucks now you have gone and done it, you've blown my cover. How will I defend myself now. I was kinda getting used to the idea of having a record.. grin.

Thanks NoGames, that was nice of you to say but I really did blow my cool, though probably not sufficiently enough to have me thrown into the Mingle jail house. Yet.. ack!! Lulu is going to send me to anger management for a undetermined amount of time that should straighten me out..

There are quite a few home schooled children in my area.

The public school system in my city has lost their accreditation.

One of the counties outside of my city has year-round schooling like you described. I do believe it's something 3 months of school and one month off of school.

the "merit system" although it sounds nice...would be entirely to difficult to implement, monitor, and Im sorry but if our principals NOW arent able to tell If a teacher is making progress in educating our children....then why have principals and a school board??

I agree with the concept of an incentive based program to inspire teachers...but is money currently the only inspiration for these teachers???

(i have a cousin who is a teacher...so im thinking NO)

and longer days and more days at school....decrease family time significantly...which IS very important and Obama doesnt need to diminsh the importance of the family unit.

my plan...give the kids more homework...challenge them and make them think. go ABOVE these national designated standards of where our children should be at...and send the work HOME so that they ask their parents questions...
kids (are people) they learn different ways. classroom education is insufficent becase thats all teachers really do. take it outside of the classroom.

more time at school??? shoot give them more homework. expect MORE out of them. change the grading system.

Cat,

What you said is good. I do see a problem though.

You said, " ..and send the work HOME so that they ask their parents questions... ".

That will be a big problem when the parents are high school drop-outs themselves. There are even parents that can barely read.

Just a thought.

He has NOT thought it through. Won't work. Just another bunch of EMPTY fancy words coming from the mind of a mindless wannabee dictator. Need to get rid of this one badly.

well he has to get it through congress first right???

How do you suggest doing that?

He was voted in with the majority popular vote and won the electoral vote by a landslide, btw.

and even with those that CAN read...many can't do complex mathematical equations (and they are constantly changing the way things are done. if you have a child that is learning matrices for multiplication, you know of what i speak.) nor have any understanding of history, spanish, certain sciences...and while a parent may be an expert at one field, they might suck at another.

for instance, i'm perfectly capable of tutoring my kids in the biological sciences, chemistry, physics, algebra, trig, calculus, composition, and psychology...but i'm completely lost in anything history-related or in physical science.

toss in that a seven-hour-day is plenty long enough. seriously, school is already a full-time job for these kids...they don't need the overtime.

the kids learn things early on in school these days that most of us didn't learn in later school years. there is no way i could do alot of the things they have....not to mention some of the teaching methods are different than in my day.

my son is ADD and he learns different than others. i don't always understand how the teacher wants it done any more than he does

Alabama has already experimented with 12 month school and 10 month school and both resulted in a higher drop out rate...Im sure other states have tried the same but Im only fimaliar with where I work. The teacher merit system is a good idea but the biggest problem with education in my state is too many dollars spent on independent stidies and too many supervisory positions and too few teachers, aids and support personel..In some departments we have more supervisors than workers..Our best experiment and most sucessful as far as the student was when we reduced classes to a 20 to 1 ratio with and aid present..Test score, attendance, and cooperation was at an all time high in the schools that participated and then we elected bob riley and he waved this program to use the funds to study and supervise why this was working and how to improve it more...If you have to chose between paying a teacher or paying a supervisor the child is better off with a teacher..But kids dont vote and by the time they do theyu have lost sight of reality.

Lulu,

I'm in the same boat as you.

I've taken College Algebra and can't help my child with the metric system. Also, they are learning math in a different style then I did. I don't always know the way that the teacher is teaching it.

My child is taking Spanish. I can't help much there either.
I am a computer illiterate. My child takes ArtTechnology/Adobe Photoshop in elementary school. I can't help there either!

okay yea your right...the homework thing coudl become a prolem. I do wish the school would break up social groups and enforce more diverse study groups for instance. and give them projects.

idk everythng Obama said was impossible to implement to me. I was just trying to toss up some ideas in MY head.
NEXT


my children already...i have no complaints with their school system. except my daughter is at the age where children start to get lost (in a boy...in drugs..which would cause her difficulties later in life)(i guess this isnt really a complaint about the school system)

shes smart..and she doesnt apply herself beyond what she HAS to do make her b's. she doesnt want the "smart kid" label i think.

i am NO education expert....but lemme tell you the problem as I a parent see it.



Puberty (omg..ima close my eyes and it truly WILL be over), bad peer influence, lack of effective discipline at the home level, drugs, neagative outside influences such as good ole britany spears, Rhianna, and of course RAP music....and all it talks about.

to correct the problem...one needs to figure out exactly what is wrong.


I do NOT blame the teachers or the schools. as far as I see they do a good job