The Buckets by Greg Cravens for February 06, 2013

Paying for grades.

The handout generation.

I had some really good teachers who would make sure everyone had their paper and pens out before they got going. Then they’d say, “write it down!” Of course, in my notes there were often more drawings than actual notes. Somehow I managed to make good grades anyway.

Nothing wrong with public schools that involved parents can’t fix…well, maybe. My wife and I attended every open house and every parent-teacher conference for all 3 of our kids. In middle-school and high school we told, we asked, we begged each of their teachers to LET US KNOW if there was any change in behavior of our children, because we as parents understood sometime, some class, they each were going to sag off, stop handing in stuff, hit the wall, and we knew it was our responsbility to keep them at it, but the teachers had to let us know!!! BEFORE GRADES!!!!! Guess what? All 3 had that problem, only 1 teacher one time said anything …because, well they were good kids, they weren’t failing, they weren’t causing problems, it was just a phase. Arrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!!! Teachers can’t save all their 100 kids they see a day, so they focus on one or 2 A students to help them get into the great universities, and they focus on 1 or 2 D- students to help them pass. The rest? Those between D and A-? Can’t help everyone! Parents who see that and want to know before the problems get too bad? Eh! I like public schools, but there’s a culture problem of most parents not caring, so the ones that do, the teachers don’t understand how to involve them. And so it goes.

I think the colorist forgot that they used to have uniforms (well, white or red polo shirts) at Toby’s school.

Good question.

Hey James Padget look at comment from last night.

Complex issue. I would say that most of the challenges that face today’s student begin outside the classroom – myriad distractions, parents who don’t care enough to be involved, don’t have enough time to be involved, or don’t possess the skills that would benefit their kids, etc., etc. Still, though, it would appear that our school system could use a lot of work. “School choice,” however, as presently offered, seems to only make the matter worse. To me, “school choice” would mean, say, a traditional high school vs. a science magnet school or an arts magnet school, or traditional school year vs. year-round school, etc. Good school vs. crappy school is not a legitimate choice. If some schools in a system are clearly better than others, then any parent who cares and has time will fight to get their kids into those better schools. As a result, the kids of the more involved parents wind up in the better schools, while the kids of the less involved parents wind up in the lesser schools. This benefits the better schools at the expense of the lesser schools. If the charter schools are better than the public schools (in many cases, the verdict is actually out on that), then replace ALL of the public schools with charters, or give the public schools the same set of rules that the charters have. Don’t give the public schools death by a thousand cuts.