Public Schools - Bad for American Students?

[Relambrien]

slipstrike, did you even watch the video?

Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

A: There will be a couple "Elite" schools with the higher classed students which means there will be the other schools which will be filled with the "worse" students which brings those schools to be 10 times worse than public schools are now.

Whoever said students would get varying amounts of money tied to them based on their economic standing?

Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

B: Everyone jumps aboard the schools that actually CAN make their circumstances better and the other schools that cant fizzle out and die from lack of students to support their funding. This would lead to there ONLY being a couple schools which brings a spacing issues and would eventually lead right back to the point they are in right now.

That's the -point-. The bad schools either improve or disappear while the good schools persist. As for spacing, then just limit the number of students who can go to each school based on space and use a lottery to determine which get in. The bad schools will still have less students, as if a school is the fourth best, the three above it will fill first.

Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

Second of all, you are kidding yourself if you think that teachers are "almost immune to being fired" because i have seen several teachers fired in my public high school over the past couple years.

Once again...did you watch the video? Did you see the teacher firing process shown in it? If not, please look at it.

Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

Third, maybe a FEW public schools are in bad conditions but for the most part they are doing exactly what they are designed to do. Teach us discipline and work ethic so that we will do well in our jobs. When you think about it, all the schools actually do is teach us how to function in the world of work so that we arent thrown into total anarchy. The fact that we learn somewhat irrelevant things during the whole thing is just a plus.

And that's the whole -problem-. Schools are only teaching us what we need to survive, not what we want to learn. "The fact that we learn somewhat irrelevant things during the whole thing is just a plus." This makes me angry. If we just needed to learn work ethic and discipline, why teach any sort of academic subject? Math is irrelevant to work ethic and discipline. So is English. And science. And history. If schools were designed to teach work ethic and discipline, they wouldn't be teaching academic subjects.

Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

Finally, the old addage that "american kids are dumber than other countries kids" is getting rather old. While it is true that students in other countries have to fight a little more for their education and chance to excel DOESNT contribute anything that has to do with them being better. We have produced many brilliant minds in the US which help us progress, if everyone was just retarded in the US because of the education system then we wouldnt be getting ANYWHERE. Also, in some countries they have no where near the choices that we have, they may have a higher percent pass rate or whatever but the fact remains that in the US the students are more rounded and learn a variety of things so that they can choose what they would like to do later in life.

America scored 25th on an international test given to high school students around the world. No one's saying other countries' students are better because they have to go through more. We're saying other countries' students are better because the evidence (in the form of test scores), shows it. American students are not "more rounded." Watch the video.

Originally Posted by slipstrike0159

Basically, all school is about is to learn how to work, and work is the basis of our lives since we cant live without a steady income and means to cope with society.

If this were the case, then like I said above, you wouldn't need academic subjects. Just force students to work on random tasks and have them develop a work ethic.

No, the purpose of public schools, and school in general, is to give an -education- in academic subjects. It just so happens that work ethic and discipline are required to achieve that education, and are "just a plus."