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absolutely agree!!!
Children who immigrate to Canada after the age of nine are far more likely to drop out of school and never go back, a new study suggests.
Researchers looked at the census data of more than 100,000 new Canadians who immigrated before the age of 18.
The study showed a link between educational achievement and the age at which a child learned English or French.
Miles Corak, a University of Ottawa labour economist, led the study. He says children who came to Canada before the age of nine performed well in school - in fact they often did better than their domestically born peers.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/10/27/pol-young-immigrant-kid...We can't
No it isn't
No it isn't
You're right, Mike. Public schools are a terrible idea. Let's return to the days where literacy is reserved for those who can pay for it. Let's make sure that the next generation of kids are not only not indoctrinated, but completely ignorant as well. That'll fix it.
Don't teach kids to read, teach them to question what they read
I love George. He does irreverence so well.
I suppose I'm being picky here ... but there's more to the late George Carlin than that and I think you know it. His genius, like the genius of many before him, was also in telling the uncomfortable truth while making the audience laugh. Shakespeare had his fools say the wisest things. Great comics like Carlin are what I'm tempted to call "masters of contradiction". Anyway, if Carlin was a teacher then he would have been a Frierian (Paulo Friere) ... of that I have no doubt. And he would have been a great teacher.
Because they're so literate and un-indoctrinated by the time they leave high school. Public schooling produces the type of subject that power requires for the functioning of society. Essentially the power [economic, government, corporate] taxes the population in order to direct the proceeds into state run organizations who's task is to turn out loyal, obedient, barely literate subjects, who start out in life at the earliest possible age fearing and depending upon the representatives of power, the teachers, principals, superintendents, and in a mostly bygone era, the sisters, brothers, priests, bishops and their counterparts etc, that had previously run these institutions. The classroom represents the jail cell, and the detention room represents an area of solitary confinement away from the general population. The conditioning is so pervasive, that we see it as the right of everyone to be equally immersed into the same K-12 mind conditioning program regardless of the outcome. And leftists are so loathe to criticize public education because most of the positions engaged in these tasks are unionized.
@ SJ
Or you could take exactly the opposite interpretation from that - school is a perfect place for kids to learn about oppression because it has so much power over them.
Or more accurately - HAD. In that respect, I might say kids aren't getting quite as good an education nowadays (at least not in our kids' school) because there is virtually none of the humiliation, intimidation, discrimination and violence nowadays that I saw on a regular basis as a kid.
Did I enjoy it, and would I want any other child to go through it? Absolutely not, but it was an important education.
I recognize all the dynamics you are talking about (who doesn't?) but it is far from the most important factor. Schools aren't the same from division to division or even from classroom to classroom. What you describe sounds a lot like a PInk Floyd album I heard once, but not so much like what I see in our school.
In fact, I'd say it is far more of a problem that some administrators don't keep enough impartial order, and instead let themselves be swayed by parents who happen to get in their faces the most. Kids are not stupid, and they realize that schools only have so much power over them, and that in many cases they are going to get passed through the system no matter what they do or do not do.
And also, contrary to the notion of school as all-controlling, in reality it is a system stretched to the breaking point by underfunding, yet dealing with more students who are ESL and special needs (a very GOOD thing, but one which should be given the proper resources). About a quarter of the instructors in our school on any given day are volunteers like myself. If there was a secret meeting to train us in how to brainwash and manipulate I must have missed the memo.
We put our kids into the system with the understanding that we might take them out at any time. Frankly, I am keeping a much closer eye on the possibility of bullying from other students than I am on evil teachers. I am not saying bad teachers don't exist, because I know they do, but the reality is not quite as you describe it.
We could interpret schools as being the perfect place to learn about oppression, if that is what schools were actually doing.
Schools reflect the society, just as the society imposes itself upon any other institution, public or private. The fact that schools are somewhat better nowadays, but not entirely, at removing disruptive influences from the more important work of producing docile subjects, is in itself a reflection of increased incarceration rates and sprawling prison systems that we see outside the school walls. Places are set aside everywhere for non-conformity.
No, they're not exactly all the same, but the curriculum in every case is approved by a central educational department of government, which like every other arm of government, are themselves extensions of the economic power.
I suspect they hold them annually....in conjunction with news media organizations, advertisers, government and corporate officials, etc.
Even home schooling requires the approval of government. It just makes you responsible for delivering the approved curriculum at home, complete with examinations verified by the education authority. It's the narrative of school that requires questioning and evaluation...the approved narrative that power permits and insists upon its transmission to young minds.
Hmm...
Well never mind that even in my day, we had no problem going beyond the set curriculum, even in subjects like history and literature.
And never mind that any students who want to think for themselves (and believe it or not there are teachers who provide that inspiration) are free to go to the library or go online and take charge of their own education.
I am afraid I don't understanding what problem you have with learning reading and writing, mathematics, science, and even the rudiments of critical thinking.
Because if homeschooling is just as bad I assume it's not the requirement of keeping set hours and a certain order that you find most offensive.
And sorry, but to say that you don't like a curriculum simply because it is set by the government is not reason enough.
Frankly, I am glad my kids get the chance to socialize with other people who don't have the same values and approach to things as we have at home. Even more than the curriculum and the regimen, it is the best preparation I can think of for life in the real world.
But what other kind of world is there?
The cloistered one.
I'm not saying that I don't think school should be as supportive and progressive as possible, but there is also value in being exposed to people who have different ideas, and different ways of doing things, since that is a challenge that most of us will have to learn how to deal with sooner or later.
I'm a huge fan of public schools and more diversity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=BFa&list=FLaPBuZZTrmsCeq5_X3sNmFA&lf=plcp
Changing Education Paradigms - Ken Robinson
one of my many favs
Closing for length.