Anyone here against Public Education

[Monique1]

and yes you tea baggers and religious right - where would you be today if it was not for your PUBLIC EDUCATION? My public education taught me so very much and gave me so very much = I received a diverse amount of learning from every day survival to extended learning. If it was not for public education, I would not be here today because my parents could not afford to put me through private schooling. My hats off to all who teach in the public school system, you all are very important and special. Thanks to my high school that I attended in Detroit, Michigan - they had so many activities after the end of my classes that there was no time to get into trouble. They had so many activities I didn't return home until 5:00pm. I came home to an empty house as both my parents worked. I came home late, fed myself, did my homework and it was off to bed. No a fancy life, but I was taught survival skills to keep me going.

THANK YOU TEACHERS AND ALL INVOLVED IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. Sorry to yell, but you all deserve more credit than you receive. I am going on 69 and appreciate everything I was given. Our children need to learn the same thing.

[Fumesucker]

1. You might want to check the spelling in your title..

It's a tad ironic..

I've done the same thing myself though..

:hi:

[Monique1]

4. Thank you Fume - I always miss my own mistakes

[Fumesucker]

7. Don't we all..

:toast:

[ZombieHorde]

2. Public education and the military should have their budgets swapped. nt

[bluestateguy]

3. Yes, many of them are

Sending their children to fundamentalist wacko or racist private academies, and then voting against any property tax referendum that would dare benefit the "socialist" public schools.

You have a typo in your thread line, BTW.

[Monique1]

8. As I look back when I was in high school

and look at my year book there were so many activities available. There was a lot of intense learning but when my children entered HS, there was nothing available unless they were a B student, a cheerleader or a person in sports. Yet, those who had a good GPA, there was not much for them either. Learning was nothing but a controlled behavior situation. Tell me things are for our children today, I have grandchildren but I am not seeing hope. This is nothing against Obama, it is the rich controlling the schools.

[Vehl]

5. the best investment a country can make towards its future is in public education. nt

[Monique1]

11. I so agree and I am embarrassed

that many seniors do not want to pay taxes for education. My goodness, they have grandchildren - I can't understand senior thinking sometimes.

[JamesA1102]

6. I went to Catholic elementary school and Public high school.

Public school was a much, much better experience from every standpoint.

[Monique1]

9. I attended 8 yrs of catholic education

had friends in public schools and we would meet along the way. I always envied my friends in public schools because they were learning things not available to me. Many of the things they were learning were survival skills.

[phasma ex machina]

15. My experience is opposite.

The rigorous scholarship from a Catholic elementary school education made it only to easy for me to coast through a public high school. To my detriment I treated high school as mostly a joke, a place to mark time until college.

I gamed the system by attending summer school to rack up points and graduate early. Summer school actually ranks as my fondest memory of high school. The whole place felt infinitely more like a college campus instead of a penitentiary. With comic relief offered up from class clowns attending mandatory summer school.

Bottom line, I support the American public schools that originated from the Old Deluder Satan Law.

[Smarmie Doofus]

10. You're very kind. Were they trashing teachers at the...

... DC rally today?

[Monique1]

14. I don't think they were trashing the teachers but as I watch Sharpton's rally today

made me look back to years ago and bring to the future.

Thank you if you are a teacher today - you have a struggle on your hands.

[Taitertots]

12. Public University has taught me a great deal

K-12, not so much. Most of the time I was doing less than nothing and getting pushed to the next grade. All I learned how to do was sleep sitting upright in a chair.

If it were not for public education (K-12), I'd have taken my GED test as soon as early as I could, went to community college, and finished my degree program at a public university.

[metapunditedgy]

13. I attended Lutheran grade school and high school in Detroit.

I wish I could have gone to public schools in some ways, but am glad I did not in others. There were a lot of tradeoffs.

I will say that the teachers at the Lutheran schools were extremely dedicated, and were being paid tiny little salaries for their work. They had no union, worked long hours (many were expected to coach after-school activities, etc.), and put up with a lot of crap.

The church grade school I attended had a policy of prioritizing kids from the neighborhood, and subsidizing their tuition. Religion was probably forced on them, but their parents agreed with it, and the "sheltered environment" was a plus in many ways.

[Monique1]

16. The catholic schools did not subsidize in Detroit unless

you were one of the top students in their schools.

[Monique1]

17. What is interesting as I look back

my first eight years of school, there never was one black, hispanic or a foreign speaking person in the school. I entered the 9th grade public school and there were blacks and whites but no Hispanics but the school pushed learning the Spanish language because according to them, some day that will be the dominate language. Interesting...... I took French and German and do regret not taking Spanish until college. Guess I am going off topic here

[femmocrat]

18. Thank you for posting this, Monique.

Schools have changed a great deal since you and I attended them. The pressures on teachers today are enormous. We are fortunate at DU to have some very well-informed educators who are keeping members up-to-date on current issues facing the public schools. Stop by the Education Forum if you have time! :hug:

Link: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=219

[Monique1]

19. I will

education is very important to me. Thank you, I never thought of going there.

[Ted_White]

20. I like education and think it should be subsidized since it is a positive externality

However, I am not completely sold on the DoE and I think California is bat shit crazy for building a ~$600 million school while laying off 3,000 teachers.

[Ramulux]

21. I get a lot of shit on here for saying this

but the public schools I went to were terrible. They were supposedly some of the best in California and they weren't dying from lack of funds but my teachers and the administration at these schools were assholes. I obviously support public schools 100% and think this move towards private and charter schools is extremely dangerous but there is no denying that there need to be huge educational reforms. The vast majority of my teachers were just horrible angry people who seemed to get off on abusing their power. The other faculty members like the principles, nurses and deans were basically Nazis with no compassion of any kind for children and young adults. Luckily throughout my entire educational career I had a few amazing teachers that taught me more than all the rest combined, but seeing these teachers made it even clearer that the other teachers were pieces of shit.

Obviously not everyone had an experience like me and I am not trying to bash all teachers but our education system is broken in a lot of ways and desperately needs fixing.

[bobbolink]

22. From what you have posted here, there is no reason for you to be bashed.

Yes, there are a lot of different experiences with public education, and it all needs to be discussed.

I had the 6th grade teacher from hell, and it affected the rest of my schooling thereafter. There was no excuse for what she did, and it harmed me immensely.

My son had a lazy 1st grade teacher, and the only reason it didn't hurt him was because he was already reading at the 5th grade level, at least!

Every chld in the US deserves the very best possible education, and we should settle for nothng less.

[Fire1]

23. Which high school may I ask? n/t