February 22, 2006
Already Holding Pens
Some private myth focused schools are busy looking for dupes in Pennsylvania about which Myers says:
That's 777 students getting a sub-standard education in the sciences, and $4,083,200 getting flushed down a rathole. It's an odd situation, where the wealthy yank their kids out of the public schools and put them in an expensive pit of ignorance by choice, and at the same time fight to underfund the public education they've abandoned and turn the schools the poor and middle class rely on into holding pens. We all lose.No quibbles with the first part of the above and a couple with the latter part.
First, if it is the wealthy that are sending their kids to these private myth based indoctrination centers then we can expect that the wealth will disappear. The kids thus trained will not have any skills beyond the use of force to retain their privileged position.
Second, it is not a matter of turning the public schools into holding pens. That is what they have been for the last century. Luckily some kids do well in spite of the system and go on to be successful professionals and scientists. But for all students, especially the 60 to 70 % who do not achieve basic proficiency in reading, math, science or writing skills, the public school system is and has been little more than a set of holding pens, glorified and overcrowded day care centers.
As an education system public schools are a dramatic failure and need to be completely redone.
Posted by Steve on February 22, 2006
