General criticism of public school from a biology thread

[ldsoftwaresteve]

I can always agree to disagree when it's not important but in this case I think it is vitally important. You blame government, i blame the people. You blame waste and misspending of money i blame apathy and lack of responsibility of parents. of course not all parents are irresponsible but i see in local school a great many people who seem to think the schools are responsible for teaching their children how to be human. They send kids that are barely more than wild animals to school and get much pissed when someone corrects them and turn around and blame the schools for not teaching their kids how to behave. If you think schools get too much money then you are far removed from the problem. Schools should not have to beg and scramble for funds to give a basic education. Funds should not be squandered teaching religion and time should not have to be spend teaching children how to be human beings. If you know of a third option between creationism and evolution i would be very interested in hearing it. But the fact is that schools should not teach religion, no two of any three people can agree on what the correct religion is to start with. I agree it is very frustrating and intimidating to try and change the system but not to try will doom our society. We cannot depend on everyone getting the life knowledge they need to survive as adults, it should be obvious education is failing many people now and the failure is growing on it's self. What we do now could determine the direction of the our future.

Well, first, I was never and have never been apathetic.

Second, I don't think the school system is designed to work no matter how much money they have. Needs drive what should be in the system. By the time it can react to current needs, those needs are gone and new ones have taken their place. I think it is unconscionable that teachers have to purchase materials for the classroom out of their own pockets. Those individuals are heroes. Unfortunately, the system is so poorly designed that this insanity is a natural consequence of the teacher being more aware of what is needed than 'the system'.

Third, I don't think that there is a design solution for public school that will work. The priorities are wrong. To give you an example, in a televised conference on home schooling years ago a teacher stood up and asked what would happen to the teachers if everyone started home schooling. It's a valid question for the teacher to ask herself but it isn't the responsibility of the system to provide an answer for it. The fact that she wanted the administration to answer her concerns shows that she felt entitled. To me, only the children should be entitled, if anyone is, since that's why the system exists in the first place or so we are told. It doesn't exist for the teachers.

Consequently, it is highly doubtful that a group of teachers will get together and create an automated course that will eliminate their jobs. At least, not 'in the system'. And that, in a nutshell, is why it is poorly designed.

In a private company, if it is well run, standard operating procedure is to eliminate one's position by automating processes, etc. The assumption is that other tasks will be assigned because of the opportunities created by the automation.

I think that holds true in the case of education but not at the public level. There, the main overriding principle is to maintain the status quo.

And if you think about it as a government issue, that makes all the sense in the world. The government should be concerned with operating that way because it should focus on identifying what it means to be human and protect that definition by creating laws that keep human action on the human side of the line. Government should not be designed to react to change because our identity as a species of animal that NEEDS government doesn't change.

And, I suspect, this is the root of the difference in our opinions on this subject.