A few years ago some dimwitted Harvard (Graduate School of Education) broad told me - out at a bar in Brooklyn - that the schools weren't doing well because of *rich people*.
She said that if only those wealthy bastards would keep their kids in government schools then magically Big Education would be a success.
It is amazing how to the neo-Commi's everything can conveniently be blamed on the rich. Certainly if the setting was 1930s Germany this young lady and her ilk would've been scapegoating the Jews.
But to shift topics...
Most people agree that the school system fell apart (whatever that means) gradually beginning around 1950.
So why did it stop working?
Is it because the textbooks became *revisionist*? Because the welfare state was growing? Because of teachers' unions? Because of moral decay and rising divorce rates? Or, like dimwit said, because of private schools stealing the best students?
How about this theory which I'm sure many people have never heard:
Schools worked back in the day because the smartest, most competent women in America became teachers.
Understand that 60+ years ago females didn't go to law school, med school, or slave away for corporate America. But today they do.
Consider my wife. She majored in Elementary Education and Economics at Boston College. She student-taught 5th grade during college but opted to become a stock broker upon graduation. There was no way she, "...was going to deal with all that bull$hit in schools."
Only a Moron would think that one day in the future our best women (and men) will return to teach at government schools.
They just could never raise salaries high enough to entice highly competent people - not in the numbers they would need to make a difference anyway.
Essentially, when it did *work* the school system was subsidized by male chauvinism.
So in that sense it was never really a natural success - a point all these tinkering *reformers* (charter school and voucher advocates, et al) would do well to consider.
9 comments:
surprisingly (not ! :) ) , free market / capitalism works best with schools.
i will cite india as an example. In 1980s there were very few private (mom-and-pop or big) schools and most children attended .gov schools, where only native language is primary (all subjects taught in native lang) - english is just one subject.
.gov wouldn't dare making entire curriculum english. what happens? some mom-pop starts private schools with english curriculum,(as english education results in higher employment) - the english education revolution starts.
lo-behold, in 2011 100% middle class and above, (even significant percent of poor) send their kids only to private schools.
Free market, every street in population dense areas in india have a english(all subjects taught in english) school now. So the cost of education is not an issue (only becomes issue with elite private schools).
for every price bracket, there is a private school.
And you have literally huge selection of schools to choose from.
And the parents shop for the best, just like in free market.
They use different metrics to gauge the schools (boils down to "will my kid get admission to MIT/Harvard in US or IITs in India")
and BTW, the salaries of most of the private schools are ridiculously high.
The private schools hunt for best teachers, thats the only way they can get the parents to enroll the kids there.
its free market, competition and all that.
I did not know that about India. So thanks!
Can you point us to an article or something that gives this story?
Thats entirely first party account of mine, lived that trend, am a product of that "english medium school" revolution in india.
i tried google search here is a recent article, captures the revolution of sorts been going on for past ~20 yrs.
english medium schools in india
did you see that note about rupee 520 a month (10 dollars per month). You pay $120 dollar per year to educate your child. Note this is not .gov dough (no tax money or subsidies from .gov), this is 100% private school. I guess the class size is probably lot bigger, all teachers probably handle lot of classes.
But as i mentioned, there is a 100% english medium school for every price bracket. And they are starting schools everywhere...its very lucrative.
All parents want the best education for their children, no different than here in US.
we just have to let the free market / competition to do its majic.
Wow - yeah Google did dump it in the spam can. That rarely happens. Must be biased against links to *india*!
All of you are missing the obvious solution.
Don't have sex.
It's worked for me.
Commence snide remarks, C.
DA,
That sounds like an *environmental* suggestion - if only we stop procreating....then Earth will be clean.
Women ruined schools? They probably did especially the people like the broad you mentioned in the first paragraph. Myself I think the feminization of schools are turning off boys and leading to lower graduation rates. Heck some places don’t allow the kids to play dodge-ball, kick-ball or tag because some kids don’t get picked or are always the first ones eliminated. If they eliminate competition on the playground I guess they have done away with weekly spelling bee competitions and math problem competitions in the classroom. Then again these competitions might still live on but if they do everyone probably gets a trophy for participating.
Heck if I were in charge of the playgrounds I would be slow to break up any fight where the boys seem evenly matched … once they suffer though a couple of good punches to the face or ribs and realize that it does not tickle they won’t be so fast to throw the first punch the next time.
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_48.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2005-10-19-male-college-cover_x.htm
http://educationnext.org/gender-gap/
http://gw-bw.com/2009/04/30/dodgeball-ban-in-schools-inbounds-or-automatic-out/
http://scaredmonkeys.com/2006/10/18/tag-know-outlawed-in-schools-whats-next-dodgeball/
Kevin,...you anarchist!
I break up fights. Heck my daughter and some illegal immigrant kid today were throwing haymakers at each other at the playground.
So I saved the muchacho!
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