Re: [Phys-L] Private schools

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Those who think they have the solution should be condemned to try it in a
school.  A parent in the school I was teaching in came up to me and said
that she had a lot of respect for teachers.  She gained it by substituting
in the school.  Sure there are some bad teachers and bad administrators, but
I doubt the percentage is any higher than in most industries.  Indeed a lot
of teachers are there by choice, not because they think they will get a huge
salary.

It is easy to deprecate the schools and teachers, and if that is done too
much we will find that nobody will want to go into teaching.  It is already
getting to that point.

When I was in a public school the students were as well behaved, and in some
ways more so than in a private school.  Their math skills were also higher.
It was a suburban school, not an inner city school.  Anyone who wants a view
of the inner city school from the inside should read "An Inquiry into
science education, where the rubber meets the road".

Private schools protect their parents and students.  There was an incident
of a student stealing a teacher's laptop.  The dean of discipline found it
in their locker.  The penalty was expulsion.  But in the public school they
would have called the police and hauled the kid away in handcuffs.  I have
seen this.  Actually in private school students who don't want to be there
can simple fail and be asked to leave.  They get their wish.  But in public
school this doesn't work.  However some parents will withdraw them and claim
they are going to another school or will be home schooled.  This is one way
the student manages to drop out.  And in TX they are not counted as a
dropout.  Oh and both public and private schools quietly get rid of abusers
so that their reputation will not be sullied.  I know of a case of this
where a teacher who was "dating" students simply was asked to leave and
probably got a job at another school.

As long as the schools are entirely oriented towards college, we will have
many bored students who act out.  If we had schools where the students could
work towards a trade and had a half time job some problems would go away.
Why not teach marketable skills to those who don't want to go to college?
They could be taught math they could use rather than stuff they don't
understand and merely memorize opaque procedures.  People pay good money to
get job training of various types.  Why not do it in the public schools?

John M. Clement
Houston, TX


> We who taught and worked out butts off for so many years are 
> tired of being maligned by these advocates of differential 
> education.  We took ALL kids, regardless of race or color or 
> religion, taught them, sent many on to college or gainful 
> employment and tolerated such behaviors that would have made 
> some of you cower and retreat back to the safety of your 
> beloved selective schools where misbehavior is not tolerated  
> (unless the misbehaving child is the son, daughter, or cousin 
> of the local school board member or politician).     
> >