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Federal $$ for Education/re to Hugh

Dear Hugh:

Thanks for your comments. I will address some of them below because
you kindly implied an interest and curiousity in these issues. I taught
in a similar private school before returning to graduate school, and
my son has been enrolled in three different private schools- so that's
the extent of my experience. I speak from that limited experience.

Here goes:


I won't take on the other issues you raised, because they seem to me
to be pure matters of opinion that we will have to agree to disagree
on. But let me suggest some reasons why your son's school seems to do
better in standardized testing than the local public schools that are
better funded. As you say, money isn't everything, but here is what I
think the difference is. Please correct me if I am wrong.

First, the private school takes only those students that it wants to,
limiting enrollment to only those students it thinks it can serve
(both in number and in student motivation).

In the school I worked in, this was not the case. We had some
students that were unruly and ill-prepared. It was their parent's
"last ditch effort" to save their kids. Unfortunately, some remained
lost.

Second, the teachers probably have smaller classes than in the public
school and probably have far fewer teacher-hassling rules to deal
with. In other words, they are free to teach and don't have to spend
much of their time on supervisory or activities or paperwork.

In the school I worked in, all my classes had 40+ students.
Admittedly, in my son's school a large class is 30. I went
to a public school with LARGE classes and a university with
even larger classes- yet learned and survived.

Again, in the school in which I worked I had 7 preparations
a day with 20 minutes for lunch, science fair duty, and even
parking lot duty. I can say for a certainty that at least two
of my son's teachers have similarly tough jobs. At the school
I worked, some teachers left for the public school for lighter
loads and more pay. Obviously, I did not work at an Exeter-
there are private schools and then there are the elite... What
you say is true for some schools and not true for others.

Third, and probably the most important, disruptive students or those
who, for whatever reason, are not interested in learning can be
eliminated with relative ease. I have sat in on too many classes
where, no matter how talented or dedicated the teacher is, the class
is governed by a few disruptive students, whose activities demand
almost all the teacher's time, leaving the rest of the students
standing around hoping to maybe get a bit of education during the
times when the disruptors are taking a breather. And it often is very
difficult to get rid of the disruptive students.

Where I worked, we received disruptive students as a last
ditch effort for parents to save their kids, as I mentioned.
I do admit that at my son's school disruptive students are
very few... The school doesn't tolerate too much in the way
of disruption.

Possibly fourth, (this one is pure conjecture on my part. I obviously
don't even know what school your son attends), in order to enhance
the school's reputation and thus make it easier to get the type of
students it wants, the teachers are encouraged to "teach to the
standardized tests," thus ensuring high scores because the students
have been prepped well. Whether or not this is the case at your
school, it has certainly been done at other schools, both public and
private. It is one of my major objections to the use of standardized
tests for evaluating schools. Their use for evaluating students is
also highly questionable, IMO.

I only mentioned standardized tests because everyone seems to
feel that's such a key issue. You are damned if you give 'em
and damned if you don't. I don't like them... in NY I believe
the public school teachers take the tests for the students,
don't they? I don't really know what good they are... and in
a sense we all teach to a test. If I teach Newton's Laws and
pass out and exam asking my freshmen to prove Ehrenfest's Theorem,
I'll be in serious trouble. I test what I teach. I teach what
I test.

Thanks Hugh! I will say no more about this topic and let's all
discuss some PHYSICS.

David

Dr. David Ward
Dept. of Chemistry & Physics
UNU#3160
Union University
1050 Union University Dr.
Jackson, TN 38305
ph. 901-661-5241
email- dward@uu.edu