And again...*FACEPLANT*

[xaq_the_aereon]

"I hope schools will realize it's less an exercise in tolerance than a platform for liberal groups to promote their pan-sexual agenda," said Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute

...I can't even think of anything demeaning to say about this. It pretty well speaks for itself. But that quote makes me want to go up to this guy with the following quote:

"Yes, the left-wing liberal radicals DID have a hidden agenda here, Mr. Knight...their agenda was to lure out all the idiots in the world so that we could make fun of them. AND YOU FELL FOR IT!"

I swear, if I ever hear -anyone- use the words "agenda" or "conspiracy" again from her to the day I die, I'm going to stop whatever it is I'm doing and vomit on them. X_X ..Unless they're a close friend, in which case they'll simply get the Abenobashi War Fan. >:D

Comments

[pdrydia.livejournal.com]

Reducing the size of the schools isn't the definitive answer to this problem--I've been to large public schools, and smaller schools where everybody knows everybody else by name. Bullying and bullshit (pardon the language) goes on in both settings, despite faculty efforts.

I'm not sure there really is one definitive reason for why this happens, or "cure," anymore than there is one "type of child." I do agree that a common factor is the reliance on schools and school faculty to teach children morals--with the varied moral codes of households out there, shouldn't that be the job of the home? The problem comes in when teachers use their position to preach what isn't appropriate, and when guardians aren't willing to put forth the time, energy, and love (awkwardness, research/knowledge, frustration) to do the job themselves.

On the other hand, a child has his or her own will. There comes a point where one benefits from being introduced to different viewpoints, and not just flipflop over to whichever sounds most sensible at the time. Keeping in mind, too, that as children age, many are going to start bringing up discussions themselves--trying to make an environment completely devoid of moral discussions is going to be a very difficult, if not impossible, task.


As for school faculty choosing to create schools where the kids go crazy-go-nuts... ;P Think about that for a bit. Any of the teachers I've had, with the possible exception of those in the private schools, would have done many things to teach in a smaller school. The problem? New public schools cost some...oh, 8 millon US$ was the last elementary school built around here, 10 years ago, if I recal correctly. A new elementary school in Lafayette, Indiana is looking around $19 million, and a middle school $34 million. Then there's the year to year upkeep, faculty wages, buses (there'd have to be whole new bussing routes), so on, and so forth. People complain about school taxes as they are, especially those without school-aged children.

[(Anonymous)]

So, how much do you suppose the Academy set Plato back?

Schools cost so much because we want them big. We want huge plants with diverse facilities (including sports arenas) and huge cafeterias and so on.

If you did away with all the crap that we think is essential but isn't, you could build a 500-student school (anything larger is just organized child abuse -- too many rats in the maze), up to code and all, for about what you'd spend on a 500-seat church -- maybe $2-3 million in today's money. That's assuming you want fancy.

If you build 'em small, you can match 'em to neighborhoods and localities, and reduce busing drastically. If you make it so teachers and teaching are properly centered in the life of the (smaller) school, you can eliminate a whole bunch of parasitical school employees: guidance counselors, psychometrists, secretaries, curriculum specialists, assistant principals, yada yada.

What costs is all the frills and extracurriculars, not teaching kids stuff.

But my point was . . .

In the social universe of the small school matched with the defined neighborhood/locality, not only does every teacher know every student, but teachers and parents know each other outside the school environment. You build a real community, where discipline (= punishment) is less needed, because discipline (= accountability) is increased. Sure, there will be fights and bullying and name-calling. But dealing with them wouldn't be a formal process of write-ups and how-many-trips-down-the-hall-before-we-suspend-you, etc.

Teacher says "Stop that." Kid doesn't stop. Teacher 1) sends kid to principal, AND 2) tells parent -- whom teacher knows socially. Parent and teacher will, in most cases, be able to get on the same side of the issue, thus preventing misbehaving kid from playing off one against the other.

Many other things would need to happen to truly re-make public schools. Smaller size isn't a panacea. But it's an aggravating factor in EVERYTHING.

When the assault on Columbine HS happened a few years ago, all my daughter's friends felt put upon by nervous school administrators, who thought the answer was to crack down on everybody for everything. But the problem was, primarily, that the two boys were crazy; secondarily, that nobody (including their parents!) thought their craziness worth telling anybody else about; and tertiarily, THAT THEY WERE INVISIBLE BECAUSE OF THE SIZE OF THEIR SCHOOL SOCIAL UNIVERSE.

If 5% of the kids in any group are likely to be a problem, and you have 100 kids in school, you have 5 problem kids. But if you have 1000 kids in school, you don't just have 50 problem kids (5 x 10), you have (let's say) 100+ problem kids -- the original nasties, but also their hangers-on -- who aren't as bad as the bad kids, but who adopt their poses, and thus screen them from view. You have created, not just a larger concentration of bad kids, but a hostile subculture, impenetrable to adults. In a large school, the adults DO NOT KNOW what is going on. Nor do many of them wish to, being intimidated by the true nasties. So nobody's responsible.

And our solution is to get them together and do "No Name Calling Week" crap. This is, depending upon your ideological predilictions, either a secular revival meeting or a communist self-criticism indoctrination session. Either way, it stinks.

-- AWC