Originally Posted by
fred41
I’m just going to stick with this one topic for now. I really don’t have reason to write much anymore...even for leisure and I suspect you may have done so as part of making a living...not so much as for myself. Also, I gave my Mac Book Pro to someone who found a better use for it and am presently doing everything on an iPad Pro, which is more suited towards my leisurely needs (actually, I could’ve just gotten a simple iPad, but I have a tendency to buy more than I need). It’s really quite intuitive, but I’m still working out the differences and I still can’t always grasp some of the hand commands a younger hand would be able to deal with. For me, typing was easier done on a computer - the trade off being, the ability to do art work (which I thought I would be doing more off) And writing with a stylus. But again, I’m still learning even some it’s most basic functions, so please bear with me.
Even on the topic of education it sometimes makes more sense to deal with locally (at least on the State or City level), because speaking about it federally is a bit too abstract (also, as a comparison, speaking Nationally between the UK and USA, often doesn’t make any sense because of the vast difference in size).
When opining on a topic like this, it helps to know where that opinion comes from, so I will say, up front, that I’ve never worked in the educational field and though I was married at one time, now live alone and have never had any children and that’s by choice - I think that’s important to know because an active parent or teacher can give a different point of view based on their personal attachment to the issue. Private schools have always existed in NYC. Of the types...well wealthy private schools exist everywhere, I assume ...you would think that a school, only for the wealthy would do well compared to a public school, but whether or not it does isn’t really important to any conversation in education (obviously I’m only speaking of grades 12 and down). Leaving out parochial schools for the moment, the big debate here is usually about charter schools.
As I’ve stated before, as well as I can remember , statistically charter schools don’t always do better on a national level in comparison to public schools, but the reasons for that sometimes changes with the locale of the schools in question, and obviously, how they are run. From what I recall, I believe about 50% of them do better than public schools locally, with the rest being about the same and a handful doing worse. At the end of this topic I’ll post a link. Apparently , foundational charters seem to do better than small individual ones. I understand from an ideological point of view public funds should go to public schools, but in the real world, money isn’t always the problem. NYC , from what I understand, spends about $28,000 per student. That’s approximately double the national average and we still have failing schools. I’m going to be honest - from what I know from growing up in this city - often public schools in poor districts are literally hell holes you or I would not set foot in. There’s a reason some of those schools had metal detectors. Before even considering curriculum, don’t you think a safe, healthy environment would be a foundational necessity to be able to even attempt to learn? Aggressive students rarely even get suspended anymore. The child who wants to learn is in an environment that makes it impossible, so why not offer a choice that’s both safer and makes it possible? Sure you’re probably more likely to get positive parental support in a charter (probably the most important thing in a child’s educational performance) but so what? It’s fine to ideologically disagree with giving public funds to private schools...they should fix the problem instead of shoving it off, but every politician promises that and it never, ever gets done. A student in the system now ,can’t wait years ...life doesn’t work that way. Why are adults willing to shrug their shoulder and condemn kids like that for an ideology?