I am finding it very difficult holding my tongue. With seven children I have very strong opinions about public education and what it has become. Worse yet is that I've got experiences to back it up both here in Utah and earlier in California.
We have homeschooled on and off for 18 years now, even though it causes people to look at us like we're nuts and labels the kids, because of stuff like this in the schools.
But this is nothing compared to so many other things going on. There's the bullying problem. The issue with multiple languages. The impossible limits on discipline they put on teachers especially. Teacher pay. The influence of unions in education. Political correctness.
Oh, and if you want a real eye opener, try reading
this from my blog way back in 2007. I likely blog too much about education and not because I'm an expert or all that interested but because I'm frustrated at what it is taking to get my children a good education.
There are a million things wrong despite the fact that we've got a lot of really good people on the problem. I have a sister in law who after her kids were raised chased her lifelong dream of becoming a teacher. Went back to college for six years, got her Masters and then took on a job.
She just quit after doing it for four years, when she fulfilled the requirements of the assistance she received for going back to school.
She quit because of a broken heart. She was a Utah teacher of the year. So convicted about what she did and so invested in her kids. But what the system has become she just couldn't take anymore. And that's because it has fallen apart on so many levels. Corruption on the inside. Nearly total parental apathy on the outside. Kids so medicated or emotionally screwed up as to render their abilities to interface and be held accountable absolutely worthless.
The largest blame, in my view, is the degradation of the family. It starts with removing mothers from children at young ages. It gets worse with absent or disengaged fathers. And it snowballs from issues like divorce, drug use and the stuff that makes up so much of modern life. Mix the fundamentals about what is wrong with the business of education with all that stuff about the family and you've got a mighty mess on your hands.
The Atlanta cheating thing is NO surprise. Not at all. (And I'll stop there because I'm ranting again and can't help myself. If there is one thing as a parent that has so thoroughly disgusted, frustrated and rankled me it is education).
