The education of MY children has always been exclusively MY responsibility. Overall, the schools have helped greatly. I appreciate the work of the many dedicated teachers, but I am responsible for my children and their education. It is hard work and not easy, but the reward is great.

We recently upgraded to a house from our townhouse – we paid a higher price to stay in the town.

The Low Performers Manual is (as the name implies) a step-by-step to teaching low performing students.

http://www.zigsite.com/PDFs/LowPerfManual.pdf

Some background links:

http://www.zigsite.com/

http://www.behavior.org/education/index.cfm?page=http%3A//www.behavior.org/education/education_direct_instruction_home.cfm

http://www.mackinac.org/print.aspx?ID=4454

The central reason for the total failure of government schools, and of society in general, can be named in one word: Liberalism. And everything that goes along with that ugly mindset: multiculturalism, blaming everyone else for your own self-inflicted faults, hatred for the traditions of America, etc.

My wife has a Master’s degree from a public college, and she been a middle school Principal for the past 16 years. I have a midwestern Catholic high school education [entirely paid for by my parents, who made certain that they were going to get their money's worth]. I can read and spell better than my Principal wife, or any of her staff [as she readily admits]. I am much better educated in geography, history and science than any of her college-degreed teachers.

The reason is simple:

When parents must pay for school out of their own pocket, they will demand of their children that they learn. But when the government pays, most parents view school as a baby sitter, and they put 100% of the blame on the teachers and school when their child fails or gets into trouble.

But the unions and their pets, politicians, are too strong. America’s zenith was between the WWII generation and the generation that landed a man on the moon. Those days are gone, and America’s greatness is lost.

The only thing that keeps our country from external destruction is the fact that we are not as bad as most other countries. You don’t have to outrun the bear; you only have to outrun the other guy.

Politicians and secularist true believers will never mention this, because it takes the problem out of their realm. But it is more obvious than the darkness that comes at the end of the day.

Good luck to you. It is certainly scary to send one’s little one to school. From everything you have written, I think he will do very well indeed, because you will be there to support him all the way.

I can tell you what I discovered in sending my child through a multi-ethnic public school system with children from a variety of economic backgrounds. My son always picked friends whose parents had the same parenting style that we applied. He was used to a home in which parents were very much involved in all aspects of his life and in which there was love as well as rules and expectations. His circle of friends encompassed a variety of ethnic and economic backgrounds, but they all shared a common experience of strong parental involvement. That is very likely what your son will also do, because that is the environment in which he feels safe and comfortable.

What?

My father is Brazilian, my mother French so I didn’t fit in with any particular group. Latino’s thought Brazilians spoke some type of “messed up Spanish”. Greeks and Italians kept to their own little clicks, funny thing is all the boys liked me and I grew fond of many of them.

While attending IS 126 I witnessed many horrors along with my best friend (are you out there Tricia?) on both “sides” teachers and students.

I witnessed a boy throw a chair at a teacher and nearly hit her, I saw her throw him out and slam the door causing the AP system to fall on the back of another boy who was disrupting the class. He was hurt but I don’t think anyone ever told… There was so much more, this article has inspired me to document everything my class and I went through there (I’ll do this on my own blog soon).

One thing that French teacher said has always come to mind when I think of parent/student disconnect. On one occassion someone was disrupting the class, she said, “if you act like that what are you going to tell your parents at the dinner table tonight?” Everyone exploded in laughter, even me, did she really think these kids were eating dinner at a table??? Did she think this was the 50′s instead of the 80′s?

Now my own son will start 1st grade this fall and an entire different landscape of education. The school we are zoned for is dominated by a nearby trailer park. Unfortunately, I’ve already experienced some ignorance and observed that MANY of the children are ill prepared to study for various reasons.

My question to you is, what can I do as a parent to help not only my son, but the entire class? I feel I have a responsibility and will try to volunteer when possible but the reality is I have 2 little girls, will one parents involvement with some of the others ensure that they all go off to college together some day? become my sons networking contacts in the future? I have a vested interest in my sons friends and the kids he’s around but feel powerless to help them/him. I’ve already started buying homeschool supples and books in case I need to pull him out quick…

The dysfunctional single-family home illustrated in this piece is as much the result of nanny statism as it is the cause of poor academic performance.

Government schooling is the root cause of a great amount of the dysfunction seen in American society. Can we finally answer the question, what right does it have there? What right does government have more or less instilling childhood values and philosophies when and where the separation clause is to hallowed?

I’ll lead off: It’s not even remotely because everybody “deserves” an education. Government schools cost twice what the private sector offers and that’s including the private sector never having the opportunity to compete head to head in the mass market. And it’s clearly not because such an “education” is in any way a quality product.

Government schools destroy values, performance, normal social development, and with them, lives. So other than myth, why is this allowed when our form of government had no such authority whatsoever at it’s inception?