school of rock(s thrown at the school board)

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to talk about education. So here goes.

I bring this up because there have recently been some alarming changes at my brother's high school. Some of you might know that Memphis (and Tennessee in general) has one of the worst public school systems in the country. It started to decline during my school years, but in the seven years I have been a graduate, it's gotten shockingly worse. I'm not just talking about the lack of education, which is terrible. I'm also talking about the way students are treated. Discipline problems are so bad that they can't let the kids have a semblance of a personality. They have to act like little robots. (Hey, looking at what I said yesterday, maybe there's more to this than I thought.) Just sit still, stay quiet, and don't have any interaction.

Well, now they're cutting back on lunchtime, which is the only opportunity all day for the kids to be social. When I was in high school, there were four lunches of twenty minutes each, the first of which was at 10:30 am. I thought this was awful enough. Now they're adding a fifth lunch and cutting them all to fifteen minutes. You can't even get through the lunch line in fifteen minutes. Also, after I graduated high school, the board raised the breaks between classes to seven minutes. This made it possible for kids to actually go to their lockers. Now they've cut it back again to five minutes. You can get to class in five minutes if you're really good at dodging and weaving. The bottom line is, students have to carry all their books at all times. They don't get any time for human interaction. They can't even go to the bathroom. My brother's conduct grades are suffering because he keeps having to be excused to take care of these things. I am very, very angry about all this, and I have decided for sure that my future children are NOT going to public school. I don't care if I have to take out a loan to pay for their private school. I'm not putting them through this.

admael, I'm curious to hear your opinions on these subjects. I know your school is one of the better ones, but I can't believe you haven't complained about these things.

Anyway, out of curiosity I made a poll for those of you who went to public high school. I want to know what everyone's experiences were like. ( Saved by the bell )

Oh, and happy birthday, nikichick4! You're awesome and I hope you have a great day. And happy Ides of January, everyone.

school of rock(s thrown at the school board)

I mentioned yesterday that I wanted to talk about education. So here goes.

I bring this up because there have recently been some alarming changes at my brother's high school. Some of you might know that Memphis (and Tennessee in general) has one of the worst public school systems in the country. It started to decline during my school years, but in the seven years I have been a graduate, it's gotten shockingly worse. I'm not just talking about the lack of education, which is terrible. I'm also talking about the way students are treated. Discipline problems are so bad that they can't let the kids have a semblance of a personality. They have to act like little robots. (Hey, looking at what I said yesterday, maybe there's more to this than I thought.) Just sit still, stay quiet, and don't have any interaction.

Well, now they're cutting back on lunchtime, which is the only opportunity all day for the kids to be social. When I was in high school, there were four lunches of twenty minutes each, the first of which was at 10:30 am. I thought this was awful enough. Now they're adding a fifth lunch and cutting them all to fifteen minutes. You can't even get through the lunch line in fifteen minutes. Also, after I graduated high school, the board raised the breaks between classes to seven minutes. This made it possible for kids to actually go to their lockers. Now they've cut it back again to five minutes. You can get to class in five minutes if you're really good at dodging and weaving. The bottom line is, students have to carry all their books at all times. They don't get any time for human interaction. They can't even go to the bathroom. My brother's conduct grades are suffering because he keeps having to be excused to take care of these things. I am very, very angry about all this, and I have decided for sure that my future children are NOT going to public school. I don't care if I have to take out a loan to pay for their private school. I'm not putting them through this.

admael, I'm curious to hear your opinions on these subjects. I know your school is one of the better ones, but I can't believe you haven't complained about these things.

Anyway, out of curiosity I made a poll for those of you who went to public high school. I want to know what everyone's experiences were like. ( Saved by the bell )

Oh, and happy birthday, nikichick4! You're awesome and I hope you have a great day. And happy Ides of January, everyone.