Matt Whiting wrote:
Morgans wrote:

"kontiki" wrote

Most people have received a pitiful economic
education in this country (thanks to the in-bred nature of government
schools) tso they don't have a clue.


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I am sick to death of everyone placing the blame for everything on
"government schools." It is very possible to get a good education at
government schools, if you want to learn. The blame for most of the
problems with government schools is the lack of motivation of the
students, and is a failure of the parents of kids who are not
motivated to learn.

What does economic education have to do with leaning about a
hopelessly screwed up justice system have to do with the price of
beans in China? That seems like it would be a government-social
studies failure, if anything.


Blaming the schools alone isn't legitimate, but they certainly have been
a significant contributor. Public schools long ago moved from a
"personal responsibility" to a "self-esteem" based approached that has
been disastrous and is a significant contributor to many of society's
problems today.

No longer can schools punish students as it is either illegal or will
harm the students' self-esteem. When a student fails a class, we blame
everyone but the student and find a way to move them along anyway. I
know you have public school connections (your wife as I recall), but the
reality is that public schools HAVE contributed to this phenomenon of
sending subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, messages that nothing is
YOUR fault it is the fault of the "system", and don't worry as the
"system" will take care of you anyway.

Matt
It's not the schools its the parents. I've seen parents come in to find
out why the TEACHER made a mistake and Johnny got a B. The parent went
to the principal to complain. In an unbelievable act the principal
actually defended the teacher. In addition teachers have a common name
for many science fair projects. They are called "daddy-dos". In a
system where parents attack teachers if the kids do poorly you can
hardly blame the teachers. Maybe the schools for not telling the
parents off, but if you tell the parents off the school budget doesn't
get passed.

Margy

Margy