In a message dated 8/29/00 9:01:32 PM Pacific Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: << What is it about the public schools that you find to be socialist in nature? And why would that lead to the public schools being the miserably inadequate places for education that they are? And aren't private schools generally even worse places to want to put your kids? I certainly believe so. >> Tony - It's my childhood buddy Marshall who considers them socialist due to Dewey's visit to Prussia, bringing back the 'model' for civilizing our early 20th-century imigrants into good and docile servants. Marshall is too much the conservative christian for my comfort and I would not want my kids in his private school. Yes, he started one. I suffered through 13 years of Catholic education, if you wish to term it that, but at least I can spell and put together a sentence, even if it does tend to run on too long. And I did not let my kids repeat that experience. The non-christian private schools are no better, as far as I can tell, judging from some of their expatriates. My kids went to some of the better public schools in the country at the time--in Johnson County, Kansas in the 1960s--I give those brave educational 'experiments' mostly faint praise. Of all the people with whom I have worked, or have employed, in my adult life, I do not consider any of them who graduated high school after the late 50's, to be more than just functionally literate, except for the avid readers among them. The current form of education that I favor is that of the autodidact. And there is no shortage of material or information for them to ingest if so inclined. I suppose computers are adequate, but books are better.... I do not favor force-feeding information in any situation. It simply does not work. Joan _______________________________________________ Crashlist resources: http://website.lineone.net/~resource_base To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/crashlist
