The problems areWM: This is an assumption on your part. I did not insist that everything is peachy. Far from it.
so glaring that you really have to wonder about the
thought processes of people who insist that everything's
fine.
WM: Mr. Atherton, these are all factors that make educating masses of kids very difficult, particularly since most kids are "mainstreamed." They are not excuses, they are factors. Also, I did not limit what I had to say to African American children; that's another assumption on your part.What I do see is that the school systems are pushing a boulder uphill with their noses. ....Atherton:
"It's the lead." "It's the mandates." "It's hunger." "It's crack."
"It's alcohol." The excuses! One would think that African American children are not fit enough to be good Americans.
WM: If this accusation is in re the Profile of Learning, it was not practiced long enough to know whether or not it would be effective. Before it was even off the drawing board, people were screaming and complaining.Atherton: We have a state which has realized that an agenda proposed by the liberal educational establishment was not working effectively.
WM: Is it a conspiracy? I usually think of conspiracies like this as conspiracies of dunces, the operative word being dunces. It is also erroneous to think that vouchers will help poor parents. The amounts of money suggested will not be enough to send kids to private schools, though conceivably a family could choose one kid to send to private school and send the rest to public school. Poor parents are not getting any good choices out of vouchers because each voucher lessens the amount sent to public schools.And we have vultures who want to privatize the school system on the totally erroneous belief that vouchers will solve the myriad problems.Atherton:
"Vultures?" It must be a conspiracy! My family has the means to opt out of failing public schools, I think it's only fair that poor parents have the same choice.
WM: Mr. Atherton, it won't be just African American kids who will lose. It will be kids of all colors. Private schools are fine. A Blake education will stand your child in good stead. But Blake, even if a family had the bucks, cannot take another five or six thousand kids.The school systems are being pecked to death by ducks, all of whom claim to know how it could be done better, cheaper, faster, and more thoroughly. I don't believe it.Atherton:
"Ducks?" That's your right, don't believe it. Live with the public schools failure to educate Black Americans. Meanwhile, my children will
be getting the best education we can find for them and the cycle
of failure and poverty for Black Americans will continue.
I, too, went to private school where my teachers were paid bupkis, my classes held 54 kids/each, and I still managed to learn. However, there were other kids in the class who didn't do as well since there was no way to give them the extra help that might have brought them up to snuff. Private school is no panacea for the problems besetting the education of kids.
WizardMarks, Central
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