State Your Positions

[Bandit3 the Worker]

My school sure doesn't suck, Bandit.

Mine did. In the immortal words of one of my former schoolmates, our school sucked the suckingest sucking that ever sucked.

[Keystone Phil]

My school sure doesn't suck, Bandit.

Mine did. In the immortal words of one of my former schoolmates, our school sucked the suckingest sucking that ever sucked.

You can have your opinion but just because you didn't like you school doesn't mean we should be banning private schools, Bandit.

[John Dibble]

For the life of me I can't figure out why some people would want to end private schools.

Because so many private schools suck.

Well, by that logic we should end public schools, because so many of them suck.

[Keystone Phil]

For the life of me I can't figure out why some people would want to end private schools.

Because so many private schools suck.

Well, by that logic we should end public schools, because so many of them suck.

Good point, John!

[John Dibble]

My school sure doesn't suck, Bandit.

Mine did. In the immortal words of one of my former schoolmates, our school sucked the suckingest sucking that ever sucked.

Care to try an inner city public school?

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Well, by that logic we should end public schools, because so many of them suck.

I'd have a tough time shedding any tears if we got rid of all schools, public and private.

Seriously I don't think school should be required past 6th grade. Some jerks choose not to learn, and all they do is prevent others from learning. Teaching them enough basic life skills to stay out of jail should be enough for them.

[Starbucks Union Thug HokeyPuck]

Private schools suck and the kid hate 'em, but no way in hell they should be ILLEGAL.  That's insanity.  

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Care to try an inner city public school?

I have.

In the early '90s, when violent crime was supposedly at its peak, no less.

Let me say, it was quite possibly the best school I ever attended.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Private schools suck and the kid hate 'em, but no way in hell they should be ILLEGAL.

One that I went to should be illegal.

[Keystone Phil]

Private schools suck and the kid hate 'em

I don't and many others don't. Plenty of private school kids would stay where they are instead of going to a public school. AND many public school students would love to switch schools.

[Keystone Phil]

Private schools suck and the kid hate 'em, but no way in hell they should be ILLEGAL.

One that I went to should be illegal.

You can't be serious. Why should they be illegal, Bandit. Because you had to wear a uniform...oh no!

[John Dibble]

Care to try an inner city public school?

I have.

In the early '90s, when violent crime was supposedly at its peak, no less.

Let me say, it was quite possibly the best school I ever attended.

Guess you got lucky then. Anyways, kids hate school - public or private. You don't have to like it, and you can drop out when you're 16. That's fine with me. What with child labor laws, there's not much else they could do with their time until then.

[I spent the winter writing songs about getting better]

Private schools suck and the kid hate 'em

I don't and many others don't. Plenty of private school kids would stay where they are instead of going to a public school. AND many public school students would love to switch schools.

ha! I didn't know of anyone at my place. School uniforms would scare the sh!t out of them.

[ilikeverin]

I say don't ban private schools because it's fun when us public schoolers beat private schoolers.  


[what I felt at a recent math event thingy]AHAHAHAHAHAH!  TAKE THAT LITTLE PRIVATE SCHOOLERS!  OUR EDUCATION WE DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR IS FAR SUPERIOR TO YOURS IN MATHEMATICS!  AHAHAHAHAHA![/wifaarmet]

[Brambila]

I think we should abolish the public school system- there is no modivation for public schools to academically do better. If there is competition (it est, private schools), school would compete for better academics, like colleges/universities have. In addition, public schools are comparable to 1984-type brainwashing.

[??????????]

Education:
 Oppose legalized home schooling.

Why?

[classical liberal]

I think we should abolish the public school system- there is no modivation for public schools to academically do better. If there is competition (it est, private schools), school would compete for better academics, like colleges/universities have. In addition, public schools are comparable to 1984-type brainwashing.

Our public school system is based off of the Polish school system that was originally designed to produce stupidly loyal subjects.

[Storebought]

I think we should abolish the public school system- there is no modivation for public schools to academically do better. If there is competition (it est, private schools), school would compete for better academics, like colleges/universities have. In addition, public schools are comparable to 1984-type brainwashing.

Our public school system is based off of the Polish school system that was originally designed to produce stupidly loyal subjects.

That's not true.

At the time public education became a priority among Western nations, Poland didn't exist as a nation. Their influence among any possible educational trends was nonexistant.

In the US, thanks to people like Noah Webster and Horace Mann, American public education produced patriotic American citizens who were taught to take pride in their Revolution; uphold Protestant Christian values; learn the three R's, Latin poetry, geometry and algebra, etc.

That educational system worked well until the early 1900s, when crackpots like William James and John Dewey decided to use the public school system as a test laboratory for their "Whole Child" nonsense. Our school system has never recovered.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

Poland has been around since at least the 18th century. It was the first country that banned corporal punishment in public schools.

[Storebought]

From the World Book:

"In the Third Partition, in 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia occupied what remained of Poland. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation."

Combined with the fact that the US didn't become a nation until 1789, I can't see how Poland could have possibly influenced the development US public education in any form.

[Bandit3 the Worker]

"In the Third Partition, in 1795, Austria, Prussia, and Russia occupied what remained of Poland. Poland ceased to exist as an independent nation."

Uh, it exists now.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

I don't think any state in America had compulsory attendance laws until around 1850. In fact, when I was in middle school, Mississsippi still didn't have compulsory attendance laws, according to a list in a book I had.

[Storebought]

True enough: Compulsory public education didn't become common in the US until after the Civil War. In the UK, compulsory public education didn't arrive until William Gladstone's first premiership.

But the material taught in public schools, at least in the northern states, was rigidly nationalistic and Protestant in nature. Examples: Noah Webster's dictionary, The "Blue-Backed Speller", the McGuffey readers (first published in 1836; you can buy a modernized set even today).

My argument is this. While in continental Europe, public education arose from the need of its feudal aristocrats for better-trained cannon fodder against Napoleon, the US developed its public elementary/high school system in relative isolation. It was only the university system that really copied what Prussia had developed since the 1810s.

[Bono]

Would you people., expecially those who for some reason oppose private schools, read this article:
http://www.harrybrowne.org/articles/FreeTheSchools.htm

P.S.--I go to a private school, and I like it. I would hate to go to one of those crappy government schools.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Storebought: The Polish School system survived the Partition and lasted in the Russian sector (the area around Warsaw and Lublin) until about 1828 (IIRC) when the Poles rebelled against Russian rule.

[Storebought]

Storebought: The Polish School system survived the Partition and lasted in the Russian sector (the area around Warsaw and Lublin) until about 1828 (IIRC) when the Poles rebelled against Russian rule.

Let me repeat: The development of the United States public school system had nothing to do with anything established in continental Europe, least of all from a Catholic nation held in feud by tsarist Russia.

The American public school was led by a woman (not a man as was common in central Europe) who taught mixed age and gender pupils individually in a one-room schoolhouse. The one-room schoolhouse was a uniquely American phenomenon, one which was greatly resented by prep-schooled elites from the East Coast.

By contrast, schools in Europe were always hierarchical, elitist, and university/monastary oriented, even in rural areas.

American public schools throughout the 19th century much favored relentless drill and memorization of facts; classical education was reserved for the either naturally bright children or New England prep schoolers. In Europe, classical education and state worship was much preferred even for peasant schoolchildren.

Both European and American schools were nationalistic (for different reasons), so you can't argue that one somehow influenced the other.

Now, the American nursery school and (non land-grant) university system owed much to the Prussian kindergarten and research academies of the 1820s. But this argument is about public schools, not universities.