In no way am I against private schools or anything like that. Honestly, I feel like we are dealing with a problem that was caused by "WHITE FLIGHT" from our cities. So while THEY are chillin in the suburbs, we are left the clean up their mess.
I am a product of not only a public school, but of one in Mississippi as well (although I did attend high school in Kansas). The public school system in Mississippi (in my town that is) was the TOUGHEST curriculum I have ever encountered! Failure was NOT an option (unless you dropped out of school). If you failed a class, you had to repeat that whole grade over again (or attend summer school). In junior high, our required curriculum were courses such as pre-algebra, algebra, civics, foreign languages, etc. So imagine my suprise when I moved to Kansas and found out the following:
1. In high school, you pick your own classes! I knew plenty of juniors and seniors taking easy classes like basic math and physical sciences just for the grades. In Mississippi, this was unheard of! All freshmen took Algebra, sophomores took Geometry, juniors took triganometry, and seniors took calculus, and so on. Huh, you want to chose your courses...THIS AIN'T BURGER KING!!
2. Teachers did not grade homework! OK, why should a student even bother to do it?
3. In Kansas, the grading scale was as follows:
A=100-90
B=89-80
C=79-70
D=69-60
F=59 BELOW
Also, some teachers did grade on a curve
In Miss, our grading scale was as follows:
A=100-95
B=94-90
C=89-85
D=84-80
F=79 BELOW
What's a curve?
Now, with this these things in mind, I believe that my public school in Miss was the way that it was because of parental involvement within the school. Sure, there were plenty of private schools in the area, but I believe most parents felt like why should they pay taxes, levies, etc. and support a public school system that doesn't prepare their kids for the future? My mother, although not active within the PTA, was very involved/knew each one of my teachers and spoke with them at least every two weeks. If something went on that wasn't right, you better believe the principle and/or school board heard it.
Our public school system is in the shape that its in because a LOT of parents expect someone else to clean it up for them. Instead of actually going to parent teacher conferences, PTA meetings, school board meetings, etc. most parents will sit back and let the teacher shoulder the ENTIRE responsibility of looking out for their child and their child's future. Unfortunately, when something goes array, these same parent will fuss and say "the school system is terrible and I'm pulling my child out and putting him into a private school"! So as parents pull their children out of the schools, there goes the funding, the best teachers, etc. And what does that leave? It leaves mostly black and hispanic children in those public schools to be terrorized by violence and to receive a sub-par education from some teacher that really don't care (they are only their until all of their student loans are forgiven). And then some folks wonder why children now a days don't seem to care about anything
Situations like this in the MAIN reason that I do not support vouchers(public tax money) for private schools and I continue to lobby against them by voicing my concerns to my state senators and state BOE.
I know that I have gotten so far of topic that I am on another message board
but I do think that if you as a public school teacher feel like the system that you work for and represent is not good enough for your own children, I really think you need to look in the mirror. You could be apart of the problem.