jimjamuser |
02-24-2023 06:58 PM |
Quote:
Originally Posted by ThirdOfFive
(Post 2191092)
An all-too-common misapprehension. As a matter of fact, the only provable correlation between money spent for public school education and the quality of the finished product (graduation rates, test scores, post-secondary education rates) is inverse. Take any state you care to choose, compare the money spent for public schooling district-to-district, and then apply the criteria mentioned and I’ll guarantee you that as a whole the districts that spend the most, have the poorest results. To propose addressing that problem by throwing even more money at those districts is the definition of illogic.
There is a very good reason for this, and it has nothing to do with the schools. It has everything to do with how the kids are socialized. There are of course exceptions, but in general a kid’s direction in life is determined between birth and age five when the majority of that kid’s socialization happens. So what do you think will be the result if a young toddler is exposed to two wholesome parental influences, solid role-models, praise given to older siblings who succeed in school, a strong moral code with solid values, etc., as compared to a kid who from infancy on hears about how bad the establishment (read “Whitey”) is, whose only parental influence may very well be only a mother whose “mothering” is tepid at best, no solid father figure but rather a series of older males (siblings, whatever) who are involved with the criminal justice system from a very young age, whose knowledge of the school system before he ever entered it extends to hearing it ridiculed at home and those who succeed in school routinely put down, and then topped off by being told by various means that he is incapable of succeeding UNLESS he accepts help from the very establishment he has been taught to hate—and what is the result? Answer is obvious. Many if not most of these kids are beyond hope by the time the school system has anything at all to do with them, and to expect to buy miracles by throwing ever-more money at the schools who have to deal with these kids—well, in my book that’s a pretty good definition of insanity.
The only logical answer to this is the one the advocates would never allow, and that is to fix these kids during that zero-to-five window when his or her future is shaped, and that can happen only if the family itself is fixed. All the present course dictates is that we will be saddled with a permanent underclass that our own shortsightedness helped bring into being.
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Last paragraph...."the zero to 5 age window".........well there has been SOME addressing of that problem. The lunch or breakfast idea - so that they don't have their brains stunted due to malnutrition. And school attendance is getting earlier and earlier - they are called preschool programs. PBS also has childhood and preschool educational and MOTIVATING.
......The 1st paragraph....."take ANY state you choose".......Well, I chose to NOT pick a state because I wanted to compare all US states to Finland , Estonia, France, Sweden, and etc. That is the comparison to make and I believe that the European countries VALUE their teachers MORE than we do.( and pay them more and REQUIRE MORE qualifications than we do)
.........Now, the middle paragraph.......I was in agreement with MOST of it. It lost me with the "Whitey" reference because that is a little....you know------------. Also, there are single WHITE mothers or fathers that are financially and attitude-wise INCAPABLE of providing a SAFE and loving home - and yes DRUGS can play a big role.
........Overall, these problems of preschool kids WOULD OFTEN lead to lives of crime and incarceration. I would like to see a cost-benefit analysis that might PROVE that it is cheaper to raise some taxes and get GOOD teachers and preschool activities and nutrition versus the COST of PRISON incarceration. Plus add in the cost to society of crime and murders. Difficult to put a dollar amount on a human life. There was that volleyball college lady from Tn. that lost BOTH legs AFTER some violent criminal attack. She HAD a lot of future potential and now has a great setback.
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