Re: year round school???
I can't believe noone's referenced this yes, so I'll do it: The movie Idiocrasy is becoming a bit of a reality. If you want to really have a "case" against today's education system, then you need to segregate the kids that are coming from familys that just don't care. The, what I would call "normal" kid, hard working parents with values, is actually gaining in knowledge in large quantity. However, the "overall" number is dropping because the % of the aforementioned families is rapidly increasing.
Think about this: when the majority of posters in this thread were in school, if you can remember say 2nd grade (which I can just barely remember one or 2 things) were you being introduced into writing papers, and sampling fractions and even Algebra? I know that I wasn't. So the kids are being exposed to a ton of information, but they're not retaining and they're getting "passed on" not because the schools don't want to fail them, but because "Momma" runs into the office and DEMANDS her little Johnny moves on to 3rd grade.
You'd be amazed, also, at what some of these kids are exposed to at home at a very young age. Just the other day, the misses witnessed two 7 YEAR OLD GIRLS, arguing over "Who's pawn shop" a local pawn shop is. THere's new excuses for not doing projects like; Well, we were up late because we had to go bail momma's boyfriend out of jail at 2:30am." Or, my mom won't sign the daily involvement planner because she's always asleep (confirmed pill addict). Or even worse......much worse but this is a family forum and it already breaks my heart, no sense in sharing the pain. People, some teachers are assigning homework because it's the ONLY chance a certain kid has at even getting through High School, let alone going to college. Heck, in some cases it's the one thing in life the child has to look forward to and that's completing homework because they get praise from a teacher the next day.
It's disheartening when I hear all the "Today Schools Are............." (negative word filled into the blank) spouted off by someone who hasn't seen the real inside of classroom in a long time, or is so focused on their own lives (and nothing wrong with it), that they haven't noticed the suffering around them. Not to sound like a blackout artist, and I have no idea what the solution is, but when 1st Graders come to school dressed like their heroes, who happen to be the kids from the Hit TV Series, "Jersey Shore", well...something's wrong.
