They cannot write in the names of most of the states on a blank map, cannot name the three branches of government, cannot name more than two or three of the amendments, and don't know what the Bill of Rights is.
So, for a long while, we didn't participate in our local public school system. We had our reasons, many of which were based on our own experiences in the broken school system. We home schooled, we went to alternative schools. We recently put my kids in the local public schools and now I know why people move to my school district. Now I know why a nearby community has been in court for 20 YEARS trying to get their kids into my school district. I've been bragging on my kids here for a while, but now I'll have to add in my kid's schools too. I had no idea - none - what it means to be in a school system that's mostly working.
There's these tests, and our schools just keep out scoring the rest of Pennsylvania - sometimes to an absurd degree - for example, there's this one test on science and statewide, the average school score was 74, but at our school it's 100.
Math is the same way. We're scoring consistently in the 90th percentile and higher. Reading - really any of it.
So my perspective is clouded by being in a wealthy school district with high performing schools.
My workplace is also full of high-performance people. It's intense, it's hard, it's mentally challenging. We have no openings for people who can't keep up - and as a result, in the depths of a massive recession, we can't staff up fast enough.
Previous Topic
Index
