Your thoughts on the american school system

[Hatmanafro]

whats goin on guys. i just wanted to do a survey type thing.
i have to do interviews for this paper i have to write in lit class so i was hoping to use IA as an interview source. haha. i just have a few questions and i would just like you to answer them as you see fit. i know its the whorselounge but i would appreciate it if we kept stupid/ offtopic comments out.

i appreciate it guys.



1)do/did you enjoy your time in school?

2)do you see any issues with the system?

3)was/is there anything that you guys really enjoyed?

4)do/did you feel like anything was missing?

5)anything else you would like to include


discuss.

[5speed]

Lets see. I had my best experiences in Clayton County(bahahahaa how the fuck did that happen? Went downhill quick) and Lamar County. I learned a lot in those school systems. I say they are the reason I have any sort of intelligence compared to my other schools. Jackson High School in Butts county was a fucking joke. If you have ever seen Fast Times at Ridgemont High you would know the character Spicolli played by Sean Penn. A good 90% of students had his attitude about school if not worse. Teachers were cussed at by students, students would just walk out of classrooms in the middle of class, talk on their cell phones, and blatantly cheat on tests. There were mass fights on a daily basis. I blame them for not getting the later education in high school that I should have gotten. It had a very negative affect on my learning when I moved to Conyers and went to Salem High School. I have always had pretty good grades until then. I moved to Conyers and I was way behind in math.

My Algebra teacher at Salem didn't grade any of my work unless all problems were done. I was really poor then and couldn't afford the nice graphing calculators like everyone else had. Therefor I actually had to learn how to do the work without one and never could finish my work. Therefor I failed EVERYTHING in math and chemistry since it involves algebra too. I was enrolled for Dual Diploma at the time which meant I would have both Technical and College Prep diplomas. Since I couldn't pass math I had to drop out of the dual program. I now suck at math and have to learn it all over again.

The No Child Left Behind Act has screwed up the system also. Students who should have never left 6th grade are somehow in High School. They can't read or follow basic directions given in a book.

Teachers unions also play a significant role in why public schools suck so much. It protects the bad teachers who need to be fired/released. It costs schools A LOT OF MONEY TO JUST FIRE OR RELEASE A BAD TEACHER!!! I

[BanginJimmy]

American public school system is complete garbage. Not only do they dumb down the standards to the lowest performing students, they do nothing to teach real life skills.

[Hatmanafro]

American public school system is complete garbage. Not only do they dumb down the standards to the lowest performing students, they do nothing to teach real life skills.

what kind of life skills do you think are missing?

[RL...]

American public school system is complete garbage. Not only do they dumb down the standards to the lowest performing students, they do nothing to teach real life skills.

true

[-EnVus-]

They all need to improve and get better leaning skills when it comes to teaching. Also to get and keep up to date books that cover everything we need on a daily basis. I personally think we need to do away with the 12th grade also it is a waste of time and money IMO.

[japan4racing]

1)do/did you enjoy your time in school?

2)do you see any issues with the system?

3)was/is there anything that you guys really enjoyed?

4)do/did you feel like anything was missing?

5)anything else you would like to include


discuss.

1) Yes I enjoyed school, especially in the middle school/high school years

2) Yes, No child left behind is a joke and is the reason why graduation rates are so low. If they could not pass the previous grade what makes you think they can pass the next one? They really need to quit trying to teach the test...you dont learn anything that way. Teach the material, teach it well, then test the students. If they could not learn the material find out why and correct the problem instead of pushing them onto the next level.

3) Yes, wood shop class was awesome. Its important to have those electives to get real life lessons and skills training. There is talk of cutting a lot of electives and concentrating more on core academics. The problems can be solved without cutting electives

4) Yes, Good teachers. For people like me, if I got bored I would quit trying to listen....If class could be more exciting to get kids like me to want to learn our system would have better results. You have to want to learn something to really learn it. This is why all these kids know every word to the latest Lil Wayne album but cant remember math, science, history, and english to save their lives.

5) No

[thegovanator]

Let's just pull a Germany and prepare our kids for the jobs they will actually be doing

[RL...]

all im sayin....there needs to be more physical education and less history. Preventing the the future from being full of fat helpless people > knowing events in the past that one can't change.

[David88vert]

all im sayin....there needs to be more physical education and less history. Preventing the the future from being full of fat helpless people > knowing events in the past that one can't change.

Without a knowledge of history, you are doomed to repeat mistakes that could have been easily avoided.

[5speed]

Without a knowledge of history, you are doomed to repeat mistakes that could have been easily avoided.

Damn right!

I will not have my children attend public schools. I will do whatever I can to have them go to a highly praised private school. I finally understand what parents mean when they want their children to have all the opportunities they never had as a child. Public schools hold kids back so much.

[RL...]

Damn right!

I will not have my children attend public schools. I will do whatever I can to have them go to a highly praised private school. I finally understand what parents mean when they want their children to have all the opportunities they never had as a child. Public schools hold kids back so much.

I see kids who went to private schools and they are so detached from the reality of things. When they get out they've been sheltered in their little bubble so long that when they're exposed to the drugs, the minorities(because privates schools are mostly white), sex, alcohol, and other things that one learns to cope with in public school at a young age they don't fare so well.

[msanch24]

its turned into more of a daycare system than an education system. my mom teaches and says that if she knew how things worked back when my brothers and i were in school, she never wouldve sent us to public school.

[Scotsman]

garbage............. and this is comin from someone who attended british schools

[Bacon]

You are asking IA for their opinion about the school systems? How many of us went through Dekalb/Clayton/Fulton school systems?

My opinion....Clayton County was garbage. The teachers were great but administration couldn't differentiate their head from their ass.

[RL...]

Personally if we all just did as our parents told us to do, go to school, make a's then go to college and get a good job, most of us would be in a better position right? lol And judging from the types of cars most us have on here, most of us are not balling.

[Friggintitsman]

This day and age an undergraduate degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma. A masters is equal to having some college. Education is a joke these days yet we are brainwashed into thinking we need all this college to get ahead in life. Then most colleges will put you so far into debt that you either won't be able to finish or you will be paying that shit off for the rest of your life. It doesn't even mean that you will get paid more these days it just means you may get the job ahead of your peers. The system is broken.


Roadhouse

[BanginJimmy]

what kind of life skills do you think are missing?

Wood shop, car mechanics, MATH WITHOUT A FUCKING CALCULATOR, spelling being enforced without spell check. The proper use of grammar and punctuation. I could go on and on and on with this one. Kids, especially the ones in Ga's garbage schools barely even ready for remedial college level courses right out of HS because they alck these basic skills. A kid I work with needed the count the farking marks on a scale to find the halfway point of 1 7/8". He didnt understand the basic math needed to figure it out otherwise.

all im sayin....there needs to be more physical education and less history. Preventing the the future from being full of fat helpless people > knowing events in the past that one can't change.

You are an idiot. At least a basic understanding of history is needed. Just like the understanding of govt, health, biology, chemistry, and geometry is needed.

Without a knowledge of history, you are doomed to repeat mistakes that could have been easily avoided.

One of my favorite quotes of all time. Also one of the most true statements I have ever read.

its turned into more of a daycare system than an education system.

I agree completely. Teachers know that their jobs have nothing to do with the quality of their work so they simply go through the motions. Even though I didnt appreciate it at the time, there is no way I could thank one of my HS teachers for all the extra time she spent with me trying to get me to apply myself. BTW, this was a class I was doing very well in as far as learning the material, but failing (again) because I didnt do the work.

I see kids who went to private schools and they are so detached from the reality of things. When they get out they've been sheltered in their little bubble so long that when they're exposed to the drugs, the minorities(because privates schools are mostly white), sex, alcohol, and other things that one learns to cope with in public school at a young age they don't fare so well.

My niece and nephew are like this, but in my experiences it has nothing to do with the school, it has to do with the parents. Most parents that send their kids to your average private schools are overly protective and not as worried about the overall quality of the school. These are the same parents that severely limit their kid's exposure to any one or thing outside their very limited comfort zone.

This day and age an undergraduate degree is the equivalent of a high school diploma. A masters is equal to having some college. Education is a joke these days yet we are brainwashed into thinking we need all this college to get ahead in life. Then most colleges will put you so far into debt that you either won't be able to finish or you will be paying that shit off for the rest of your life. It doesn't even mean that you will get paid more these days it just means you may get the job ahead of your peers. The system is broken.


Roadhouse

I learned a long time ago that a piece of paper (diploma) might be required to check a certain box on a form, but it isnt what employers really want. They want people that have experience in the job they are applying for. It is very expensive to train someone to do a complex job and companies are looking for any way to cut overhead that they can.

[5speed]

I see kids who went to private schools and they are so detached from the reality of things. When they get out they've been sheltered in their little bubble so long that when they're exposed to the drugs, the minorities(because privates schools are mostly white), sex, alcohol, and other things that one learns to cope with in public school at a young age they don't fare so well.

My niece and nephew are like this, but in my experiences it has nothing to do with the school, it has to do with the parents. Most parents that send their kids to your average private schools are overly protective and not as worried about the overall quality of the school. These are the same parents that severely limit their kid's exposure to any one or thing outside their very limited comfort zone.

I agree with BanginJimmy. RL, you have a misconception about the schooling itself. The schooling will provide better education opportunities for anyone. The way they are raised outside of the school and what they are exposed to determine their "street" smarts. I have been exposed to everything from drive by killings, drug dealing, a crack head dad, living in poverty to living in a respectable middle class and back to poverty living in a Mercury Sable with my mother and two brothers. You should then understand I have a very good understanding of how things work in both worlds. While I don't plan on exposing them to the negatives, I won't shelter them from knowing about it either. They will be made sure to keep humble.

[williz6588]

I think that the parents nowadays aren't as involved in their children's school lives as they were in the past. So many broken families and a lot of other factors contribute to a lack of success in school.