UL editorial: School choice

[KBCraig]

Interesting.

http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Choosing+West%3a+A+principal%27s+idea%2c+expanded&articleId=71a0d736-a510-49dd-9c2f-48852866050a

Choosing West: A principal's idea, expanded

WEST HIGH SCHOOL Principal Jan Thompson made an interesting, if inadvertent, admission last week when discussing West's future.

Thompson proposed that West become the default high school for Hooksett students, who currently are split between West and Central. She suggested making West the default school while allowing parents to chose Central if they want.

"The more that people self-select, the less that people get upset about it," she said.

Very perceptive. We wonder if it would occur to other public school officials that Thompson's axiom can be applied to public eduation as a whole.

The system tells parents where their children must be educated. It resists calls for parental choice. Can't have that, educators say. People might make bad decisions.

Yet judging from student test scores, it is not clear that the educational bureaucrats are making very good decisions either, despite their advanced degrees and years of experience.

Letting all parents choose where to educate their children would be a bold step for a city school system struggling to educate many of the children charged to its care.

It won't happen, of course. The bureaucrats would lose control, and we can't have that. But it might be just the reform the system needs.

[aries]

This has nothing to do with parental choice. Most parents I know of arent complaining that they can't choose which public school to send their children to. They don't even complain that the nearest private school is 45 miles away.

[Kat Kanning]

I sure don't complain that I can't pick which public school to imprison my kid in. 

[Tyler Stearns]

I wish the education bureaucrats would use some common sense and let parents and kids choose the school that is best for them.  I don't agree with one-size fits all mandatory public schools.  It's not just my liberatarian principles that lead me to make that comment; I have experienced the defficiences of public education first hand.  I went to public high school for two years and my grades were okay, ranging from a low B to a high A.  Then I transfered to private school.  With the smaller classes, different environment, and more competent teachers I was able to maintain mid/high A average all year.

Whats good for one is not necessarily good for another.

[d_goddard]

I don't agree with one-size fits all mandatory public schools.

This board needs an 'Amen' button

[Rocketman]

I wish the education bureaucrats would use some common sense and let parents and kids choose the school that is best for them.  I don't agree with one-size fits all mandatory public schools.  It's not just my liberatarian principles that lead me to make that comment; I have experienced the defficiences of public education first hand.  I went to public high school for two years and my grades were okay, ranging from a low B to a high A.  Then I transfered to private school.  With the smaller classes, different environment, and more competent teachers I was able to maintain mid/high A average all year.

Whats good for one is not necessarily good for another.

Amen... but do you really think the grades themselves are important?  As a college instructor, one of things that annoyed me most was grade obsession -- students were far more concerned with making good grades than with acquiring the skills I was trying to teach (critical reading, writing, and critical thinking).  Is it naive of me to think young people could ever be interested in learning for the sake of learning?

[Minsk]

Is it naive of me to think young people could ever be interested in learning for the sake of learning?

I have the privilege of working with some very bright students. The best of the best are always there because they love it, and often have grades that <nasal>do not reflect their potential</nasal>. We do a lot of damage to students with stupid curricula, idiotic grading schemes, incompetent teachers and crappy teaching assistants. As a result, I believe there are far too many students bludgeoned into a fear of learning, who will never find a field and a focus that inspires them. I'd like to think I've helped rescue a few, but that they need to be rescued at all is a travesty.

If there were no students who wanted to learn, I would never teach again. As it is, my top priority is getting finished collecting degrees and finding a school that wants a passionate teacher, a compulsive software researcher and engineer, and an ACM ICPC coach. Because there is nothing like watching a student's eyes light up as their thoughts shoot off down a hundred different paths, and knowing that you opened the door.

[aries]

Is it naive of me to think young people could ever be interested in learning for the sake of learning?

Yes

I do it all the time

I browse wikipedia, read books that I don't need to, just so that I'll learn something new.

The amount of knowledge that I've gained through exploring is far greater than the knowledge I've gained sitting in classes rehashing the same things over and over, rather than exploring new theories and ways of thinking. I can only do that on my own

[Tyler Stearns]

As a college instructor, one of things that annoyed me most was grade obsession -- students were far more concerned with making good grades than with acquiring the skills I was trying to teach (critical reading, writing, and critical thinking).  Is it naive of me to think young people could ever be interested in learning for the sake of learning?

Grades are important to me, and my grades have gone up since I transfered to a private school, but you're right it isn't all about that.  In public school I used to hate English class and I would get B's and C's.  Now that I'm at a private school I realize it was just my crappy teachers I've had all my life, I've actually begun to learn from my teachers and like English, at the same time bringing my grade to an A.  It's amazing what a change of venue can do to a kid that's struggling at something.