Parents at (High School) Curriculum night

[DBdude]

sorry to be snarky, just making a point

there are a few bad teachers every year once you hit high school - welcome to education in america. your kids are going to have deal and learn it on there own, or you can help, or you can buy help

[DBdude]

the ridiculousness that goes down at my kid's shitty school in Vermont is unbelievable. I won't meet the teachers. my boy comes home and we discuss and we look stuff up. It's good practice for college and life. go with the flow and figure it out for yourself. I know he has made some rather dry comments in class, that if the teacher has a clue is making a point, most of the kids are clueless

[mtngirl79]

yeah... that's true. I was a pro at not going to class and figuring it out enough in the last minute to squeak by with a low C until I couldnt anyone...

Not a good way to go, but it does give you a solid figure it the fuck out yourself skillset which has been pretty handy...

[old goat]

My eldest son was one of the most curious kids I've ever met. School cured him of that, at least as far as school subjects. He would come home at the beginning of the year excited about what he was going to learn about, but that excitement quickly turned to boredom. He pretty much slept through HS but managed to get the grades and test scores to go to Cal (which was more of the same as far as boredom), med school, and surgery residency. He still wonderfully curious and a quick learner about things he cares about--climbing, skydiving, flying--and hopefully surgery. He had good teachers; the problem is that the standard educational format just doesn't suit some people. My son is someone who needs constant stimulation and novelty, from the day he was born. School just doesn't provide that. OTOH no one has yet come up with a better way to educate large numbers of kids at a price the public is willing to pay. Meanwhile a lot of poor kids do their learning on the street and they learn quick--just not the stuff society wants them to learn.

[XXX-er]

Mr Angle Parking is such a cool teach that his kids all chipped in and bought him a long board

which I used to see him riding at top speed down main st at lunch time

on his way home for a nooner eh ?

[Bobby Stainless]

My son is someone who needs constant stimulation and novelty, from the day he was born. School just doesn't provide that. OTOH no one has yet come up with a better way to educate large numbers of kids at a price the public is willing to pay.

I am that way and my own critter is exhibiting that trait.

So I sacked up and paid for what I think is the best education money can buy in this area. I think he has 12 in his 2nd grade class.

IMO, if you have the money, throw as much as you can at education.

[WTF is dat]

In this edition of "old fucks on TGR."

[Bobby Stainless]

Im 35.

[shafty85]

^^^ Like he said 'old fucks'

[XXX-er]

the saying "50 is the new 35" works both ways eh?

[Dantheman]

IMO, if you have the money, throw as much as you can at education.

I had a former boss who loved to gripe about public school teachers being overpaid and entitled, constantly bitched about paying taxes and was adamant that underfunding was not a significant problem for public schools. The guy sent his kids to a private prep school that cost somewhere close to $20k/year. I've never been able to figure out how he reconciled that shit.

[::: :::]

IMO, if you have the money, throw as much as you can at education.

amen
if you're going to give your kid any leg up in life, education is the best place to start

[bushman]

I did the private school thing for my boys. They both do well, I don't think public school would have changed that. Their friends who went to public schools have good careers and got into top colleges.
When Mrs. Bush and I would go to parent meetings at school, I would scan the room and prognosticate who who do all the talking and story telling about how great and talented their offspring are. I retired with a !00% accuracy rating. In the children's defense, they are cute when they're little.

[XXX-er]

I like to say kids are cute when they are someone else's

and Grand children are way more fun than kids

too bad you couldn't have them 1st

[Sirshredalot]

amen
if you're going to give your kid any leg up in life, education is the best place to start

Throwing money at it isn't necessarily good ROI. You could drop 200k easy sending a kid to some sort of prep school and then a second-tier private college. If you're inbounds for a good public school district and a quality flagship state u, you're getting just as good (if not better) an education for way less coin. Of course, grad school is another animal entirely.

[::: :::]

Throwing money at it isn't necessarily good ROI. You could drop 200k easy sending a kid to some sort of prep school and then a second-tier private college. If you're inbounds for a good public school district and a quality flagship state u, you're getting just as good (if not better) an education for way less coin. Of course, grad school is another animal entirely.

i wasn't trying to start a public/private debate...just supporting the idea that education is the best way to help your kids, however that path is available in your community

[Buster Highmen]

I'm saving to help the kids through college. This shit about expecting kids to graduate 50-100k in debt is nuts. I'm not sold on the advantages of private high schools.

[Buke]

This topic fascinates me because my oldest started kindergarten this year so all the theoretical talk has started to become a reality.

My wife was a school teacher at a public school in Bellevue in a wealthy neighborhood before staying at home with the kids. She taught kids from extremely wealthy families and kids from relatively poor families (and a homeless kid or two each year too). She always said that if she opened up the grade book you'd be able to tell which kids had parents involved in their day to day life by looking at the grades. It had nothing to do with money.

Some parents get involved with their kids and take a pro-active role to work with the school to make the system work for their kids (obviously Buster fits that model). That's a good thing. I'd go as far as to say that it is mandatory. Other parents expect the school to do their job and only interact with the school when they see their kids failing. That's a bad thing.

We have a lot of friends who send their kids to private school. It often (not always) seems like they make that choice out of irrational fear (fear of bad teachers, bad curriculum, bad peers, brainwashing, or whatever else). Sometimes private school is a good thing, sometimes it isn't, but assuming that you live in a community with a reasonably good public school, you can't argue with the value that public school provides. There's no guarantee that a private school has better teachers (usually they don't), better curriculum, or will yield better results. At $$12-20k/year per kid +/-, it's hard to imagine that private school is the best use of money in most cases. That kind of money will buy a lot of good tutoring to offset a year or two of bad public school teachers/curriculum.

[PNWbrit]

you can't argue with the value that public school provides..

Unless you don't have kids?

[Buster Highmen]

Some parents get involved with their kids and take a pro-active role to work with the school to make the system work for their kids (obviously Buster fits that model). .

Some parents and teachers may disagree.

At this stage, I think public school is as good for competition as well as socialization. Beside, the little man wants to pay violin in an orchestra which a number of the private schools lack. I won't consider any of the remotely Christian schools like Bear Creek.

[Bobby Stainless]

Plan on sending my kids here for high school, and moving to the area. http://www.crms.org/

It will save me 40k a year to live there, and not have my kids be boarders. Send them off to whatever college, and spend the rest of my days in Carbondale.

100% of the graduating class go on to four year schools.

It's only money, and if they get a job making some cash, they can give it back.

[Buke]

Some parents and teachers may disagree.

If anything is certain in this world, it's that parents will disagree about what's best for other people's children

Regardless, from your account, it sounds like you did everything by the book. You identified what your child needs. You worked with the school to try to get them to accommodate and when they didn't/wouldn't/couldn't you did what you needed to for your child. That's what my wife's teaching experience highlighted. Parents that were involved enough with their child's daily life to identify what they needed and then advocate for them had successful students. Parents that weren't involved or just blamed the system when things didn't go well usually ended up with kids that were failing in school.

[Buster Highmen]

If anything is certain in this world, it's that parents will disagree about what's best for other people's children

Regardless, from your account, it sounds like you did everything by the book. You identified what your child needs. You worked with the school to try to get them to accommodate and when they didn't/wouldn't/couldn't you did what you needed to for your child. That's what my wife's teaching experience highlighted. Parents that were involved enough with their child's daily life to identify what they needed and then advocate for them had successful students. Parents that weren't involved or just blamed the system when things didn't go well usually ended up with kids that were failing in school.

We got into one of the Explorer Schools in Lake Wa SD which was great for #1 but horrible for #2.
#1 got to take a 5th grade advanced math class that studied induction, the bridges of Konigsburg, Euler Formula for Polyhedra, Sequences and series, Gauss's arithmetic tricks. It was awesome.

But the same teacher just could not deal with #2s reading issues which turned into headaches, dizziness all kinds of scary shit. But that program requires parent involvement and for the most part, it was cool. It was terrifying and frustrating dealing with the school over special needs that never got met. So yeah, now it's homeschool, but she's learning French in the 7th grade.

[Stu Gotz]

This is a bit of "first world problems" but having bright (not gifted) somewhat well behaved kids is pretty much the twilight zone for public school parents. There's not a lot to be upset about, but as a parent, there's a nagging feeling that something is being missed.

Extra curriculars out the wazoo I guess.

[XXX-er]

up here in BC if you send yer kid to a private school there is some funding available from the gov so the gov actualy pay a portion of the tuition

back when there were lots of kids that may have been fine but now with the decreasing enrollment figures and probelms with funding public schools if you wana send yer special flower to a private school I think you should pay the whole shot eh