On Mar 17, 2008, at 11:31 AM, Vitaliy wrote:
> Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>>> I believe that in a majority of cases, the student's poor  
>>> performance is
>>> the
>>> school system's fault.
>>
>> Isn't that a serious disgression from your underlying premise of that
>> everybody does what is best for him? The current schools definitely  
>> not
>> /hinder/ any development.
>
> The public school system here in the US definitely /hinders/  
> development.
> Incompetent/dangerous teachers, disruptive students who can't be  
> expelled,
> outdated cirriculums, old books, crowded classrooms.. the  
> environment is not
> conducive to learning.

Old books?

Where my brother in law teaches, they have to keep the books in the  
classroom (student's can't take them home, there aren't enough), let  
alone how old they are.

And he teaches in a fairly well-off district.

Meanwhile, large numbers of ADMINISTRATORS of the school district (not  
just a few) all make $100,000 or more U.S. per year.

Far more, usually -- depending on rank and get this... their education  
level... automatic raises if you went to graduate school or have a PhD  
are commonplace in school districts, supposedly a way to have better  
educated TEACHERS, but... it applies to the ADMINISTRATORS too.

Greed does more to hurt U.S. schools than any of the items you  
mentioned.

Who wouldn't take that deal?  If I could GUARANTEE myself a raise in  
regular business by getting a higher education degree, no competition,  
no proving I learned something interesting/useful to my employer, no  
higher responsibility or more work... just walk in and hand in a form  
that I finished another degree and get money for it...?  I'd take that  
deal too...

Of course, paying for such shenanigans as a taxpayer has me a bit  
alarmed at what is really going on over there in that giant new  
administration building with better fixtures than even the richest  
businesses in the area, filled with PhD Ed type folks.  (It was aptly  
nicknamed the "Taj Mahal" long before it was completed years ago.)

Actually since that's not my taxation district, I'll share what mine  
does... similar administration salaries, and they send me a rediculous  
huge multi-color glossy "catalog" of all the "wonderful things"  
they're doing in the district every year.  All information that's  
already in the public record at any library, printed in normal black  
and white.  Pretty pictures of tons of extracurricular activites, and  
a couple stock photos of some kids sitting in a classroom or two.

I'm not quite sure what this waste of money is supposed to accomplish,  
since they get my taxes either way... and if they think that wasting  
that money and then flaunting it in my home mailbox is going to make  
me think twice about voting for vouchers and throwing their  
egotistical asses out on the street-corner in order to try ANYTHING  
different than them, they're wrong.  First opportunity to vote against  
them, I'm there... BECAUSE of the glossy "District Update".  Spend the  
money on the kids, you idiots!

Oh wait, I'm sorry -- I forgot that their PR people (also far over  
$100K a year) told me on the news that they're "making progress" and  
raised test scores by a couple of percentage points while the district  
is still behind the rest of the world by a large margin in math and  
science scores.  It's the RELATIVE increase of 2% that means they  
DESERVE those big salaries, bigger than all but the highest bosses in  
a VERY large business... right?  I think they mentioned it in the  
glossy book.  (Hell, I'd at least burn the thing in my wood stove, if  
they didn't print it on glossy, colored paper.  Newsprint would be  
fine, thanks.)

The whole system is screwed... all the way up the administration  
chain.  The administrators in the public lower-level schools are just  
"in training" for moving to a public University, $250K-$350K is  
considered LOW for the top people, and they can hike tuition every  
year, while also raising my taxes, while signing multi-million dollar  
deals for advertisers to pay to be on the football team's TV ads, and  
even bigger deals with big Pharma and others to build them research  
labs and do all their work for them.

Yep... Watching from here, U.S. public education administration is  
completely and utterly corrupt and out of control.  I can't imagine  
having kids and putting them through that mess.

--
Nate Duehr
nate@natetech.com



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