On 8/12/2011 8:49 PM, Swingman wrote:
On 8/12/2011 5:21 PM, Doug Miller wrote:
In articleCLOdnb8e587E39jTnZ2dnUVZ_q2dnZ2d@giganews. com,
wrote:
On 8/12/2011 9:08 AM, Doug Miller wrote:
In articleLMSdnWo2AuO5tNjTnZ2dnUVZ_vadnZ2d@giganews. com,
wrote:

In short, the educational system in this country was originally
instituted to provide an education ... it has now been subverted,
mostly
by progressive machinations (union, etc.), to be _primarily_ concerned
with its own perpetuation in current form.

"If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the
mediocre educational performance that exists today, we might well
have viewed
it as an act of war." -- A Nation at Risk (April 1983)

http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/risk.html


Great link!

And it has only gotten worse since then.

Damned shame that after almost 30 years nothing has been accomplished,
overall, to improve the situation.

As the parent of an Eagle Scout, IIRC, I'm sure you are painfully aware
of the situation and took the same kind of steps aforementioned.

You do recall correctly. I even have a bumper sticker on my car: "I'm
proud of
my Eagle Scout".

And yes, we did. His older brother went to public school for the first
two
years, and part of second grade -- after that, it was Catholic schools
all the
way. AJ, the Eagle Scout, is attending a Catholic college too (his
choice, but
obviously we're pleased).

The story of how and why we switched Ken (#1 son) from public to Catholic
school is ... well, the short version is that his second-grade teacher
was
completely incompetent, and the school administration refused to do
anything
about it -- assistant principal told my wife, when she requested they
transfer
our son to a different classroom, that "if we did that, then every parent
would be asking for a transfer." Yeah, well, that oughta tell you
something
about that teacher, ya think? So we transferred him right out of the
whole
school district.

We were fortunate to be able to afford to do that, but seeing the
results, the
sacrifice was worth it. Both boys wound up with very generous college
scholarships. Ken's in law school now.

I left the entire thing in instead of snipping

63% of the student body in HISD in 2010 were "At Risk" students! 63% of
over 200,000 students!!!

Where are the parents??

Sheeesh ... this tells you immediately what the culture is going to be
like in ten years, yet folks continue to bop thru life with the idea
that "Happy Days" is what the current educational system is like ... the
reality is that much of it is a cesspool of total and demonstrable
incompetence.

Just imagine what the children of these 63% are going to be like!

I chose to send my daughter to public schools because I'm paying for it
and I was bound and determined to make it work ... but damn if it wasn't
an eye opener, and a lot of hard work to boot.

I was raised Catholic but always had a great respect for the Jews of
this country because they heretofore always sent their kids to public
schools in the US and, as a result, made those schools better for all
concerned with their strong family ties and parental involvement ...
that is no longer true. Most of my Jewish friend's children, of the same
age as my youngest daughter, went to private schools.

Given the choice, there is no way I would go through that again.

Due to political correctness, and to a large measure progressive
thinking (if you can call it that), we have squandered the only legacy
that really counts for the future ... an education for our children.

And, for those who think an education at the much vaunted universities
in America is worth more than a warm bucket of spit these days, open
your eyes with this:

http://wouclips.wordpress.com/2011/0...sive-colleges/


/rant

When Bryan was choosing between colleges he was most interested in Rice
and UofH. His HS counselor said that he had the grades for Rice but he
would most likely be passed over for a "non-white", foreign student, or
female. We drove around and through the campus prior to that meeting
and I noticed a similar mix in the student body.

I early on told Bryan that the University did not matter as far as
career was concerned so much as what you actually learned. I did tell
him that an Ivy league school was going to help him get his first job
but after that his work ethic and reputation was going to trump any
school he attended.

When he was interning with KPMG he heard mention that they typically
choose more students from UofH over UT and A&M because of their
experience. Most all of the UofH students had at least part time jobs
where as the more privlidged students that simply went to school had no
work experience and had to be taught "everything".

Totally agree with that article you posted the link to, especially the
Honors College comments, The students get first pick at the professors
and have much smaller more personal classes.