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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

On 11/22/06, Lynda <lurine AT softcom.net> wrote:
> Oh poopies <g>  I didn't see that part.  The "caring" parent is a product of
> the same system, so how would they recognize it as anything but what should
> be.  We are talking several generations of indoctrinization.
Lynda, I apologize for sticking you in the same camp as James &
Denise, but let's be real.

The real underlying problem with America's seriously fucked up school
system is that, for the most part, parents don't care. I went to a
tiny one-room school and Daddy was on the school board. Sure, it was
easy for him to be involved then, but then he went on to fight as hard
as he could against the consolidation of the schools that resulted in
kids being bussed for at least an hour to a nice school where they
could learn about drugs and, eventually, gangs. Once my sisters were
in that system, he was up front and active and grilling the physics
teacher to see if he knew what he was teaching (he did).

In being active, the old man didn't just affect happenings in the
schools. More importantly -- at least to me -- he instilled in his
children the need to speak up in a community forum.

Plus, we learned a lot at home. It still amazes me that when I worked
on my Latin homework Dad, who was in his 50s at the time, was able to
help me. But of course that isn't all we learned. He was a farmer and
taught us an immeasurably amount about farming. He loved his cows too,
and we learned about livestock (but as Mom has always pointed out, he
didn't grow up with 'em so he didn't have the second and third
generation experience that you need to be really good with livestock).

With experience and Mom's tutoring, we learned that too. To this day,
I can walk into a barn and smell sickness if it's there -- I'm not
sure anyone can teach you that.

And my point is -- heh, heh, I had a point: the most important teacher
in any child's life is the parent. I am a firm believer that kids take
all their cues from their parents unless the parents are too buy with
something else to give the cues.

The saving grace of schools is that when parents fail sometimes an
excellent teacher can fill some of the gaps. No teacher, however, can
replace a crummy parent.

If public schools are crappy, it's because the parents are first.

Marie