"Buyer Beware" (I think that's the answer Rolo)   And I STILL think Latin SHOULD be taught as a CORE course (the colleges should be cranking OUT teachers for it!) It teaches more English than most kids get from any English class. Hell, I can still congregate verbs with the best of them.

And shop or metal shop or whatever (Voc) should be available as well as Homemaking. Good grief, I talked to a homemaking teacher a few months ago and she said she spent SIX weeks teaching kids to SEW a PILLOW! SIX WEEKS? That's totally ridiculous! They should be able to make a garmet in that length of time. How hard is it to sew four seams on a pillow?

My husband worked in a welding shop all thru high school and worked his way thru college WELDING while he was getting an engineering degree. When he got out in the REAL WORLD, he KNEW when a WELD wasn't right! And yes, Steve, he could do it RIGHT and had to several times. He bitched loudly about some "so-called" welders on some of his jobs! He also threatened to "kill" some of the newly educated engineers on some of his jobs. They'd never learned any "practical" stuff while being "educated".

Our schools are NOT teaching our kids what they need for the REAL WORLD. My son didn't get the education I did (nor what Chuck, Jonny or most of us "older" folks here got). We've got so PC in our schools that education has taken a back-seat and our kids are suffering. Computers have taken the place of the basics (and no, I'm not advocating taking computers out of schools - just teaching the 'basics' before turning kids loose on them). Cursive writing is NOT dead - it just needs to be taught (never know when you MIGHT just need it).

Manners are another thing that have gone to pot with kids -- that's where parents are slipping up big time. Schools are not resposible for that - parents are. If I'd ever said, "yeah" to my parents are a teacher, I probably wouldn't be sitting down today, but kids don't even know how to say, "yes mam or yes sir" today. (most kids). That's the parents place to see to that - not the schools. Teachers should reinforce it, but it needs to start at home!

And we damn sure didn't need a dozen aides in a classroom - one teacher was plenty. We KNEW to behave and do our work! If we didn't we didn't want was going to befall us at home when we got there! Today, teachers and parents "E-MAIL" each other - there's not that much actual communication between them. What ever happened to PARENT-TEACHER conferences - one on one?

I keep harping and my kids just look at me and say, "But what can I do?" You can get your shiney ass to that school and see what the hell is going on!!! Your child is getting D's in conduct - do you not wonder WHY? He's making A's in everything else - do you NOT see a problem?

Ok, I'm on a soapbox! I still say it has to start with a parent's uprising. Until the parents take the upper hand and DO SOMETHING to change things NOTHING will get done to change our education system. WHAT? Go to school board meetings (first find out what's going on in the schools) - go to the state education board (the guys who make the rules). It's all about money. Go to Congress... If we don't do something - nothing will ever get done. The OLD days are gone, but there were some GOOD things about them that NEED to be revised if we want to compete in the REAL WORLD. Our kids are worth it.

Off soap box....

Hugs BD

Well, you didn't have Miss Ayecock... or you darn sure could!

Luckily, I sat next to our congressman's son who could slip me the answers by the time I got over my "coughing spell" (had a lot of coughing spells during my two years of Latin ). But it finally got thru my head (and lungs) it was "easier" to just learn it.

But the funny thing about Latin - I learned English while I was butchering Latin. Had to cause you had to know a noun from a verb and all the parts in between cause there was a certain order they had to be placed in a sentence. Bet they don't diagram sentences anymore either..... I really hated that, but I did know the parts of a "proper" sentence....

Hugs BD

When I was going thru Bill's stuff I found his SLIDE RULE.... Bet kids haven't seen one of those in a while. At one time in my life I even knew how to use one of the darn things. Of course that was back in the stone age before calculators... (and electricity!)

I guess what I'm trying to say is it's amazing how much we "learned" without the aid of all the modern things that kids have today. We were ready for them when they came along and have utilized them well, but have something to fall back on if they fail.

My 13 year old nephew came in last night and we were talking about what he was learning in school. He's a very bright kid. He popped out with they don't learn cursive writing. I asked him "What happens if you need to sign your name some day?" He assured me that his mom and dad had taught him cursive so that wouldn't be a problem. But what about the "others" who's parents "don't" teach them - do they just sign with an X? I just can't imagine a society where kids graduating from high school can't "sign" their names.

Go back to your abacus Steve... it keeps you off the streets..


Hugs BD

Charlie wrote on Dec 30^th, 2008 at 3:19pm:

Yes Charlie, longhand=cursive.

oh my GAWD don't get me started on this topic!!!!!!! 

first of all, I'm only 32, but I went to Catholic school and dammit, we learned a few things. 

I can't believe how much has changed since even I was a kid.

Down here in my area, at least, you can still do shop classes at most schools...depends on the campus.  Some campuses  even still have hairdressing classes, which gets you the credit hours to take the state board exam and get licensed; a damn good trade to have under your belt.

I actually took old-fashioned hand drafting in college in the theatre program!  It was part of Stagecraft, which is basically metal work + woodshop + electrical + drafting all in one.  Best class I've ever taken.
Now I'm getting my degree in Commercial Design (graphic design artist) and these kids in my classes are a mess...they look at me crazy when I pull out my t-square and my triangles and the rest of my "kit", and they can't understand why they don't get A's on everything like I do!! 

Current burnout rates for new teachers is 3-5 years. It's no wonder. They get shit on by the parents, shit on by the kids, shit on by the school administration, shit on by the school board, and shit on by the PTA. A person can only flail their way through so much shit before they finally say, "ENOUGH!!!"

BarbaraD wrote on Jan 1^st, 2009 at 7:32am:

Oh gawd, Charlotte, that happened to my sister, too!  She was teaching 3rd grade regular class, and there was a mother who INSISTED that her severely disabled daughter be integrated...the girl was not much better off than that boy, and she was 17!  The mother REFUSED to believe that her daughter even HAD a problem!!  So my sister had to try to teach 30 students AND care for an invalid.  (oh, yeah, the mom wouldn't LET her daughter wear diapers.)   

the school principal would not stick up for my sister, either...it got so bad that she even climbed out the window once to avoid the mother!!!