And I thought that the way Texas runs its schools was bad. Or at least crazy.
Good to know we’ve got some company re: idiosyncratic illogical nay destructive underpinnings responsible for shaping our future compatriots. Y’all (UK folks) still absolutely have the corner market on humor, so thank you all here and now for that tonic. I can’t begin to count how often I’ve written “laugh to keep from crying” in the past decade… probably quantifiable only using x1023 etc.
The monumental waste of human potential is what gets my goat.
Winnie famously was a real problem child in grammar school. John Lennon too. I guess if there were any positives to hang my hopes on re: bad schools and bad school policies the world over, it would be that some (vanishingly) few misfits and so-called troublemakers are created, like diamonds, under heat and great pressure, and go on to do amazing things we are all grateful for later. Much later.
We don’t need no education We don’t need no thought control…
Yeah it’s a constant thorn in my side since they took away his bully pulpit. Imagine what the debates and public discourse would be like in the U.S. if Bernie were at the mic, talking about actual substantive issues that scare the hell outta me, and not the complete bullshit tangents like Miss Universe and whatever palliative pap Hillary Clinton feeds us.
Thanks for helping me understand, as I find the school system in England alien enough to need a local guide.
I think I remember being told that U.S. private schools are called “public schools” in England, or maybe it was U.S. public schools = English private school. I am sorry to be so confused!
Can English communities (I dunno: townships? precincts? sorry again for my ignorance) assert any kind of local control over their schools? Are there any co-operative schools for the younger students? or community-run English schools? We have some interesting alternative schools around Austin and its five-county metro area, I don’t mean church-affiliated.
Also popular-ish here in central Texas: home-schooling and unschooling. The very religious (read: fundamentalist Christians) have some common cause with non-religious parents who simply wish to educate their kids (secularly) themselves. Strange bedfellows. Astonishingly, Texas does make room for these varied groups, and typically the kids are tested annually (standardized tests based on grade level) just to make sure everyone’s keeping up.
Thanks for taking the time. I appreciate your insights.