We used to think Soviet bread lines where too many people needed too little bread was unthinkable in capitalist society.
Used to.
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The bitter irony about the german kindergarten is: in Germany (where i live) every community is obliged by the law to provide a kindergarten spot for every child. Parents can and do sue the community if they are unable to find one. Plus, all of the kindergartens have good quality standards and raise income-based, affordable fees, in some communities they are even free!
When I look at social security, education, police forces, gun laws, medicare, criminal prosecution, emprisonment, racism etc. I have the feeling that I truely live in the land of the free - and I am grateful!
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I really donāt this this is rich people. Those kids just go to private school. This is for middle class people who want to be rich.
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No, what is really disturbing is the obsession with looking after your own.
As the article points outājust imagine all this energy would go into fighting for decent schools for all kidsāeven those homeless, or without parents. Making things better for everyone, rather than fighting with every breath for your kids to get the best, while at the same time ignoring that your kid will have to live in the same world as the 90% of kids who went to the schools you thought were useless, unacceptable, unacceptable for your delicate offspringāso bad that you felt the need to organise your life around a camping trip to Central Cincinnati.
Ten years ago, when I was looking for secondary schools for my daughter in London I played the system successfully to her advantage. For m the most disturbing aspect was knowing that the kids going to those other schools will leave school inarticulate un-valued and angry, and anger fuelled by the justified sense that this world offers little to them and that they have nothing to loose.
Those kids are 20 now, and 25% of them in London are unemployed (without right to unemployment benefit, in a city where the minimum rent for a cupboard big enough to fit a bed is Ā£100) / week). A social bloody mess that until we realise that the whole is bigger than its parts, and invest in the whole, wonāt get any better.
The trend, of course, is going the other way. Now, ten years later, with my next ten year old there are more options, and more decent school options (the one good thing the Labour Government did achieve) but the lack of solidarity and positioning among parentsāthe lack of willingness to invest and make an effort for the good of the community is virtually non existent. Much of that is also down to the b***dy Blair conspiracy.
To sort out education in the UK, for a start private education should be abolished to stop making the consumption of education part of a messed up consumer culture where basic human needs (clean air / water / knowledge & information are turned into commodities to squeeze them into a messed up economic system.
rant on hold ā¦
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Excuse me, Iām busy memorizing this so I can repeat it verbatim the next time that co-worker says, āI donāt have kids. Why should I have to pay taxes to support schools?ā
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Reading this thread gives me some hope. Itās heartening to see so many people āget itā.
In the USA weāre building a system where well-to-do parents have a choice of sending their children to a charter, magnet or private school, thus becoming an integral and supporting part of an economic system that perpetuates structural racism, or sending their children to a public school that is increasingly devoted to chaining doors, sealing windows, āzero toleranceā discipline, and decreasingly capable of providing quality education. No other options! Either be part of the problem or sacrifice your kidsā future, because our political and economic systems have been purposely redesigned to favor the rich and to prevent social mobility (which is perfectly legal, since it is not racist in intent - it merely perpetuates economic divisions that are racist in effect, and apparently weāre willing to accept that as long as the rich always get the best of everything).
Cory Doctorow convinced me to send my children to a private middle school - essentially I was unwilling to intellectually cripple them in the name of my own principles - but I sent them to the public āfeederā elementary and high schools. In Delaware, schools like my kidsā high school are called āghetto schoolsā by the kids themselves - which is deeply ironic, since they are physically located in mostly-white suburbs and were all-white before desegregation.
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Donāt forget that todayās kids will pay for your co-workerās social security benefits and Medicare. People erroneously think that the money they paid in is paid back to them, but thatās not how it works.
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I have two kids 20 years apart ā the first one went to Fairview GBS and graduated and went on to a successful life. Great school IF you can put up with the snobbery of almost everyone involved and the ādisciplineā. At the time I was so busy with my own life that I could not take much of a stand on some of the outrageous things that I saw there. It was a unique opportunity for my daughter and she is tough, street smart, and very smart in general. The kids go to Germany and stay with households by a kind of exchange arrangement. One of my daughterās best friends, a very attractive, blond girl went to Germany at the same time as my daughter. Letās call her Marry. Marryās parents had managed to get her into the school but were not economically as able both with time and money as the snobs that ran the āvolunteerā program. They lived in a poor neighborhood and her clothes were not as new and her book bag was hand me down. I heard the people in charge of contacting volunteers for various programs degrading or praising parents as they went down their list of parents they were to contact for the honor of volunteering. I donāt remember her parents mentioned in those sessions but what happened to her in Germany was outrageous as was the programās response. She ended up with a single mother and daughter household who wanted Marry to join them when they went out to what Marry described as sex parties. She refused to have anything to do with it, complained to the program manager and instead of finding her a suitable replacement hoome, blamed her for the āmisunderstandingā and told her to stay where she was or return to the US. She cut her āuniqueā international experience short and came home. I get angry every time I think about that. 20 years later I got my son into Fairview. My wife was volunteering in a music class and witnessed a little girl similar to Marry ā dressed in hand me downs, etc. - berated for not being able to carry a tune, having to stand in the middle of class and try unsuccessfully over and over to sing while being berated by the teacher. That little girl probably never sang again. My wife was outraged and went to the principle. The principle blew her off saying something like ~āsome parents have a problem with the music teacherās discipline style but she is a good teacherā. Our son experienced similar belittling by the same teacher due to his tone deafness. Music is important to me. You can easily permanently damage kids. We took our son out of that school and do not regret that decision.
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Thatās exactly what happened to me.
45 years later, Iām singing in a large community chorus, but it took about 40 years for me to get over believing I couldnāt ā and shouldnāt ā sing.
Bullying by a teacher causes egregious harm. You were right to protect your kids.
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Santa Ana, California.
ā¦ it is fun to create a system in which rich people canāt just buy ā¦
Except that the ārichā send their kids to private schools, so itās the middle class and the poor who do this.
per se
pedantry only. No offense.
Good eye! Apologies, was trying to get my comment up before bed. Iām normally pretty good about using per se correctly.
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You know what āperseā means in Finnish?
[duck]
i was unaware it meant duck. Thank you kind sir!
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Iāll go out on a limb and say that NO KIDS deserve a one-size-fits-all education, all kids deserve attention and instruction that fits their level of learning. Montessori for the win, in that case. Itās a pretty good way to have kids in the same classroom with different needs served pretty well.
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