Thoughts on Schooling in the U.S.

[RevolutionIsComing]

When I started high school 5 years ago, it was at a Private school. I am an atheist (though my parents are Christian) and figured I was going because the education was better. I finished my first 2 years and decided to switch schools, because I couldn't stand religion or the fact most of the people there were conservative. The school's teachers were not represented by a union and the school ranked top 150 in the US for private schools.

I then attended the public school (unionized like a motherfucker) and found that the teachers there were more concerned with my well being and I like them much more.

Three questions/comments on this;

1. I know some private schools are represented by a union, but my was not. Did the fact that I knew this in any way add a bias to my experience, being FAR left?

2. Is this an isolated incident or are public schools really not that bad? I certainly think if you want to learn it doesn't matter where you are.

3. Also, if you're wondering, I'm in Pittsburgh, PA, obviously a liberal hotbed.

*Sorry for spelling mistakes. I'm typing on my fathers phone.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

1. I know some private schools are represented by a union, but my was not. Did the fact that I knew this in any way add a bias to my experience, being FAR left?

I doubt it. Aside from the fact that none of us would know your situation better than yourself, the presence of a Teacher's Union (alas no Student's Union) would make little impact on you turning to revolutionary politics.


2. Is this an isolated incident or are public schools really not that bad? I certainly think if you want to learn it doesn't matter where you are.

It depends on where you are. Some public schools are well run with friendly, caring staff that know what they are doing; bullying is kept in check and discrimination is dealt with promptly while catering as best they can to each student's needs. Others, however, are the exact opposite: textbooks are hideously out of date, the staff doesn't care about the students, and administration does the bare minimum to be called a "school". Here we would see high bullying and discrimination along with poor construction making for an unsafe learning environment.

There is no standard, to be honest. I, however, have heard far more of the latter than the former.

Also, liberalism is a social-cancer: I would say that the more liberal ideology around you the more of an impediment there is to becoming radicalized; it is like a veil which obscures your development with promises of falsity.

[Jimmie Higgins]

1. I know some private schools are represented by a union, but my was not. Did the fact that I knew this in any way add a bias to my experience, being FAR left?I suppose if you went into the situation already assuming this would be the case, it could have colored your view.


2. Is this an isolated incident or are public schools really not that bad? I certainly think if you want to learn it doesn't matter where you are. Public schools have all pretty much been put under a lot of strain and have lost resources and cirriculum flexibility over the last generation. However, not all public schools have been impacted by this equally. Even where the cut-backs or class-size increases have been more or less the same, many public schools have resorted to leaning on parents and the community to make up for the gap. Some of this is very small and hard to notice (like starving schools of funds slowly causing parents and teachers to have to begin to replenish supplies for classrooms - teachers loosing assistance and having to take on more prep-work themselves, etc). So schools with a lot of "community support" often do fund-raising through the school itself or PTA and ask for parents to voulunteer or help donate supplies.

Also the more economically and socially stable a community is, the more likely that the school and students will probably be able to work around deficits in resources or whatnot. So middle class parents will hire more tutors or SAT-prep outside (or through) the school, students who have stable home-lives are more likely to have time and their own space to study, the ability to create or pay for their own after-school programs for music or art or other enriching things. Communities where life is more unstable and stressful and where prospects for an education actually helping achieve a better life are slimmer, expereience more demoralization and pressimism as the result of loosing stability and resources within the schools.

So a public school in a neglected urban or rural area is going to have a harder time to cope than a public school in a wealthier or even just stable working class environment.