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>>Let me preface what I am about to say with some history: I am certified to teach in 5 areas. My Princton Teachers Apptitude and Knowledge ranking was 99+ percentile. I loved to teach and had a blast doing it. I have been voted runner up 'Teach of the Year' several times where I taught at college. (Always a brides maid, never a bride! :) ) I was a 'favorite teacher' nearly every year I taught at high school. My college calculus team scored 40 out of 244 teams in the entire country, receving honorable mention in a national contest and beating the Air Forace Academy, Yale, and some other notable schools. After renewing my teaching certificate I spent a year substitute teaching at all of the high schools and junior high schools in the county.
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>>>Basically, from my understanding, American high schools are geared toward >producing hard workers, not great thinkers.
>>
>>I wish that were true. Few, if any, of today's high school graduates could pass a standard 8th grade final exam, given a century ago. Today's graduates have no adequate knowledge of our own culture, history, constitution and, in fact, are taught pro Socialist, anti-American, and sometimes racist (anti-waspm) attitudes under the guise of 'diversity' training. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't had to take that training to renew my Standard Teaching Certificate. All that current HS graduates have grown up on huge doses of 'self esteem' nurished by 'group-think', which produces the attitude that they are smarter than students from any other country. (Group-think is interesting: if the group says that 2+2=5 then it is) Little, if any, of this self-esteem is based on actual, meaningful or significant achievement. In recent international math tests American high school students came in last out of 44 countries, yet when asked how they thought they did (before the results were
>>known) all said they would be within the top 10%, if not higher. American students do not even recieve adequate health education any more. Health classes are 'taught' by coaches who were hired because they had a teaching certificate, but are usually fired because they could not produce a winning football team. Most HS coaches I've met in HS are semi-literate packages of testosterone, who can't even teach the students to wash their hands after they use the restroom.
>>
>>As far as being trained to work hard: that is an individual thing, not a cultural expectation. We hire lots of temps here, and many of them are recent HS grads, or at least under 30 yrs old. Few can do the simple clerical work required (data entry at computer terminals, filing papers by various sort schemes, etc...). They are late to work, if they come in on Mondays at all (ask them why and "I partied too much over the weekend"), they call in sick alot, their work is substandard and requires a lot of editing and repair, they complain alot, they cannot read and understand ordinary written instructions, and some cannot understand when the instructions are read to them, they have short memory and attention spans, and they frequently become 'sick' and have to leave. And these are corn fed Nebraskans, the heartland of America, the ones who, on the average, score higher on most academic tests than students from the big cities. I can only imagine what the students from large urban
>>areas are like. Most of our best workers are 50 years old, and older. One lady, nearly 70, entered as many homested records as the other three temps combined.
>>
>>There are exceptions coming out of public schools, but these students achieve in spite of the school system, not because of it. Also, there is an increasing number of students who attend private grade and high schools, at great expense to their parents because public school taxes are still being assesed to them. These students are outstanding, but they are in the minority.
>>
>>I fear for America. Not because of Ben Laden and his thugs, but because of what Political Correctness has done to our educational system in the name of diversity. Even the college level has been badly damaged. The only segments of our educational system that produce top notch graduates are the graduate schools, in most areas except the social sciences.
>>
>>I noticed that the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, Sir V.S. Naipual made this comment about radical Islamic fundamentalism,, "To be converted, you have to destroy your past, destroy your history. You have to stamp on it, you have to say, 'My ancestral culture does not exist, it doesn't matter.'"
>>
>>That is true not only for cultures which are destroyed by radical Islamic fundamentalism, it is true for our culture, which is being destroy by Political Correctenss and 'diversity' training.
>>
>>(no, I didn't spell check this so ignore spelling and typos :)
>
>
>Jerry;
>
>
>Some observations about public school education in America.
>
>Our daughter went to Catholic School except for the last two years of High School. Her public School was typical of what is found in the state of California. Problem solving was done in groups of 5 persons. My daughter was always the one who did the work, provided the answers and gave the presentations. Her final year of High School was spent in an Honors Program at a local college. We had problems with our sons (Catholic High School) and daughter’s schools. We were told schools were there to allow students to “socialize, which is the most important thing they will learn”!
>
>Neither of our children has a problem dealing with supporting or thinking for themselves, as well as dealing with people. Most other kids of their age have a problem with reality but no problem having a party. My wife and I stress education and that is the way we raised our children.
>
>A fact: 95 – 97% of the students who graduate from Catholic High Schools in the State of California will graduate from college. 17% of the students who graduate from Public High Schools in our state will graduate from college. There must be a message there.
>
>When I attended school, California Public High Schools were in the top 10% of the United States. Now we are somewhere around 49th. But we know how to party!
>
>When it comes to “Political Correctness and 'diversity' training”, we know all about it. These were concepts invented by the University of California, at Berkeley. Somehow it seems like these subjects should have been taught to children by his/her (to be politically correct, rather than the term “their”) parents from the beginning of life.

The John F Kennedy High School in Berkeley was, in the first half of the 60s, a magnet school. It's student body had a fair representation of the races, with the majority being Blacks and Whites. They also lived in the same housing area of the community, essentially a hetrogeneous community of equals, economically and socially. Then come Johnson's "Great Society" legislation - and all the ills it foamented - a 5 trillion dollar waste which essentially promoted racism and destroyed the Black family structure by driving the father out of the home and making the mothers and children perpetual dependents of the state. It also created a voting block of folks with a vested interest in maintaining the handouts. Taking away someone's self-dependence and reliance is the most degrading thing you can do to them in a society that came from a tradition of personal freedom and liberty. The freedom to try, to succeede or fail, and take responsibility for the results. Now we have folks always looking for someone to blame for their own incompetence and stupidity - the lady spilling the cup of coffee while trying to drive and blaming McDonalds for her own poor judement is just one of many shining examples.

More recently, JFK Highschool students are renown for vilolence, drugs and guns, in addition to PCness.

It is understandable why increasing numbers of parents are opting out of public schools in favor of private schools, where children are held accountable for their behavior and parents *must* maintain interest and support of their children.

>
>San Francisco is famous for accepting others from all over the world. This has been true from its beginning. It is the way I was raised and no one had to force me to do it. I have worked with all kinds of human beings, and been in management. Our laboratory had people from every basic race and religion and we got along great – just like a good family – and we helped each other so many times to resolve personal problems. We were a great support system for each other.
>
>I applied for a management job an a company and was told that I had to have a “proper attitude and respect towards people of diverse cultures”. Because I was 45 at the time, I was told by a 25 year old HR type, “I do not think you can fit that requirement”! I question him on that answer and was told, “older people do not know how to deal with diversity”! I was not hired.
>
>I must admit I still find it hard to deal with idiots, but I do have a sense of humor!
>
>Tom