[lbo-talk] They call it education...

[John Thornton]

I graduated from HS over 20 years ago.
I was in school in the 70's and barely into the 80's.
I have no doubt that school is much changed. I 
know several HS and middle school teachers and 
when I speak with them about what is happening in 
their classes I am occasionally surprised.
The point I made is still valid.
I have nieces and nephews who attend both public 
and private grade schools and high schools today 
and while the differences between today and 
yesterday do exist the differences between public 
and private schools are, in my opinion, mostly 
exaggerated.
I can certainly find a private school that has 
tremendous resources and offers a greater than 
average learning environment but one can find that 
some disparity within the public school system itself.
While many private schools for elites do seem 
higher pressure than many public schools they are 
a very small percentage of private schools. most 
private schools are religious schools, xtian and 
catholic, and have more limited resources than the 
average for public schools.
Don't underestimate the number of guns elite white 
kids carry these days.

John Thornton

Michael J. Smith wrote:
> On Monday 20 November 2006 22:46, John Thornton wrote:
> 
>> I have attended both a public and private middle 
>> school and high school and the private school was 
>> in general a much better learning environment. 
> 
> I may be venturing on a personal question here, but
> was this a recent experience? In the last fifteen years
> or so, private schools, as far as my experience goes, 
> have felt even more strongly than the public ones the
> impact of the pressure-cooker or feed-lot mentality -- 
> what I call the No Child Left Alone movement. 
> 
> Private schools are still "better learning environments"
> in the sense that they have better facilities and smaller 
> classes and probably fewer handguns in backpacks. 
> But the needles of the private school penal engine, 
> clean and shiny though they are, drive even deeper 
> and more relentlessly into the flesh of their clientele.   
>