The problem is not a felection of the field, its a rflection of the country. Drama sells, truth does not. Not only that, but there is but a small minority of american who still read the newspaper, most just watch TV. Thus,many do not analyze what is reported any longer as readers may do, most are told by the TV media what is supposedly truth. This blog is an example.

I doubt that poor uneducated folks are blogging here, but I guarantee they watch TV.

As for Oakland education, anything that is charter needs to be a sensationalist story, or an attack to sell the story. I have seen bloggers post that Katy is against charters- this I do not believe. I simply think that this town hates challenges to the system , and attack by the educated or middle class establishment, attack it at every level. That creates drama, and in turn sells papers, or creates importance. Newspapers are going broke, so smut sells.

If anyone out there reads for truth-get off this blog.

I am far from a “Christian” type despite my familiarity with the holy rollers. I have no reverence for the Catholics and indeed believe their superstitions are no more than a cult in it’s declining years.

So my feelings and observations are not tieds to any supposed religious fever or bias. Of course there are teachers that manage to move in on bullies or bad and misbehaving kids. BUT. The overpowering experience that I have from the public schools from infrequent personal observations of their classes in session to constant experiences with the products of the public schools (jury selection and life in the courts and streets generally) is that the public schools in no way are in the business of teaching right and wrong in absolutes. My experiences, reading and conversation with others including public school students and parents (poorer relatives are still at OUSD) are that the public schools nowadays firmly teach what the conservative christians like to call “humanism” and I call self-centered BS. My ire in this is also affected by the trends I see. I feel that despite their familiarity with some technology our graduating public school students are more and more clueless about human nature, American and World History, basic economics and economic theory. Despite earlier puberty these fully grown children seem less mature and more childish including having a lack of emotional control. Rightly or wrongly I blame the schools (and to a lesser degree their parents) for this.

But that’s just my experience related to California urban schools and other states public schools. Your experience may be different which is why I desperately need to hear it. I could use some good news and some reason to hope that these kids might be able to take care of themselves in the bad and Brave New World they are about to get stuck with.

You will need to write much more than this to impress me with your experience with people. Please do.

Being a new teacher, I would love to work at AIPCS or a school like it. My number one interest is seeing children reach their highest potential. The rest is politics, as usual.

Last night I was told by another local parent that an AIPCS student who was recently sick with Swine Flu and was coughing blood was told by the school to “come anyway.”

Perfect attendance is worth any cost, I suppose.

Your quote below is entirely untrue and out to lunch.

(Nextset’s inaccurate and entirely uninformed speculation: “The current emphasis in public school education is that morals and behavior is relative with no absolutes and that people especially “good” people are expected to tolerate all but the most violent behaviors of others.”)

Public school teachers have to deal all the time with discouraging kids from committing such misdeeds as lying, stealing and hurting others — it’s a thread that runs through their day-to-day classroom communication. (I would assume that private-school teachers do too.) In addition, many public schools (and presumably privates too) focus specifically on anti-bullying and “positive school culture” (meaning don’t hurt others, lie, steal etc.), either by coaching their teachers in getting those messages across or in special programs such as TRIBES. It’s from outer space to imagine that a teacher would welcome the chaos in the classroom that would ensue if the teacher weren’t reinforcing standards of behavior, needless to say.

What do you think teachers do in altercations and other troublesome situations? You’re really not thinking straight. I mean, I’m trying to remember the rare incidents my kids have been involved in: For example, a scene in 2nd grade where the boy at the next table grabbed the box of markers my son’s table was using, my son firmly took the box back, and the troublemaker grabbed and started choking my son. (The assailant, by the way, was one of the white minority in the school, from a good Catholic churchgoing family — gee, I’m so glad his religion taught him standards of behavior.) In your weird notions of how teachers never enforce any behavioral standards, what would you imagine happened, Nextset? On this actual planet, the teacher rapidly pried the boy off my son and marched him to the office, where she and the principal read him the riot act and called his parents. He was in in-house suspension for a period and referred to counseling too. (My son, by the way, has never even once been in any kind of trouble for anything more serious than neglecting his homework — despite his flamingly godless upbringing.) I mean, this is just one incident the details of which I’m personally aware, but this kind of stuff is what happens in classes sometimes — public and private both — and teachers — public and private — reinforce behavioral and moral standards every time they deal with it. It’s just out of touch with reality to imagine it doesn’t.

My daughter ran into some difficult situations in third grade with typical third-grade girl bullying: “Who said YOU could play?” type crap. The teacher admonished and sometimes disciplined the bully, whose parents eventually removed her to a private school because she was having “social difficulties.” (The behavior continued in the private school, friends there tell me.) Anyway, in what universe do you think the teacher would just act like all bad behavior must be respected?

Your whole notion is completely ridiculous and utterly out of touch with reality. As to whether more people who trash their lives come from public school — well, first you’d have to do some kind of study (I certainly know people from both backgrounds who have trashed their lives). But then you’d have to control for the fact that poor people are more likely to go to public school and also more likely to be vulnerable to whatever makes people trash their lives. Same with troubled people, since private schools won’t accept them.

Correlation — if there IS correlation, which is just your speculation — doesn’t equal causation, as my public-schooled son likes to remind me. If you’d gone all the way through public school as he did, maybe you’d have learned enough to understand that principle too, Nextset!

I am familiar enough with CA public schools and stand by that statement – although it is a generalization. Public High Schools typically not only do not teach morals and behavior they teach it’s opposites. But that’s just my experience over several decades.

I’d really like to hear from those whose experiences are different and how so. I’d love for this to not be true, but my work with people and young people in and out of the courts is compelling. They very much not being taught what we were in High School – at all. We can talk about College life also but this blog is specifically primary and secondary education.

The current emphasis in public school education is that morals and behavior is relative with no absolutes and that people especially “good” people are expected to tolerate all but the most violent behaviors of others. And even then bad actors are expected to be accepted later when they promise to play nice and fair. I can expound on this further but I think the readers understand my point. And for real trouble, teach a girl to grow up pleasing others, agreeing with others, and wanting (a lot) to be “loved”.

Another way of putting it, a high school 10th or 11th grader is unable to predict or understand why Judge Judy or Dr Laura or Judge Joe Brown would take a position that that they commonly do or why. They would continue to be amazed and surprised at a ruling or judgement in those shows or a position these older people would take. You could call it the Culture Gap except we are talking about law and societial mores that are the foundation of how people do business and relate to each other.

I see products of the public schools who have run their businesses into the ground, wrecked their jobs, occupations or professions, bankrupted themselves, wrecked their health, and otherwise not taken care of themselves their kids or their property and lives because they just didn’t learn how to live. And those are just the Civil Cases. Yes bad parents contributed to these problems but poor parenting and good schools would not have led to these trainwrecks. Good times hid some of this but tough times are here and I suppose that’s why so many people of all colors (not just black) are in trouble now.

When I ask these people how could they let all this happen the answer is very often some variation of they were “being nice” – because being correct (as I was taught) involved some variation on saying “no” and not doing something that was pleasing to them and others at the time they did it.

In my work I wade through an awful lot of pain, other people’s pain. Yesterday wasn’t a good day and I’m still bothered by it. I suppose I’m preaching because I can’t fix all these people, just try and help them as much as I can.

I can’t imagine being a physician and dealing with people in real distress from preventable trauma and disease. Other relatives get that pleasure. And I watched them develop tough shells also.

I miss the days when we thought everything would always just get better and better, for everyone.

Brave New World.

“We don’t teach anything in the public schools about morality (except tolerating other’s behavior).”

You acknowledge that you didn’t attend public school, and it’s not clear whether you have kids, but clearly you’re not sending them public if you do.

I attended California public schools K-12, albeit long ago; and I have a Class of 2009 graduate and a 10th-grader who have attended California (urban) public schools all the way through. I’m a very involved parent and volunteer at their schools. Basic morals and behavior are certainly addressed all the time at school. I’m very familiar with what’s being taught and you are entirely unfamiliar with it, so how can you even say that?

We learn what “mean” is when we grow up and get a job. Childhood “mean” is often not real mean.

As far as Chavis (who I’ve never met) “using” the kids – well, grow up and get a job. People do what they want in their own self interests and in the intrests of causes they advocate. Expect it. That’s life. It’s a free country (for awhile, anyway). Is this a crime??

And Bill Cosby is capable and competent to make his own decisions of what he does with his time and his reputation. You apparently just don’t like Chavis or what he’s about. Chavis really doesn’t need any aproval from you either. You aren’t accusing Chavis of criminal or immoral behavior I believe, just saying you don’t like his style – am I correct?

But I do have a question for you. What do you think of the families who send their kids to Chavis’ school – despite anything they may read about him here or elsewhere? Do you believe there is no reason or no excuse for anyone to go to that school? Or are you just saying that you personally would go elsewhere?

Does anyone care if he is a Native Indian or not? Can Indians be found with blue eyes? Why do you think he doean’t care about the black community?? Do you believe OUSD “cares” about the black community?