The 10,000 Post Thread v2

[RipRap 4,400]

(6566)

Ugh, homeschooling. I used to know someone who home-schooled their kids. She and her family moved right next-door to me. And about 2 years after they moved in, she sent them to public schools. But the oldest one dropped out, and they abandoned their house and moved to Texas. However, they left the pipes on and turned the heat off. So in the winter, the water froze and the pipes "exploded". The ceiling collapsed and mold started to grow. I believe the house is now condemned.

6571

:| Wow I guess there are many disadvantages of homeschooling

EDIT: Welcome to Page 220!

  Edited November 19, 2011 by 111222333444  

[Duke87 1,070]

(6572)

Still, the origin of Thanksgiving should be common knowledge. It's a simple thing to know; even 4-year-olds do.

But only because they've been taught it in school and/or by their parents. If this girl is homeschooled and her parents didn't teach her, it's quite understandable that she wouldn't know. Very often homeschooled kids are selectively educated; the parents only teach them what they consider important.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

6573

Is knowing the origin of Thanksgiving really all that important to begin with? It's just a harvest festival, there are lots of cultures around the world that have one.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

6574

6569.

I have a problem with that, the goverment should not tell people where they can and can not school their kids.

99% of the general populace probably agrees with it. Its a Dutch thing. No one has really heard of home schooling or think its a good idea. Its just common knowledge to have your kids go to school which is why many people don't really care about this law. It was also implemented 1901 as a combatant to child labour forcing children to go to public schooling. Nothing about this law has changed since.

The education standard in the Netherlands is very government controlled, to the point where teachers assess which school level you go to in the future, VMBO (Workplace Oriented), HBO (Community College Oriented), VWO (University Oriented). But that's not to say that you can't go to University in VMBO. You need to do VMBO first and then do VWO before you can go to University.

Although, this may seem crazy. Dutch education is ranked 9th highest in the world according to OCED. The US is ranked 29th which is far below the OCED average.

Edit:

I believe Americans are usually afraid of government control which is definitely understandable considering the political situation there. However, more than 12 political parties are represented in Dutch parliament which allows for much less government corruption.

  Edited November 20, 2011 by Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ  

[Frdm920 50]

6575

Yeah the Dutch system sounds a bit weird, but it works

[Jack³ 291]

6576

We Americans are just so childish, demanding, and whiny. The only reason they are protesting is because they can.

[RipRap 4,400]

6577

:| Yeah, I believe that Americans are that but others are like that too

[Duke87 1,070]

(6578)

Is knowing the origin of Thanksgiving really all that important to begin with?

In the greater scheme of things, no. But it is kinda weird to not know.

Of course, they don't really tell you in school that the "first thanksgiving" took place a good 250 years before the holiday ostensibly based on it started being celebrated. Or that the clothing the Pilgrims are commonly depicted wearing is not the least bit historically accurate and is in fact quite absurd (hats with buckles on them? Really?).

Although, this may seem crazy. Dutch education is ranked 9th highest in the world according to OCED. The US is ranked 29th which is far below the OCED average.

Yes, well if the US were a homogeneous society of only 17 million people I'm sure we'd fare better at a lot of things, not just education.

This is something a lot of people fail to grasp or, more commonly, do not wish to admit. A lot of the problems the US have are not because of poor management. They are because we are a highly diverse country with a lot of different sorts of people from all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures attempting to live together... but we don't always understand each other and have different needs and desires. A lot easier to design things to work with one type of person that to design them to work with all sorts of different people.

[simcity4deluxe 95]

6579

I think Thanksgiving is one of the best years, especially Black Friday, and my birthday is pretty close to that date any ways.

  Edited November 20, 2011 by simcity4deluxe  

[617squad 52]

6580:

Well, back from a week of a crashed internet modem and router. (stupid incompetent ISP) anyways, yes, thanksgiving, great food, but i think it's becoming a little over commercialized like Christmas and all.

[Larks2242 251]

6581.

Well like Duke said, its good to know the country's histroy but it isn't a matter of life & death.

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

6582

I never liked nuts and chocolate mixed together.

Also, is the Netherlands a perfect utopia? Or do they actually have problems and issues just like everybody else?

[astronelson 339]

6583.

There are certain situations where homeschooling would be preferable to going to an actual school. The only one I can think off the top of my head of is where the schools fail miserably at providing education. Like, say, teaching creationism in science class.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

6584

Yes, well if the US were a homogeneous society of only 17 million people I'm sure we'd fare better at a lot of things, not just education.

This is something a lot of people fail to grasp or, more commonly, do not wish to admit. A lot of the problems the US have are not because of poor management. They are because we are a highly diverse country with a lot of different sorts of people from all sorts of different backgrounds and cultures attempting to live together... but we don't always understand each other and have different needs and desires. A lot easier to design things to work with one type of person that to design them to work with all sorts of different people.

Interesting thought and it makes perfect sense. I'm sure its quite easier to manage a country of only 17 million than a mega country of 307 million.

Also, is the Netherlands a perfect utopia? Or do they actually have problems and issues just like everybody else?

The Netherlands has problems like every other country. There's a lot of problems with immigration and nationalism here. The economy isn't doing so well either...

There are certain situations where homeschooling would be preferable to going to an actual school. The only one I can think off the top of my head of is where the schools fail miserably at providing education. Like, say, teaching creationism in science class.

But you don't think that there would be other schooling options? Private schooling or maybe even switching schools?

[Duke87 1,070]

(6585)

There are certain situations where homeschooling would be preferable to going to an actual school. The only one I can think off the top of my head of is where the schools fail miserably at providing education. Like, say, teaching creationism in science class.

But you don't think that there would be other schooling options? Private schooling or maybe even switching schools?

Not everyone can afford private school. And with public school, in most places in the US, switching schools is not an option - you're in the district for a specific school and it's go there or don't go to public school.

One exception of note to this: New York City has a system set up where they allow parents to choose to send their kids to any public high school in the city if they don't like their local public high school. This was done as a way to improve teacher performance by introducing competition... but it's been controversial, since what's happened is that it's served to separate students out by economic demographics. Parents who are working class rarely avail themselves of this ability. Only parents who are more well-off take the initiative to send their kids out of district. Which means you now have a few really good schools where all the rich kids go, and a lot of not as nice schools where everyone else goes. This of course was not what the program was designed to do, but it's been the unintended consequence.

[RipRap 4,400]

6586

Yikes.

[Jack³ 291]

6587

I saw something on the news where they were trying to stop programs like that in Utah. A lot of people where I live, prefer not to send their kids to the city's public schools that have a terrible reputation being the 2nd largest district in the state and eight largest city. They always are petitioning to change the district borders and are trying to send their kids to schools in the suburbs.

[simcity4deluxe 95]

6588

I go to a school outside of Dallas.

[Duke87 1,070]

(6589)

My other hometown (Stamford, CT), meanwhile, has a different issue with school districting. Connecticut state law mandates that the racial makeup of any one school in a town must not deviate by more than 5% from the racial makeup of the town overall. This is a civil rights movement era law that was put in place to prevent towns from skewing their districts to put everyone from the white areas into one school and everyone from the black areas into another.

Problem in Stamford's case is, that while the city overall is fairly diverse, the population is by no means evenly spread out. The northern end of the city is almost entirely white, and some parts of the southern end of the city are almost entirely minority, with it being a bit more mixed in places in between. As a result, the city is not able to just dot schools around town and send everyone to the nearest one... most of the schools are clustered in the middle area of the city, with only one in the southern area and one in the northern area. And the district boundaries, if looked at on a map, appear to make absolutely no sense and are drawn all higgledy-piggledy (especially for the elementary schools, which there are more of). Why? Well, this is what the city is forced to do to comply with the law about racial makeup. If they placed the schools and drew the districts in a way that was geographically logical, there would be some schools that would basically be all white and others that would basically be all minority... and that's illegal (not to mention politically incorrect besides). So, the city wastes fuel busing kids further away from home than they otherwise would have to in the interest of keeping an even racial distribution in the schools. My sister had a friend who quite literally would drive past one high school in town to get to the other one, which she went to. Because they needed to import the darker skin from her neighborhood.

Crazy, in'nt it?

[RipRap 4,400]

6590

Just updating something...

Here, there are no problems regarding race in schools, just bullying..

[Larks2242 251]

6591.

There are certain situations where homeschooling would be preferable to going to an actual school. The only one I can think off the top of my head of is where the schools fail miserably at providing education. Like, say, teaching creationism in science class.

6591.

Alot of it has to do with political ideology, like forcing liberal ideas too.

[Duke87 1,070]

(6592)

Just updating something...

Here, there are no problems regarding race in schools, just bullying..

There are no problems with race in schools in Connecticut either, just an antiquated law that makes an issue out of something that needn't be one.

[Jack³ 291]

6593

In my city racism is an issue in schools. They try to keep in diverse. It is somewhat related to the city's crime. There are fights in schools and on the streets. We have a shootings and gangfights all the time. A few weeks ago, a gang member shot and killed a 5 year old. So, I guess the gangs are more of a problem than racism. It just depends on which side of the city you live on.

  Edited November 21, 2011 by jack3oh3  

[RipRap 4,400]

6594

Winnipeg broke its homicide record due to gangs :|

[Larks2242 251]

6595.

Recently?

[Ocram's Razr 963]

6596

I love Anno 2070 so far!

The way your school system is set up sounds very much like Gerrymandering. The Seattle Public Schools have a complex algorithm for how students are allocated to schools: the nearest schools are given priority (and are usually the automatic choice), if an older sibling goes to a school then the younger siblings end up there also unles they sign up for a different one, schools in high demand (parents sign up to put their students there) take into account several factors including grades, predicted success in each school, gender, race (if a school has low diversity one way or another, the races with the fewest students in those particular schools are given preference), and other factors.

  Edited November 21, 2011 by OcramSeattle  

[NMUSpidey 3,956]

6597

The city in which I grew up was geographically organized for schools. So, yeah, there were basically all white and all minority schools around town. My parents moved to the suburbs and I ended up at a school where you could count the minority kids on two hands. The school had about 1200 students at the time. They were always whining about needed more classrooms and a larger building.

Where I work in Japan, it's all Japanese kids (of course). But the problem they face is emptying schools. I work at schools where literally half the rooms go unused for anything other than storage. One school I go to averages ten kids per class. And by that I mean, ten kids per grade, 1st through 6th grade. My high school and junior high would kill for that kind of space, but it does come at a cost...

[Duke87 1,070]

(6598)

Japan, from my understanding, has a shrinking population. Birth rate is too low for replacement, and there isn't much immigration.

[Eʟᴇᴍᴇɴᴛ 273]

6599

If it wasn't for immigration, then the population would fall in many developed countries like Japan.

[simcity4deluxe 95]

6600!

I'm off to go to Florida after I'm done here, see you later!