<story><title>Could You Modify It ‘To Stop Students From Becoming This Advanced?’</title><url>http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/could-you-modify-it-to-stop-students-from-becoming-this-advanced/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sequoia</author><text>I&apos;m a parent of two who does NOT plan on putting his kids in public school because I think they won&apos;t be served well there (plan on &quot;home schooling&quot;).  My 5yo uses Khan Academy and it seems to be great.  Finally, I basically hate most aspects of public school.&lt;p&gt;That said, I get sick of everyone piling on public school whenever something like this comes up.  Public school is set to the following task: &quot;take &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;everyone&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;everywhere&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, all across the country, and bring them to the same level of proficiency across the board, with tightly limited funding and regardless of outside factors.&quot;  Someone comes along and finds a tool that works on a teeny tiny cohort then climbs on their pedestal and declares their system better than public schools.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I think public schools are being set to an (almost?) impossible task.  What the reviewer said in that article about &quot;slow them down please&quot; is obviously abhorrent, but the &quot;They have a monopoly! They&apos;re monopolists!&quot; chatter is silly, in my opinion.  First of all they don&apos;t have a monopoly (for those who can afford it: private charter homeschooling etc.).  Secondly, they are just trying to do their best to meet their goals &lt;i&gt;with what they have&lt;/i&gt;.  It&apos;s selfish, yes, but having students at more or less the same level of competency makes it easier for them to do the task to which they&apos;ve been set.&lt;p&gt;When I was in school, the teacher would often say &quot;Sequoia, that&apos;s a great question, but it&apos;s a bit advanced and I&apos;ve got 30 other students here.  I can&apos;t spend a lot of time answering advanced questions when half the class is struggling with basic concepts.&quot;  That was annoying and I&apos;m not going to send my kids to public school in part because of it, but I didn&apos;t rail against the teacher for being a selfish monopolist.  S/he was just doing his/her best given the circumstances and requirements: often times public schools are doing the same.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: an article that informs my thinking here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?pagination=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-ch...&lt;/a&gt; Great article, whether you&apos;ve seen &lt;i&gt;Waiting for Superman&lt;/i&gt; (hit piece &quot;documentary&quot; about why public schools suck and charter schools are the answer) or not.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dkokelley</author><text>I was home schooled, and I wish there was a Khan Academy when I was growing up. We did use something similar with DVDs and an electronic blackboard.&lt;p&gt;All in all, it worked out well for me, and I would encourage you to stick with home schooling. If you can, find a private school that allows home study. That way, you can get group field trips and sports activities while staying in control of your child&apos;s educational growth.</text></comment>
<story><title>Could You Modify It ‘To Stop Students From Becoming This Advanced?’</title><url>http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/could-you-modify-it-to-stop-students-from-becoming-this-advanced/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sequoia</author><text>I&apos;m a parent of two who does NOT plan on putting his kids in public school because I think they won&apos;t be served well there (plan on &quot;home schooling&quot;).  My 5yo uses Khan Academy and it seems to be great.  Finally, I basically hate most aspects of public school.&lt;p&gt;That said, I get sick of everyone piling on public school whenever something like this comes up.  Public school is set to the following task: &quot;take &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;everyone&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, &lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;everywhere&lt;i&gt;&lt;/i&gt;, all across the country, and bring them to the same level of proficiency across the board, with tightly limited funding and regardless of outside factors.&quot;  Someone comes along and finds a tool that works on a teeny tiny cohort then climbs on their pedestal and declares their system better than public schools.&lt;p&gt;Personally, I think public schools are being set to an (almost?) impossible task.  What the reviewer said in that article about &quot;slow them down please&quot; is obviously abhorrent, but the &quot;They have a monopoly! They&apos;re monopolists!&quot; chatter is silly, in my opinion.  First of all they don&apos;t have a monopoly (for those who can afford it: private charter homeschooling etc.).  Secondly, they are just trying to do their best to meet their goals &lt;i&gt;with what they have&lt;/i&gt;.  It&apos;s selfish, yes, but having students at more or less the same level of competency makes it easier for them to do the task to which they&apos;ve been set.&lt;p&gt;When I was in school, the teacher would often say &quot;Sequoia, that&apos;s a great question, but it&apos;s a bit advanced and I&apos;ve got 30 other students here.  I can&apos;t spend a lot of time answering advanced questions when half the class is struggling with basic concepts.&quot;  That was annoying and I&apos;m not going to send my kids to public school in part because of it, but I didn&apos;t rail against the teacher for being a selfish monopolist.  S/he was just doing his/her best given the circumstances and requirements: often times public schools are doing the same.&lt;p&gt;EDIT: an article that informs my thinking here: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-charter-schools/?pagination=false&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/nov/11/myth-ch...&lt;/a&gt; Great article, whether you&apos;ve seen &lt;i&gt;Waiting for Superman&lt;/i&gt; (hit piece &quot;documentary&quot; about why public schools suck and charter schools are the answer) or not.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>klenwell</author><text>Well put.&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Finally, I basically hate most aspects of public school.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I was ready to agree with this. But then I reflected. What I really hated were my rotten peers (and, to an extent, my rotten self) from around the start of junior high to the end of high school. They weren&apos;t horrible, mind you. Just middle-of-the-distribution-curve kids, with the inevitable psychopath or two. I don&apos;t think privatization is going to filter that out.&lt;p&gt;And I rather liked my public community colleges and universities.</text></comment>