Children At Risk - 15 Ways Public Schools Can Harm Your Children
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Unfortunately, public schools, even in the "best" neighborhoods, can harm our kids in many ways. Here's a list of 15 ways public schools can hurt children (and parents):
1. Public schools cripple millions of children's ability to read by using the "whole-language" instruction method (now called "balanced reading instruction" by many public schools).
2. Many public schools spend almost 50 percent of the school day on non-academic subjects that waste children's precious time. The rest of their time is spent on classes such as sex-education, personal safety, consumer affairs, AIDS education, save-the-environment, family life, study halls, multiculturalism, homeroom, electives, counseling, or sports activities.
3. Public schools teach "new" or "fuzzy" math (sometimes called by different names). These instruction methods can cripple children's ability to learn basic arithmetic. Students who fear math are less likely to pursue good careers like computer science and engineering that depend on a love of and competence with math.
4. These schools force children to read dumbed-down textbooks in English, History, and many other subjects. The textbooks are often geared to the slowest learners in the class and water-down the subject matter. Dumbed-down classes based on dumbed-down public-school textbooks therefore waste children's precious time. This is especially true for children who are quick learners, who must endure 12 years of excruciating boredom in public school classes.
5. Public schools force children to study subjects they might hate, can't learn, will never use in their lives, or which bore them. For example, many public schools force students to study a foreign language. Children learn better when they study subjects that interest them.
6. Author John Gatto, in his book "Dumbing Us Down" said that a child eager to learn can learn to read, write, and do basic arithmetic in about 100 hours. Yet our public schools keep children locked up for 12 years, yet can barely teach millions of kids to read.
7. Public schools force parents to pay heavy school taxes for an inferior, often mind-numbing education for their children.
8. Public schools are a government-controlled near-monopoly. Bad schools don't close down because compulsory taxes prop them up. Incompetent or mediocre teachers aren't fired because tenure laws protect them. That's why public schools will never improve and will always waste children's precious time.
9. Many public schools subject children to drugs, bullies, violence, and values many parents disapprove of.
10. Public schools pressure many parents who have bright, normal children to give their kids potentially dangerous mind-altering drugs to make the bored kids "behave" in class. Over four million allegedly "unruly" kids line up for Ritalin every day in public schools across America. Methylphenidate (sold as Ritalin) and cocaine are both listed in "Schedule II" of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency's Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
11. Public schools are compulsory. They therefore violate parents' natural and constitutional right to control the education of their children. Public school authorities, whose salaries we pay with our taxes, force parents to hand over their children to government employees called teachers and to schools that give an inferior education.
12. Public schools can destroy children's love of learning and self-confidence as learners. This can cripple children's ambitions and desire to go to college. This in turn, can force these children to end up with low-paying jobs for the rest of their lives if and when they graduate high school.
13. Public schools force millions of Christian parents to hand over their children to public schools which are decidedly anti-Christian. For example, many social studies textbooks used in public schools have censored out references to such words as 'family,' 'marriage,' 'religion,' 'fidelity,' etc. Many textbooks today refer to a family simply as people choosing to live together.
14. Public schools force children to witness sometimes shocking or obnoxious sexual material in sex-education classes, without parents' knowledge or consent.
15. The public-school near monopoly and compulsory-attendance laws cripple parents right and ability to choose a quality, low-cost school in an education free-market that has been squashed by the public-school monopoly.
Parents should consider taking their kids out of public school permanently. Parents can take advantage of quality, low-cost education alternatives available to them right now, such as the new Internet private schools that have low tuition costs.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Article Copyrighted © 2005 by Joel Turtel.
Joel Turtel is an education policy analyst, and author of "Public Schools, Public Menace: How Public Schools Lie To Parents and Betray Our Children." Website: www.mykidsdeservebetter.com, Email: lbooksusa@aol.com, Phone: 718-447-7348.Free Articles & Content for Your Site
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Public Schools, Public Menace:
How Public Schools Lie to Parents and Betray Our Children
Author Joel Turtel thoroughly educates readers about the condition of public schools in this country. This book is hard-hitting and packs a punch. Yet, the author has been careful to research his facts, and includes extensive footnotes and a bibliography.
Educating our nation's children is everyone's concern. Future leaders are sitting in classrooms today, and it's imperative that they receive a quality education. However, a close inspection of our schools reveals a disturbing and sometimes diabolical condition. From curriculum to corrective measures, the author clearly shows that the nation's education system is not deserving of a passing grade.
This book is divided into two parts, with the first section dealing with the abuses found in today's classrooms. Each chapter slowly and systematically sorts through the facts and fallacies, until readers get a true sense of the education system. The author backs up his opinions with solid statistics, as well as by personal accounts of parents, teachers, and students.
Although all of this information may alternately discourage or enrage readers, the author uses the last section of the book to give clear and practical options for educating children. Home schooling and Internet schools are explored with the same meticulous research that went into the first half of the book. Web sites and teaching materials are listed and critiqued. If anyone is seriously considering either of these educational options, the material presented here will provide a solid introduction.
The author unequivocally equips readers to understand and evaluate the education system, so they can make wise decisions about their children's futures. This reviewer applauds the time and effort it took to bring this book to publication. Most interesting was the idea of education entering a free market system. In fact, the author, who is an education policy analyst, makes several comprehensive suggestions. These pages will certainly open up readers' minds to daring new ideas.
This book gets top grades from this reviewer! -- Joyce Handzo, Christian Book Previews.com
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Children At Risk - 15 Ways Public Schools Can Harm Your Children
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