Public School Woes

[rjthehunter]

I was told this past weekend that school districts down by Sioux Falls SD don't teach about slavery, the holocaust, and the ordeals with the Native Americans.

Is there any truth to this?

Aren't we supposed to learn from our past mistakes?

 

[Straight Arrow]

I was told this past weekend that

Don't believe everything you hear and only half of what you see. Wait ... now you can't believe what you see!

 

[longbow51]

In Montana, they still do for the most part.
1. The "woke indoctrination" myth is perpetuated by those who likely have not had a serious conversation with a teacher or administator, nor have sat in or assisted in a classroom.
2. The home school programs for many are excellent and have produced graduates of high level academic achievement ... just as have public school programs.
3. IMO, it all depends on the parents and the students themselves. There are successes and failures through programs offered by home schools, private schools and public schools.

Montana has embraced the Indian Education For All public school curriculum which has proven to be a great learning program to provide accurate and factual historical context without judgement, but revealing the atrocities of both Native Americans and the "White-eyes". More importantly the culture, lifestyle, and survival of various tribes are highlighted. The real upside of the program is in providing the context for the present day problems and challenges, with the hope of supporting real solutions.

Likely someone with the prevalent ideology of Florida would characterize this as "woke indoctrination".

That's kind of a slight on the distinguished group of African American scholars who developed the program in Florida. I presume Native American scholars developing the curriculum who admit to NA atrocities would come under the same attacks they did if it was national news.

 

[rjthehunter]

Don't believe everything you hear and only half of what you see. Wait ... now you can't believe what you see!

I'm skeptical. I'd consider the source reliable since she is a teacher down there.

 

[NEWHunter]

@thomas89 unfortunately I think what you’re going through is not uncommon. When we relocated five years ago we bought our house in the greater metro area based on the school district. Arguably the top district in the state.

In first grade, my kid heard the word you cited, many times, and heard just about every other four and five letter word out there on a regular basis. The boy was adopted, the parents seemed to be doing their best, but he clearly had some issues. It didn’t help that there were two other kids that seemed to feed in to these issues. “Room clears” were frequent because you can’t touch a kid these days. Going to the principal’s office was almost a daily occurrence and didn’t mean squat to this kid or his sidekicks.

The kid broke an iPad or two, threw things, destroyed all kinds of property, etc. We only knew about the bulk of this stuff because of a close friend at the school. Based on what came home from the school, you’d have no idea it was this bad. Resources weren’t available to effectively help this kid and admin tried to blame the teacher.

My wife and I thought about going your route, but based on what was going on we figured we’d have to make a FoxNews worthy scene to get appropriate action. We figured the only way something would get done otherwise is if one of the chairs this kid threw resulted in some poor kiddo getting stitches. So we crossed our fingers and hoped our it wasn’t our kid. In addition, my wife was also trying to get her first district teaching job and we knew if we complained she’d get black balled. It really sucks that this is how the world works. I can assure you though, had our kid gotten stitches our attorney would have been on FoxNews.

On side note, I’m really hoping that teacher that got shot by her 6 year old student gets her $20 or $30 million - it might finally start to wake people up and change things at the school/referendum level.

In our situation, it wasn’t the kid’s fault. I don’t know the answer, but too often these days the good of the one or two outweighs the good of the many. And even that isn’t really a fair statement, because I would argue that a classroom was not the appropriate setting for this kid. And yet the other 25 kids paid a hefty price.

My wife did end up getting a kindergarten job in a great district and I hear about these problems first hand now. A lot of it is due to a lack of resources to support these kids. In addition, the parents are often a problem too. Most of the time for the more minor stuff, it’s never their kid - my wife sees otherwise. Did I mention the teachers are way over worked and way underpaid.

My BIL and SIL are a perfect example of some of these parents. Their oldest likely has mild autism, but they have been in denial for years. Now she’s in kindergarten and getting “bullied.” They think it’s the other kids, but it is very likely a combination of other kids and primarily their daughter’s unique way of interacting with others coupled with her inability to communicate effectively for her age. The school says she’s fine because they don’t have the resources to devote to it and have way bigger fish to fry, so to speak. The parents are blaming others and starting to regret moving out to this great district. I blame the parents while watching their kid pay the price.

I don’t know what the answer is to these problems. A lot of which I think are magnified and accelerated by the internet. More resources would help. But I think people in general are the problem. It starts at home. Most are too selfish and self absorbed as people/parents and the cycle repeats with their kids.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Most high schools don't even have a wood shop, welding, mechanics classes anymore.

The larger ones in Montana do, as described above. The home ec program has been elevated to a higher level of culinary arts, as evidenced by the recent Future Chefs National Challenge competition at Capital High School in Helena, MT. It was serious creative cooking competition.

Page A1

View the Independent Record for Wednesday, March 13, 2024

helenair.com

 

[Lost Arra]

A real dilemma is that a student is no more engaged in their education than their parents are.

There is a home school component of every education option; private, parochial or public. If parents are not involved the child suffers but the teacher is blamed.

Most kids should have the basics by 8th grade. I'm beginning to wonder if high school should be optional just like college.

We generally have low expectations for any government program except education where we have the highest expectations.
Maybe every school should be "private".

 

[Carnage2011]

The larger ones in Montana do, as described above. The home ec program has been elevated to a higher level of culinary arts, as evidenced by the recent Future Chefs National Challenge competition at Capital High School in Helena, MT. It was serious creative cooking competition.

Page A1

View the Independent Record for Wednesday, March 13, 2024

helenair.com

This is very accurate. Not sure where @Akcabin got that info but I live in the middle of a bunch of small school districts and they all have really good shop/mechanic classes. Since I graduated the ones around this area have improved tremendously. I obviously can’t speak for the entire state but I have family across the high line and into some of the smallest schools in this state. All of them have shop classes. The FFA programs in these areas also continue to grow and provide quality opportunities to improve in those fields.

As a side note. I’m standing in a gym right now that’s racks were built by a local high school kid. If he powder coated them; you’d never know they weren’t from Rogue or Sorinex.

The issues with shitty students are tough. I don’t have to see a ton of it or deal with it due to my location, but I can see that being a huge pain in the ass. I do agree that the majority of the issue comes from the parents. It also has to do with a lack of accountability from our current society. As a high school basketball coach, we have had a couple kids come out for basketball that lacked accountability. They’ve all quit within 3 days. When there is no one to blame but themselves it’s easier to quit.

 

[Carnage2011]

A guy that I’ve gotten to know very well over the last couple years was homeschooled and is one of the most personable humans I know. He’s built several giant companies and sold them. He homeschools his kids and we have talked about the pros and cons extensively. I’ve asked him about the social component. In order to make him get out and socialize his dad helped him start a business. The agreement was that his dad would fund it and help him with labor, but sales and customer acquisition were up to him. He started small by talking to home builders and GC’s to get some experience. Eventually he got into the commercial side and was working on nothing but 100,00+sq ft warehouses. He sold it at 22 for insane money. After being around him and his children, I firmly believe home schooling is a good option if the parents will put in a true “teachers” work ethic.

 

[Straight Arrow]

We generally have low expectations for any government program except education where we have the highest expectations.

So true. And in Montana we have a flawed educational funding system, in that about the only property tax increase the public can vote NO on is an education related levy. If more money is needed for road maintenance or weed control ... the property tax bill just goes up ... without any options for the tax payer. If the school needs more funds for operations or maintenance, the voter has the option to say NO, so those are typically the tax increases rejected.

 

[bayoublaster7527]

I’m a proud product of what I believe was a great public school system. For those reasons, I am always somewhat skeptical of the reporting bashing public schools. That being said, if you want to feel good about your local public schools just take a look at the complete insanity coming out of Denver Public Schools.

 

[Jwill]

I feel like most negative arguments about public schools mirror what we see folks saying about public lands. Adequately fund and manage them and most of the issues that are being complained about go away.

 

[Carnage2011]

I feel like most negative arguments about public schools mirror what we see folks saying about public lands. Adequately fund and manage them and most of the issues that are being complained about go away.

I’d love to agree with you but more funding doesn’t change shitty parents.

 

[brymoore]

I’d love to agree with you but more funding doesn’t change shitty parents.

Better teacher pay would lead to higher quality teachers, eventually. We’re skimming the bottom of the bucket, in some cases, in teacher quality. Teacher pay now is borderline criminal.

Before the fight starts, I didn’t mean anyone’s relative or friend are the low quality teachers.

Plus, the idea of paying a real salary for teachers in the US is too socialist to occur.

 

[SD_Prairie_Goat]

I was told this past weekend that school districts down by Sioux Falls SD don't teach about slavery, the holocaust, and the ordeals with the Native Americans.

Is there any truth to this?

Aren't we supposed to learn from our past mistakes?

Sd still teaches about them, but it's more white washed with the latest education standards. They don't go into effect until 25 I believe.

Sadly you're correct about past mistakes, but some people don't like what has happened in the past so they want to paint our forebears in a better light and paint over their atrocities. And those people get to dictate what is taught to the children in the state