Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How do you feel about the public school system?

Wow HK! That is awful!! I truly hope some good comes of the battle you have waged.

I would love to know what percentage of teachers are fired for incompetency or unprofessional behavior compared to those in other professions. It really does seem to take a terrible teacher for any action to take place. And principals seem to back up teachers more often than concerned parents (take sides w/ the teacher rather than the parents or child if an incident happens).

Probably no more or less than I've seen in any public or private sector job. Turnover isn't usually a positive for an organization, because the idiot who knows your organization is usually better than the idiot who doesn't.

Or, alternatively, the principal thinks that the teacher is a highly skilled and that the complaining parent is full of it.

Of course. Parents are just out to "get" teachers. Everyone knows that is their main goal.

You know that you're dealing with troublemakers when they show up with ""data"" and peer-reviewed literature about something. Ha.

I had the exact same feeling as blackcat. When my older child started school we were all excited, he was excited, we were looking forward to a good educational experience because we were in a very good district with lots of highly educated parents and a strong emphasis on academics, and because my son had a very positive experience during preschool--the teachers really understood him and his needs. Things weren't too bad in K and grade 1. Then we moved to another state, another town with lots of highly educated parents and a strong emphasis on academics, and a supposedly superb district. Then starting from second grade things have not been good at all. We have encountered every typical attitude that teachers and administrators hold against gifted kids, as decribed in all the gifted education books that we have read. It's been our family that have done all the work to make sure my kids are learning what they need to learn, and to help them cope with an environment that demands them to fit in a box. And what's sad is that it's not just the public schools. My son is now in a private school and the difference is not much----they still want him to fit in a box, just a different box. My younger child has an easier time at school because we have no expectations for the school at all and we are more experienced in helping her cope. I feel that our schools are indeed failing the capable and motivated students.

I know some private schools are poor as well, but I wonder how much has to do with size. When we moved to a different state my brother was entering 10th grade. My parents deliberately moved to one of the top districts in the area (a large district with a large high school). My mom took him to register at the high school and they could not offer him accelerated courses that he needed. My mother immediately drove us to a very small Christian high school (only 40-75 kids per grade) and they were able to tailor instruction to him. The teachers worked with him one-on-one. They sent him to the university for classes as needed. While there were very few in the "gifted" category, he did great, and went on and became a physicist.
Seems like large schools/districts have so much red tape and bureaucracy and they try hard to fit everyone in a box because it's too complicated otherwise.

If the mentality is right, then a smaller school could offer more flexibility. But if the mentality is not right, then size doesn't matter. My son's private school is actually very small, but there is a very disappointing gap between what the school talks about and how they actually do things.

The next question: do schools really care about the students?

Our own experience, and my observation of friends' kids (not necessarily gifted kids, some struggle a lot in school), makes me think that the answer is no. My feeling is that students are data points that the bureaucracy needs to show that they are doing a good job and therefore should receive continued funding. I hope I'm too sarcastic and the reality is better than this.

Individual results will vary, but generally, there's no difference in quality between a public school and a private religious one: http://www.livescience.com/41066-catholic-equivalent-to-public-schools.html