Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Does anyone in the USA love their child's school?

Yes. I love love love the school my middle school kids attend (my EG ds graduated from it too). It's a private school, but fwiw, there were a number of things I loved about the elementary school my kids attended before switching to private school. And although it's not ideal, there are quite a few things I love about my ds' high school and the program he's in.

There were some really tough things in our public elementary though - for our ds - more related to his being 2e than to being gifted. If he hadn't had his 2nd e I think it's quite possible he might have been able to really soar there and had a great education. The 2nd e still causes a few issues in high school, and there are other issues with high school... but...

FWIW, I think that what you will find online is more often than not people who are searching for something better, so it will always seem like things aren't good just because that's the cross-section of experience you're seeing posting. The folks who've had good experiences (that I know of personally in real life, where I live) don't spend their time online discussing school

polarbear

I passionately love our school. I also post on here very little compared to before we found this school, and it's mostly to spread the progressive education gospel, which comes across as basically bitching about normal schools.

Like a PP, the only downsides are cost and not enough school. The only tolerable vacation for my kids is Christmas, and as soon as the presents are unwrapped they're itching to go back to school.


I know several people who were very involved in the system (either socially ingratiating, on the school board or teachers or admin) and had to jump ship because the system is just too stagnant and hidebound to cater to HG+ kids.

It probably depends on the school system.

In the type of school autocracy I'm thinking of, the system doesn't have a choice if you have enough actual or social power.

Now if the bureaucracy is in charge, and no one individual holds the actual power to alter the system at will, that's different.

When I was in high school, and I wanted some sort of structural or procedural change, I simply hit the Easy Button and the change was made.

So, you have to make sure that you are in a system where the systemic power is personal and autocratic rather than bureaucratic and diffuse.

"Love" is a strong word. But since my wife and I could afford to send our three children to private school and do not, our actions suggest that we at least like our schools. Public schools in Massachusetts have a good reputation, and our town's schools have a good reputation within MA. I have occasionally heard people not living in our town say its schools are good.

More than 90% of our high school graduates go to college. At a presentation I asked the high school principal if he had thought of tracking what percentage graduated from college. He was surprised by the question but said it was a good idea. I think lots of people judge schools by how their graduates fare, without adjusting for the kinds of students going there. Since there are plenty of "good schools" based on raw outcomes, there are lots of parents who like the schools of their children, even if their children could be learning more in the time they are spending.

Surveys have found that parents have a higher opinion of their local schools than of American schools in general.

Possibly he was surprised or taken aback due to
1) knowing this data is being tracked from preschool to college to workforce in longitudinal student data systems,
2) many parents expressing opposition to the extensive data collection and sharing.

That's just the natural tension between the enlightened and modern open information world, in which all information is available to everyone at all times, and the archaic feudal privacy system in which information asymmetry is weaponized and information is hoarded by those who want to prevent the spread of knowledge and human development.

We do not love our top rated school or even the ones that we pay a lot of fee for. But, our neighborhood parents rave about our local PS (with its sky high standardized test scores) and the private school that DS attends is "highly reputed" and parents proudly put the stickers with that school's names on their vehicles. So, whether a school is great or not depends on who you ask! I may be "too picky" a person, but the others around me seem to love, love, love the same schools that I am nitpicking about

While that may be true, who is on which side? The lived experience of the family in these articles seems to suggest that governmental collection of data is weaponized and information is hoarded by those who want to commercialize the data, charging parents exorbitant fees to see what is in their child's file, and/or correct any inaccuracies. At the prices which parents are being charged to see their child's data, some may say the collected data is being held for ransom.

Some may say the collection of data is also being conducted in a less than transparent manner. This is not the first time on this forum that a parent's post indicated lack of awareness of a permanent school record for kids.

Without true and accurate data, there is false or distorted knowledge which does not benefit human development for the individual about whom the data is collected, nor society at large, but may benefit meglomania. Meanwhile the image one receives from distorted data may be akin to a reflection in a fun-house mirror.

Without regard to need for advocacy, etc, some of these back-office elements of public education may cause some parents to not love their child's school.

Well, all information that exists is stored in the Akashic records anyway, so I guess it's a moot point.

Tools of Ahriman, all of it.