[TriLUG] OT: Education

[Cristobal Palmer]

I love how our OT threads are the longest ones. :P

> It really shows what happens when the government tries to do something that
> private parties can (and do) do better.

Statistically the evidence for this is mixed (at best). Controlling
for income of the students' families, the "private schools are better"
argument is VERY hard to make.

> Most private schools have
> better-educated students than the public schools because they get better
> teachers (ie they pay more).

Private School teachers don't get paid more--they get paid less.
Teachers have various reasons for teaching at private schools (often
under the category of "atmosphere"). Don't get me wrong: there are
many very good private schools that are using alternative pedagogical
models (eg. Dewey model, Montessori model), but making a blanket
statement saying private schools are better is to give the free market
FAR more credit than is due.

> It's why a voucher system frightens lawmakers:
> they know that if such a thing existed, the public schools would have to
> compete, which most can't.

I'm sorry, but again this is wrong. It frightens lawmakers who believe
that it is our responsibility to educate ALL children because private
schools can (and often do) reject those students they don't want, but
public schools MUST take everyone, and under a voucher system the
public schools become the dumping ground, and a grossly-underfunded
dumping ground at that.

If we were to let the market take over (privatize schools, free the
educational system from most or all regulation), we would be
guaranteeing a more stratified class structure in this country. If
it's not immediately obvious to you why this is so, I suggest you take
a look at J. Kozol's _Savage _Inequalities_.

My mother's doctorate is in Educational Leadership, and she served on
the NC Board of Ed. She's an advocate of charter schools, since these
are more free to pursue alternatives in terms of schedules, pedagogy,
etc, but I've heard her speak at length (and read some of what she has
written) opposing the implementation of a voucher system.

If you live in the triangle or triad and are at all interested in
learning about the history of education in this country and/or the
state of public education today, I highly recommend dropping by
Manning Hall (UNC-CH) and taking a peak at the library there. UNC-G
also has a very highly-regarded dept. of education, though I don't
know where on campus to find their library. It's amazing the number of
prejudices we (me included) carry around with us that don't hold if
you look at the research.

Cheers,
CMP

On 9/26/05, Doug_Newcomb at fws.gov <Doug_Newcomb at fws.gov> wrote:
>  Shane O'Donnell said:
> >P.S.  Put LINUX in our school computer labs!!!  The price is right &
> >the technology is sound/appropriate.  (wanted to make the post
> >relevant for the list...)
> Actually,
>       I've help my son's charter school set up K12LTSP Linux network in the
> computer lab, and the rest of the school is Using a samba PDC ( with
> windows 2000 clients with openoffice 2 beta2) .  With a combination of NIS,
> NFS and samba, everything authenticates off of the Samba pdc and the home
> directories are available inside and outside of the lab. ( I haven't been
> able to dig into openldap yet, sorry)
>
>       Still a few rough edges, but not a big functional and getting better.
>
> Doug
>
>
> Doug Newcomb
> USFWS
> Raleigh, NC
> 919-856-4520 ext. 14 doug_newcomb at fws.gov
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> The opinions I express are my own and are not representative of the
> official policy of the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service or Dept. of Interior.
> I left my signature file in /dev/null
>
> --
> TriLUG mailing list        : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug
> TriLUG Organizational FAQ  : http://trilug.org/faq/
> TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
>


--

Cristobal M. Palmer
UNC-CH SILS Student
cristobalpalmer at gmail.com
cmpalmer at ils.unc.edu
ils.unc.edu/~cmpalmer
"Television-free since 2003"