SUMMER SCHOOL

[Templar]

SUMMER SCHOOL IN THE CITIES HAS ALWAYS BEEN A PLACE WHERE A KID WHO HAD 9 MONTHS OF SCHOOLING AND GOT A FAILING GRADE......COULD GO FOR 6 WEEKS AND MAGICALLY GET A PASSING GRADE WITH FLYING COLORS.......WELL DETROIT SCHOOLS ARE SO MUCH IN DEBT FROM CORRUPTION----INFLATION--LACK OF A TAX BASE BECAUSE BUSINESSES HAVE BEEN CLOSING--ETC.-----ANNOUNCED YESTERDAY THAT THEY MAY NOT BE ABLE TO RUN THE SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAMS.........IT APPEARS THAT SOME KIDS MAY ACTUALLY FAIL A GRADE
 WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK???
               TEMPLAR

[Triggersmob]

I send my Son for extra Chemistry lessons on Saturday mornings, to help him along.
He said he was not learning anything and was telling the teacher stuff he should have known.
Didn't bother to send him back the next year.

[Nighthawk]

Public schools have been failing as a whole for years! Detroit just happens to be at the top of the heap! I wouldn't send my DOGS to a public school, any public school, especially in "De-Toilet"  

[Goose]

Outside of guv'ment, schools are the largest 'Black Hole' for money ever known. "Vote for the excess levy so we can lower the class sizes." I've heard this garbage for 40+ yrs, and the class sizes remain the same. Tuition for public colleges? It will always go up each yr from double to quaduple the inflation rate.

[TwoShadows]

Basically I have heard the same story about how dumb our children are most of my life. If you can convience the population their kids are falling behind the rest of the world surely they will agree to higher taxes or whatever else the school system can dream up. It is ALL about money not about an education. You want kids to learn? Quite most of the extra curricular activies, eliminate paying for staff to support programs that have NOTHING to do with an education, get rid of calculators and computers until high school and quit paying teachers who do NOT teach.
I know in our school system they no longer let high school students bring how actual tests which eliminates the possibility of next years group getting copies of the exam. It also eliminates the TEACHER making up new tests each year. TENURE is a joke which should be first to go. If you don't do your job expect to get fired and I don't care how long you have been teaching. Thats the way it is in the real world unless you are a CEO of a big company. You would then expect millions of dollars if you get fired. Again another HUGE joke which should be buried immediately.
You don't pay people to fire them in any profession, including sports or coaching. Maybe the lawyers and agents should be forced to support these poor "out of a job" individuals who play for a measly few thousand dollars a game in the event the tragedy of losing their income comes their way? Don't they know about unemployment benefits? Yeah right!

[Triggersmob]

I had no problem with public schools when my Daughter went through the system.
She ended up scoring over 96% in her tertiary admittance exams.

However, when my Son went to year 11 in the same school, he wanted to do Chemistry
and they didn't even offer it as a subject. He had to do a remote course, which means he basically
taught himself and had a teacher he could contact by phone or e-mail. and had to fax his test to
the teacher for marking. Needless to say he dropped Chemistry in year 12. Now he has decided to
do Chemistry in Uni and has to do a catch up course.   

[TwoShadows]

I'll bet no one noticed this might have struck a nerve on my end? Until the day I die I will not understand buying someone out in the event they get fired. You have NO IDEA how that p___ me off. There is absolutely NO incentitive to do a good job if you are going to get rich getting fired! Who would really care one way or another?

[Paint Your Wagon]

I'll bet no one noticed this might have struck a nerve on my end? Until the day I die I will not understand buying someone out in the event they get fired. You have NO IDEA how that p___ me off. There is absolutely NO incentitive to do a good job if you are going to get rich getting fired! Who would really care one way or another?

Like my first employer said you have to motivate yourself
If you pay 65% taxes how can you be motivated to work harder ?

The OPEL workers getting fired in Antwerp some will be getting 140 000 euro bruto
and some will get retirement when they are over 50 years of age .
Thank you GM in name of all the present taxpayers .

[TwoShadows]

I got an email from GM just this evening thanking me for being a loyal customer and to let me know they had paid off their government loans, with interest, five years earlier than anticipated. It is heart warming to know they can now go back to business as usual providing us with automobiles full of crap we don't want or need and their CEO, Presidents and Vice Presidents can look forward to big bonuses again. Wonder how many little guys working the line will suffer, or have suffered, to finally pay these bailouts off?

[OldDan]

I got an email from GM just this evening thanking me for being a loyal customer and to let me know they had paid off their government loans, with interest, five years earlier than anticipated.

Not quite!  From news reports, they only paid off a small porton of their loan, and  the feds still own something like 70% of the company.  
They have a long row to how and the lay of the land is all up hill.
http://abcnews.go.com/WN/general-motors-repays-81-billion-government-loans/story?id=10437944

Additional info:
Detroit Free Press -- KANSAS CITY, Kan. - Before a cheering crowd in a Chevrolet Malibu plant, General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre kicked off a round of good news Wednesday about the Detroit-based automaker, which exited bankruptcy just nine months ago.

Aside from confirming that GM has paid off $5.8 billion in loans owed to the U.S. and Canadian governments five years before the government deadline, Whitacre boldly predicted the U.S. government would recoup its entire $50-billion-plus investment in GM and possibly even make money on it.

[Templar]

I TAUGHT SCHOOL FOR 1/3 OF A CENTURY IN CATHOLIC AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS....WHEN THE TEACHERS WERE ALLOWED TO TEACH AND THE PARENTS WERE INVOLVED WITH THEIR KIDS EDUCATION....THEN YOU HAD SUCESS......PARENTS HAVE SLOWLY DUMPED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO RAISE AND DISCIPLINE THEIR CHILDREN BEFORE THEY SEND THEM OFF TO SCHOOL......THE BEST TEACHER IN THE WORLD CANNOT TEACH WHEN  THEY SPEND HALF THEIR TIME DISCIPLINING THE STUDENTS BEFORE THEY CAN TEACH........YOU CAN BUY YOUR KIDS CELL PHONES--HAND HELD GAMES----IPODS---ETC----BUT YOU CAN'T SEE THAT THEY COME TO SCHOOL WITH A PEN-PENCIL-RULER AND PAPER--READY TO LEARN-----THERE IS NO VIABLE EXCUSE FOR A CHILD TO START SCHOOL WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO RESIGHT THE ALPHABET--COUNT TO 20 OR RECOGNIZE THE BASIC COLORS IN A CRAYON BOX----ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD CANNOT REPLACE PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT-------SORRY FOR THE PREACHING AND IN KEEPING WITH NUMISMATICS-----NO EXCUSE FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO RECOGNIZE THE COINS AND CURRENCY USED IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.........

 YOUR SERVANT AND FRIEND.........THE EXTEACHER TEMPLAR

[Triggersmob]

Turn your speakers on.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkmqyeYSFt0

[Humpybong]

I wonder if she still has a job?

[scottishmoney]

I TAUGHT SCHOOL FOR 1/3 OF A CENTURY IN CATHOLIC AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS....WHEN THE TEACHERS WERE ALLOWED TO TEACH AND THE PARENTS WERE INVOLVED WITH THEIR KIDS EDUCATION....THEN YOU HAD SUCESS......PARENTS HAVE SLOWLY DUMPED THEIR RESPONSIBILITY TO RAISE AND DISCIPLINE THEIR CHILDREN BEFORE THEY SEND THEM OFF TO SCHOOL......THE BEST TEACHER IN THE WORLD CANNOT TEACH WHEN  THEY SPEND HALF THEIR TIME DISCIPLINING THE STUDENTS BEFORE THEY CAN TEACH........YOU CAN BUY YOUR KIDS CELL PHONES--HAND HELD GAMES----IPODS---ETC----BUT YOU CAN'T SEE THAT THEY COME TO SCHOOL WITH A PEN-PENCIL-RULER AND PAPER--READY TO LEARN-----THERE IS NO VIABLE EXCUSE FOR A CHILD TO START SCHOOL WITHOUT THE ABILITY TO RESIGHT THE ALPHABET--COUNT TO 20 OR RECOGNIZE THE BASIC COLORS IN A CRAYON BOX----ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD CANNOT REPLACE PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT-------SORRY FOR THE PREACHING AND IN KEEPING WITH NUMISMATICS-----NO EXCUSE FOR NOT BEING ABLE TO RECOGNIZE THE COINS AND CURRENCY USED IN THEIR OWN COUNTRY.........

 YOUR SERVANT AND FRIEND.........THE EXTEACHER TEMPLAR

My wife is an elementary school principal, and she would echo your comments.  Throwing money at schools is not the answer, it all begins with parental responsibility.  Essentially over the past 40 or so years, parents have basically involved themselves in their own amusements and have dumped the responsibility for teaching their children the basics of life - behaviour, life skills, manners, etc off on educators.  At the same time they gripe about the schools - but you cannot get but maybe two or three of them out of nearly 300 families to show up at a PTO meeting.  My wife's school has dealt with some very significant cutbacks, but at the same time they are continuing to maintain enrollment and teaching staff - but my wife took a 15% cut in her pay just in the last six months so that she would not have to cut a teacher.  That is an example of someone doing a topdown cut, but usually in schools they do bottom up cut, by cutting teachers, or aides.  In the meantime while all the other schools have cut teachers, they have lost students, but her school has actually increased their enrollment by 92 students since September.

My children all went into school knowing their name(you would be amazed how many kids think their name is dumbass or bubba) the alphabet, numerals etc.  All of my children speak English, as well as Russian which is our first language at home.  Even though my wife runs a school, we take it upon ourselves to educate and involve ourselves in our children's education.  School should be and should only be a supplement and reinforcement of ideals that begin in the family - something obviously lacking in this world of iPhones, cellphones sexting etc.