Kinja reply list

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Graby SauceJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 11:06am
While the school system needs to be held accountable, a blanket statement like, "public schools suck," is frankly irresponsible and devalues the hard work that students, teachers, and administrators put into their schools. The reason why you won't hear a statement like, "private schools suck," is because they don't have to be accountable to anyone but themselves and certainly don't have to be open to media scrutiny. "Private" doesn't always mean better, and in a hell of a lot of cases and in a lot of arenas, almost certainly does not mean better.
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  J.K. TrotterGraby Sauce
  11/12/14 11:13am
  This is truth.
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  LangostaGraby Sauce
  11/12/14 11:17am
  On the contrary. Private schools are accountable to the parents of its students. If they are unsatisfied, they'll pull their kids out and send them to a better one. They typically have the money to do so.
  
  Public schools are accountable to nobody.
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A House In VirginiaJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:54am
I will never be the person I was meant to be due to schools doing NOTHING to combat bullying during my formative years.
Yeah yeah "just get over it"—- thing is, that's formative programming/circuitry. It's nearly impossible to "just get over."
...if larvae do not feel safe/secure in an environment they're legally required to be in, they WILL NOT LEARN.
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  divuthenA House In Virginia
  11/12/14 11:16am
  I used to be one of the kids that were bullied. Then one summer I had a growth spurt and was almost 6'5" going into 8th grade. A few buddies and myself got together and essentially ended most of the bullying at our school. Turns out it only takes a few fist fights to scare cowards into not being dicks. The boxing lessons my dad signed me up for didn't hurt either.
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  Justice Rains From My ButtA House In Virginia
  11/12/14 11:16am
  This is the reason a lot of kids who are otherwise capable and have resources available to them completely burn out and never reach their full potential. Getting bullied as an adolescent can wreak havoc on a young mind.
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GrumpyEagleJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:56am
Yes, because bullying never happens in private schools. Oh, wait.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_…
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  Justice Rains From My ButtGrumpyEagle
  11/12/14 11:03am
  I don't think she was implying private schools are any better. But public schools do suck and need serious reform that doesn't involve bullshit like charter schools.
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  VandelayGrumpyEagle
  11/12/14 11:08am
  Yeah, one example from 50 years ago. You certainly proved your point.
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signofzetaJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:57am
MPS is a garbage dump of a school system. It is awful, and much of that has to do with the terrible School Board. Even the Mayor a Milwaukee, staunch Democrat Tom Barrett tried to remove the whole school board at one point due to their complete incompetence. My wife and I live in a Milwaukee suburb specifically because when we have kids we do not want them going to MPS schools, which are dangerous and have a 50% dropout rate.

As for the school board, it's frankly been awful for decades. I had one of the school board members as a college professor ten years ago. He always came to class late and high (bloodshot eyes smelling of weed), and never taught us anything. He just told stories about he and his wife living with her old college professor in France (which were kind of creepy). I ended up turning all of the work in Week 8 of the semester and never returning to class.
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  J.K. Trottersignofzeta
  11/12/14 11:03am
  Rufus King is good, though.
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  barebranchsignofzeta
  11/12/14 11:09am
  I love a good detective challenge - I've narrowed it down to either Miller or Bonds based on their resumes on the MPS website. Which was it?
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PeteRRJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:51am
In the end, aren't we all biased against things that suck?
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  UngratefulDeadPeteRR
  11/12/14 11:08am
  "Bias" is one of the words that has lost all meaning today. Sort of like "awesome" or, well, most of them. The society of the future is going to communicate in memes anyway, I started saying that as a joke and I'm starting to believe it. GRUMPY CAT WHEN THE WALLS FELL!
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  Kenhe LoginUngratefulDead
  11/12/14 11:34am
  
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stringerbell2016J.K. Trotter
11/12/14 11:16am
I HATE when people describe public schools (or any government institution) as THEY as if they are some otherworld entity. Schools suck because WE as citizens let them suck. In other words WE suck. Schools are not a sentinent beast. We have let them degrade in this way, WE have gutted their budgets and elected and hired idiots to run them.

Same goes for Congress and Government.
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  Kenhe Loginstringerbell2016
  11/12/14 11:23am
  +1. Our last mid-term election had the lowest national participation rate since 1942. We as Americans suck.
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  Chrissycrunchstringerbell2016
  11/12/14 11:35am
  I've done my part by having 50% of my town budget go toward schools. And I have no kids. There is a 'they' and it does not include me.
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CleverUsernameJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 11:42am
Step 1: Make sure that public institutions don't get the funds/resources that they need.

Step 2: Watch them fail without needed resources.

Step 3: Publicly declare public institutions incapable of functioning because they aren't privately run.

Step 4: Hope no one notices your donor list.
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  MichaeljtCleverUsername
  11/12/14 12:31pm
  Right, because throwing money at bad teachers makes sense. I'm all for paying teachers a good salary but lets be honest here, nearly a 3rd of all moneys is going retirement funds and health care. Most public school teachers are union and have anywhere between 90-98% of their health care paid for by local, state governments, same with retirement packages. Ask any of them to take a small 1% pay cut to help cover those rising costs and watch them go on strike have their funding cut. In true bureaucratic protectionist nepotistic fashion fire all their young, fresh teachers just so the old jaded shit heads that have been in the system for more then 20 years can sit around and bitch about how education isn't funded while they collect a fat pension and health care for life. Fuck public school.
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  bassguitarheroCleverUsername
  11/12/14 12:37pm
  It's called "Pulling the ladder up behind you" and the boomers have been especially good at it.
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datwangaiJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:51am
ugh, it's true. this school district is fundamentally fucked from the top down. i've worked here for a few years, it's infuriating how backwards everything is done behind the scenes. from the smallest things to the biggest.
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RussianistJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:56am
It's clear from the context she's saying public schools suck at dealing with bullying. And in general she's right. When parents of bullied kids don't get feedback or action from the school administration, or when bullied kids get into trouble along with the bullies under brain-dead zero tolerance policies when they fight back out of desperation, those are problems.
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  JonezBeechyRussianist
  11/12/14 11:16am
  This is also a problem in private schools. It is a problem in every single place where large groups of children (aka demon spawn) are together.
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  RussianistJonezBeechy
  11/12/14 11:28am
  It's a different kind of problem in private schools, where they do have to pay attention to parents' complaints about bullying and where they have the luxury to do so, but where some parents are more equal than others.
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Cherith CutestoryJ.K. Trotter
11/12/14 10:56am
The board complained that Richards was "biased against MPS."

Bull shit. Point to specific facts they got wrong. That is fine. But reporting on problems isn't bias.
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