Stupid public school

SkyHog

SkyHog

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Stupid public school mistake screws child

Story posted by my mother on Facebook:
my mom said:
My granddaughter, Erin Luke won the spelling bee for her school by studying hard and working toward that goal. She was told by the school that she would go on to district. Bel Air Elementary let her fall through the cracks and never entered her. She was never told and studied for the bee diligently. We were all preparing to go ...to a spelling bee when the day before, yesterday, were all told that Erin could not participate because the school “forgot” to enter her. In light of President Obama’s message to schools and students last night on his State of the Union message, this is even more outrageous
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School dropped the ball. Never paid the dues to the organization that runs the spelling bee. This is all my niece has been spending her free time on, and they took it away from her.

Makes me angry. And my mom brings up a good point about Obama's message too (not to go political).

MERGH!!! It makes me so mad.
 
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Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

SkyHog said:
Story posted by my mother on Facebook:


School dropped the ball. Never paid the dues to the organization that runs the spelling bee. This is all my niece has been spending her free time on, and they took it away from her.

Makes me angry. And my mom brings up a good point about Obama's message too (not to go political).

MERGH!!! It makes me so mad.
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Turns out the Albuquerque Journal is running a story on it....that's good at least.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

SkyHog said:
Story posted by my mother on Facebook:


School dropped the ball. Never paid the dues to the organization that runs the spelling bee. This is all my niece has been spending her free time on, and they took it away from her.

Makes me angry. And my mom brings up a good point about Obama's message too (not to go political).

MERGH!!! It makes me so mad.
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And why were'nt the parents not following up with the teacher or the school to make sure there were no cracks to fall through and know what the requirements are?

It's not just the schools fault, parents need to take some responsibility too.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

BillTIZ said:
And why were'nt the parents not following up with the teacher or the school to make sure there were no cracks to fall through and know what the requirements are?

It's not just the schools fault, parents need to take some responsibility too.
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I'll disagree with this. No way the parents were responsible for an administrative failure. Student performance? sure, parents have a major role. School administration? nope, it's up to the school paper shuffler to make sure the i's are dotted and the tee's are crossed.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

BillTIZ said:
And why were'nt the parents not following up with the teacher or the school to make sure there were no cracks to fall through and know what the requirements are?

It's not just the schools fault, parents need to take some responsibility too.
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From what Nick stated in the OP the school said she was going. That was an official notice, what more would a person do that would not be badgering? Seems the school administration dropped the ball on this.

Nick: sorry this happened to your niece. She is still a winner because she expanded her mind by learning to be a better speller and that cannot be taken away from her. When the article gets printed post a link here.
 
Lets not be too hard on the school administrators, after all, in all fairness, they were themselves most likely educated in a public school system.

They are also probably members of the generation that honestly believes that nothing could possibly be their fault, or mistakes can be explained away with "my bad" or "I'm sorry", so they probably are not as meticulous in their job performance as we might expect them to be.

I think we have just been expecting way too much from our teachers and administrators.

John
 
John Baker said:
Lets not be too hard on the school administrators, after all, in all fairness, they were themselves most likely educated in a public school system.

They are also probably members of the generation that honestly believes that nothing could possibly be their fault, or mistakes can be explained away with "my bad" or "I'm sorry", so they probably are not as meticulous in their job performance as we might expect them to be.

I think we have just been expecting way too much from our teachers and administrators.

John
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On the contrary - we haven't been DEMANDING ENOUGH! from our teachers. And fire 50% of the administrators, please.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

BillTIZ said:
And why were'nt the parents not following up with the teacher or the school to make sure there were no cracks to fall through and know what the requirements are?

It's not just the schools fault, parents need to take some responsibility too.
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Ordinarily I'd say parents need to bear some burden.. but not in this case. The school screwed the pooch, on its own, without outside influence.
The school failed this little girl.

But its still a learning experience. She has now learned life's not fair, and that if you depend entirely on another, you risk being entirely disappointed by another.
 
Doggtyred said:
No.. but when they do make mistakes, they run the very real risk of losing their paying customers
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I believe that's called competition, something public schools have very little of. They get your tax money whether you send your kids to private schools or not.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

Doggtyred said:
Ordinarily I'd say parents need to bear some burden.. but not in this case. The school screwed the pooch, on its own, without outside influence.
The school failed this little girl.

But its still a learning experience. She has now learned life's not fair, and that if you depend entirely on another, you risk being entirely disappointed by another.
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Werd!
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

Doggtyred said:
But its still a learning experience. She has now learned life's not fair, and that if you depend entirely on another, you risk being entirely disappointed by another.
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A corollary to this lesson might be that the primary reason you should do something is for your own sense of satisfaction and self-improvement and not for public recognition by others.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

Public school systems are nothing more than public bureaucracies, their only real agenda is self perpetuation. Teachers, no matter how sincere they may be when first starting out in a school system, are soon converted from teachers to bureaucrats, following the rules down to the most minute details.

Teaching children anything that does not perpetuate the continuation of the bureaucracy is the last thing of interest to the administrators. It's all about the money, not about educating. If an activity does not generate money, it will not get any serious attention.

John
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

John Baker said:
Public school systems are nothing more than public bureaucracies, their only real agenda is self perpetuation. Teachers, no matter how sincere they may be when first starting out in a school system, are soon converted from teachers to bureaucrats, following the rules down to the most minute details.

Teaching children anything that does not perpetuate the continuation of the bureaucracy is the last thing of interest to the administrators. It's all about the money, not about educating. If an activity does not generate money, it will not get any serious attention.

John
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And moving to private for profit school would mean that the education system would not be about the money?
 
RJM62 said:
See? That's why I favor vouchers.

-Rich
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I'm the president of an independent K- 12, 700 student school board of trustees and I'll be the first to acknowledge the society really needs a public school system that works much better than it does. Parents need all these choices to be good ones and be able to pick the best one for their family. This situation stinks for the niece and you'd think they could fix it for her to compete given the situation. I'd have to wonder how strongly the administrators at the school went to bat for her?
 
The thread should be entitled "School drops the ball"

There is no gurantee a private or a public school handles this sort of thing any better.

The merits of private schools are many, but "infallible" doesn't make the list.
 
John Baker said:
Lets not be too hard on the school administrators, after all, in all fairness, they were themselves most likely educated in a public school system.

They are also probably members of the generation that honestly believes that nothing could possibly be their fault, or mistakes can be explained away with "my bad" or "I'm sorry", so they probably are not as meticulous in their job performance as we might expect them to be.

I think we have just been expecting way too much from our teachers and administrators.

John
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Why ?
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

John Baker said:
Public school systems are nothing more than public bureaucracies, their only real agenda is self perpetuation. Teachers, no matter how sincere they may be when first starting out in a school system, are soon converted from teachers to bureaucrats, following the rules down to the most minute details.

Teaching children anything that does not perpetuate the continuation of the bureaucracy is the last thing of interest to the administrators. It's all about the money, not about educating. If an activity does not generate money, it will not get any serious attention.

John
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Wow. Are public school teachers the worst kind of people? Never noticed it myself.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

SkyHog said:
Story posted by my mother on Facebook:


School dropped the ball. Never paid the dues to the organization that runs the spelling bee. This is all my niece has been spending her free time on, and they took it away from her.

Makes me angry. And my mom brings up a good point about Obama's message too (not to go political).

MERGH!!! It makes me so mad.
Click to expand...
That's really awful for your niece. It really hurts to have this sort of disapointment. Tell her how proud we are of her and what she has accomplished so far. What is her favorite word?
 
John Baker said:
Public school systems are nothing more than public bureaucracies, their only real agenda is self perpetuation. Teachers, no matter how sincere they may be when first starting out in a school system, are soon converted from teachers to bureaucrats, following the rules down to the most minute details.

Teaching children anything that does not perpetuate the continuation of the bureaucracy is the last thing of interest to the administrators. It's all about the money, not about educating. If an activity does not generate money, it will not get any serious attention.

John
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Quite a generalization about teachers. I'm sure my wife would take exception to that characterization.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

John Baker said:
Public school systems are nothing more than public bureaucracies, their only real agenda is self perpetuation. Teachers, no matter how sincere they may be when first starting out in a school system, are soon converted from teachers to bureaucrats, following the rules down to the most minute details.

Teaching children anything that does not perpetuate the continuation of the bureaucracy is the last thing of interest to the administrators. It's all about the money, not about educating. If an activity does not generate money, it will not get any serious attention.

John
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Pretty harsh. Tell you what... go volunteer in an elementary or high school for two weeks. Take part in the actual effort being made. After that come back and give us your appraisal. Until then, your opinion is just that, an outsider looking in and drawing conclusions without facts....

There is lots of things wrong with our educational system, what you quoted above just isn't the problem.

Gary
 
Ghery said:
Quite a generalization about teachers. I'm sure my wife would take exception to that characterization.
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I have to agree with you 100%, I am positive your wife would take exception. There is no such thing as a bureaucrat who does not honestly believe their contributions to our society are of the utmost importance, and without them, all would be lost.

Our public school systems do just barely enough to get by, as far as being acceptable based on their own criteria. It boggles my mind that second graders can not yet read, that high school graduates can barely read.

John
 
If it were me, I'd have been glad to not have to go. :)
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

Gary said:
Pretty harsh. Tell you what... go volunteer in an elementary or high school for two weeks. Take part in the actual effort being made. After that come back and give us your appraisal. Until then, your opinion is just that, an outsider looking in and drawing conclusions without facts....

There is lots of things wrong with our educational system, what you quoted above just isn't the problem.

Gary
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No, my opinion is that of a taxpayer appraising what he is getting for his money. What are we, something like 57th in worldwide educational standings?

John
 
dmccormack said:
Good grief -- Nick overstates the case, everyone lines up prop or anti public schools.

What's next? Packers v. Steelers? :rolleyes2:
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I don't think I really overstated anything, but the public vs. private school debate is not germane, really (the Thread title was meant to be "Stupid School Screws Little Girl" but my mind typed public, and my fingers didn't type the rest of the thead title).

In reality, what happened was a school screwed up, but where did the money go? That's the part I want to know. Who has the entry fee, because it didn't go to the right place, so its sitting around somewhere. Probably a small amount....but where is it?

Unfortunately, my sister sees things different and opted out of the newspaper story because she's afraid of retaliation against her other two children. I think that's shortsighted, because holding them publicly accountable would have prevented the same type of mistake being made again with them, so its a trade off - retaliation or poor accountability...

My hope is that since the Journal already started the process, interviewed the principal and a bunch of other high-ups in APS, they'll still run the story but without Erin's name. I don't know how powerful a story that'll be though...they actually said they were holding the press for this story, and that it would be front page today until my sister backed out.
 
SkyHog said:
Unfortunately, my sister sees things different and opted out of the newspaper story because she's afraid of retaliation against her other two children. I think that's shortsighted, because holding them publicly accountable would have prevented the same type of mistake being made again with them, so its a trade off - retaliation or poor accountability...
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I hate to say it but I think your sister is right.

There most certainly can be retaliation, and good retaliators are the ones who know how to do it without leaving a trail.

Somehow they become experts at this sort of thing after spending time in schools. Don't ask me how I know.

Signed, A Former school teacher
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

There was a great segment on NPR Wednesday afternoon comparing US and Asian K-12 programs. China has mandated K-9 for all children and within the next couple years, that will be K-12. China realized the failure/lack of education during the Cutural Revolution (when schools were shut down) is an enormous deficit and is working to fix it. There are nation-wide standards, quite high in fact.

Japan, Korea, Singapore, China - few if any outside activities, students are expected to spend as much time studying and doing homework (if not more) as actual contact time, longer school days, longer school year.

Another factor involving China - teachers are considered a national resource, they get preference when applying to college/university, are well paid.

And there's no local interference.

This from an outside, non-US organization, BTW.
 
Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

John Baker said:
No, my opinion is that of a taxpayer appraising what he is getting for his money. What are we, something like 57th in worldwide educational standings?

John
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http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-...th-on-math-test-trail-in-science-reading.html
Fifteen-year-olds in the U.S. ranked 25th among peers from 34 countries on a math test and scored in the middle in science and reading, while China’s Shanghai topped the charts, raising concern that the U.S. isn’t prepared to succeed in the global economy.
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Re: Stupid public school mistake screws child

Gary said:
Pretty harsh. Tell you what... go volunteer in an elementary or high school for two weeks. Take part in the actual effort being made. After that come back and give us your appraisal. Until then, your opinion is just that, an outsider looking in and drawing conclusions without facts....

Gary
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John -
What about this idea?
 
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