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Originally Posted by sperry
Now I'm not advocating that all college level schooling should be free. But I would argue that if a person wants it, they should have access to at least a 2-year college type school, or a trade/apprenticeship type post high-school education paid for by my taxes. I know I'm sounding more and more socialist in these threads, but I firmly believe that properly educating everyone is the "magic bullet" that will make the difference between America's survival as a prominent world nation and becoming China's place to outsource their manufacturing over the next 100 years.
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I have to agree with this. It's easy to say that everyone should be responsible for themselves but we are slowly building a society where it's difficult to find competent workers. I know some of you are manager level folks, what quality of people do you see come through when you interview? There are high school grads (many) in Nevada who can't spell or alphabetize. That's not good for anybody. Right know as a country we survive by importing a lot of our best workers from foreign countries but how long can that model sustain? I just got back from Beijing and let me tell you it's not so bad. The more advanced they get the more likely people will be to stay there instead of coming here.
We are not an economy that grows because of manufacturing and blue collar jobs, we are driven by innovation and information. Those are things that largely require a higher education. There are always stories of people that became rich with a high school diploma but I assure you they are the gross minority. The more that we gut our home grown work force the more we slow down our economy as a whole. It's easy to sit here and say people should work hard and figure it out on their own but the reality is a more educated America is better for all of us.
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Originally Posted by ScottyS
This is funny, because I attended a symposium on Home Schooling today. The basis of Home Schooling, for the most part, is obviously the fact that both the consequences and products of government schooling do NOT work for everyone, and SHOULD not be forced on everyone. It has been 30 years since the start of the Home Schooling revolution, and the stats support the claims straight up.
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When I was younger my mom took a temp job up in Alaska so I was home schooled for ~6 months during that time. We joined the local home schooling organization so I hung out with plenty of other kids who were home school. I've also known a half a dozen other kids later in life who were home schooled. I know it's a personal decision but I would implore you not to do it. Almost all the kids I knew were quite successful academically and were more often than not nice enough but trust me they were all "off" socially. School isn't just a place to learn it's a shared experience amongst the American populace. There is a whole frame of reference that our society and our societal norms are based on that they are missing.
Not to be cocky but I'm sure I'm one of the most educated people on this board and consequently I know a lot of people who are very successful academically. The thing most of them have in common is parents who helped and encouraged them academically when they were younger. By all means your should teach your kid on your own in addition to whatever school they attend, but homeschooling starts kids off a step behind in my experience.
JC