My child would never be allowed to use that gift card. Nor would he be allowed to accept cash payments, ipods, and whatever else insane scheme they have for bribing kids to go to school and get decent grades. Only excellence should get rewarded.

I had to walk all the way from the helipad to the limo every school day for twelve years.

Except for the days when I went to visit pater at the minimum security prison, and that year I spent touring Europe and killing hookers.

Kids today just don't know the meaning of the word aeristrenafibularity.

Or grimsbwipple. Or cluntyflollop. Or smesthne.

Fools.

No, but my grandfather did. He lived on the top of one small hill and the school was up a different hill. He left out that it was uphill and downhill both ways.

How about, I dunno, fining the parents if the kids don't show up on time repeatedly?

If mom or dad has to show up in front of a judge to explain why little Jimmy is truant again, maybe they'll change things.

Or even better, just start from birth. Make attendance to weekly or monthly new mom support meetings a condition of receiving government aid (yes, I'm making some assumptions regarding exactly who is more truant than not. So sue me.), and reinforce things with the parents. If mom or dad can't read to their kid because they are illiterate, other existing programs can step up to help.

This problem won't be solved by only focusing on parents, only focusing on kids, or only teachers, or just administrators. I hate to use the word, but a holistic approach is what is needed to solve America's growing education problem.

And it's gonna cost money.

TravisBickle62: Your son is among the lucky few who understand that regular beatings are part of the curriculum.

Nah, my son understands that doing the minimum will get you no reward. Doing well will get you a "keep up the good work". Exceeding expectations earns reward, nothing less. He also understands that kids who can't show up to school on time or get the same grades he gets are either stupid, lazy, or have parent that don't care.

Coastalgrl: You know, hearing gripes from parents of school age children, I wouldn't be surprised if more and more kids are saying "screw this" and get out when they can. The school system completely failed them by over testing, not teaching useful skills and treating them like second class citizens.

/What teacher assigns 2-3 hrs of homework for 2nd grade!!! And requires parent signature on every assignment???
//Great way to get a kid to hate school.

A teacher trying to get parents involved with their kid's education. And since I've told my son (in 2nd grade) that his work wouldn't take 2-3 hours if he would just do it, instead of complaining about how long his homework takes, his speed at doing it has increased.

It should take 45 minutes or less for him. His other problem is he needs everything to be perfect and complete, which has led to him butting heads in the classroom with his teacher when it's time to move on. His teacher says the quality of his work is great and beyond grade level expectations, but the speed is lacking.

It kind of makes sense.

We actually liked going to school in my day, because our teachers were allowed to make classes fun, and we had things like arts & crafts, music class, two recesses a day, science classes where we could mix chemicals and watch the reactions, etc. So school was a place that wasn't entirely unenjoyable.

Now, school is a horrible place where kids have to sit in one place 55 minutes at a time and learn crap that is meaningless with no context, with the understanding that once they spit it back on the STARS test, they can forget it. You want arts & crafts, music, and courses where you learn what all this stuff is supposed to be about? Yeah, sorry kid, we don't do that any more.

You'd have to pay me to go to school these days too.

Drubell: the kids need to work so that they can help put food on their families

George W! How many times have I told you to leave that internet alone?

Coastalgrl: meat0918: Coastalgrl: You know, hearing gripes from parents of school age children, I wouldn't be surprised if more and more kids are saying "screw this" and get out when they can. The school system completely failed them by over testing, not teaching useful skills and treating them like second class citizens.

/What teacher assigns 2-3 hrs of homework for 2nd grade!!! And requires parent signature on every assignment???
//Great way to get a kid to hate school.

A teacher trying to get parents involved with their kid's education. And since I've told my son (in 2nd grade) that his work wouldn't take 2-3 hours if he would just do it, instead of complaining about how long his homework takes, his speed at doing it has increased.

It should take 45 minutes or less for him. His other problem is he needs everything to be perfect and complete, which has led to him butting heads in the classroom with his teacher when it's time to move on. His teacher says the quality of his work is great and beyond grade level expectations, but the speed is lacking.

I agree. Getting the parents involved is a good idea. However, the parent is the one saying it takes the child 2-3 hrs to do homework when they do buckle down and do it. It doesnt seem to be a lack of motivation but volume overload.

Needs to be downtime for kids to play and dream. Have structure fine but the kids' having panic attacks because he is afraid he wont finish his homework in one night. Pendulum needs to swing the other way a bit.

How many kids in the class? Having a bunch of kids for the teacher to split their time while doing in class assignments seems to increase the amount of homework. I know my son gets what I consider extra work because they just don't have time to cover it all. Thankfully some kids moved out of district because now the class is down to 25 or so kids from the 33 that were there.

I can't afford private school, and even if I could afford it the only offering for a secular education in my area is the public school. Everything else is a religious or pseudo-religious private school. Homeschooling is not an option either.

Remember back in the day when you had to walk to school, barefoot, uphill both ways, in the snow?

And you know what was under the snow? BROKEN GLASS!

meat0918: No, but my grandfather did. He lived on the top of one small hill and the school was up a different hill. He left out that it was uphill and downhill both ways.

I did too, and the streets were actually fairly steep.

Link (new window)

Going downhill towards the river. On the west side of the river just across the bridge there was some building that had heat coming out of vents, remember going and warming up my gloves halfway in the winter.

dletter: meat0918: No, but my grandfather did. He lived on the top of one small hill and the school was up a different hill. He left out that it was uphill and downhill both ways.

I did too, and the streets were actually fairly steep.

Link (new window)

Going downhill towards the river. On the west side of the river just across the bridge there was some building that had heat coming out of vents, remember going and warming up my gloves halfway in the winter.

Damn, that link didn't do the path for some reason... walking to the middle schools on the other side tho.

hey boomers,

remeber when minimum wage got up to $11 an hour in the 60s while you were growing up? remember when governments invested in education in stead of cut it? remember when you grew up during the most prosperous period in the nation's entire history? remember when work wasnt being exported to indians and chineese and mexicans? remember when companies would invest in human capital before you invented the "free agent" economy? remember when our national debt was less than 100% of GDP? remember when a decent job didnt require a college degree?

you are the real snowflakes

before you biatch about lazy millennial, i work 65+hours a week.