IMO, there is an advantage to having a relatively stable community, with a homogenious population group, and common cultural set of values. This can be done in the rural areas of the country.
In cosmopolitan cities, however, this milieu cannot be maintained since there are other people from different cultural backgrounds. Specifically, many of the kids live in bilingual homes, where some parents cannot even speak Eglish. As such, city schools have a unique set of challenges and do not perform as well in scholastic achievements. --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Tom Pall <thomas.pall@...> wrote: > > On Fri, Oct 21, 2011 at 3:37 PM, John <jr_esq@...> wrote: > > > They're scoring on tests better than the world competition. > > > > > > http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/tiny-rural-kansas-district-students-performing-global-competition-195446967.html#more-17478 > > > > > This is a shock? There are pretty traditional schools in many farm states > and little towns. With schools which still teach Latin and Greek. I went > to a high school which hired the best teachers money could get. I wondered > if there was a law about teachers working within 60 miles of where they > lived. I didn't realize at the time that it was something special to have > teachers who were scholars in Chemistry or Latin or English Lit, with > masters to prove it and, incidentally, they had some education credits > under their belt. This was a working class school system mostly and the > parents' and students' emphasis was on making something of ourselves. And > indeed we did. When students graduated out of our college prep track we > had our pick of colleges. An amazing number of National Merit scholars, > perfect SATs and on and on. I later found out the paddling was the norm > in the other surrounding school districts. We never heard of such a > thing. Yeah, we cut up a little but a look from a teacher and it stopped. > Then and there. There's no need for diversity training, no need for touchy > feely courses, no need for no child left behind, a laptop in ever student's > hands. We went on to prestigious school and just had books. We developed > our sense of self worth thru scholarship, athletics, community service and, > yes, home ec. > > It's the attitude of the parents which matters most. The parents instill > the need for learning or the need to be litigious. But we just can't or > don't want to grok that. >
