Alan, I appreciate your comments and insight from outside the USA. My daughter-in-law is a special education teacher in the public schools. This year she sees students who are 2 or 3 years behind in reading or math. But they are the good stories with involved parents. Before this, she taught 5+ years in a 'behavior disorders' classroom. The children, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders, were all damaged from birth, having been born to mothers addicted to one thing or another. These single parents barely can keep their own lives together, let alone be involved in their child's education. It's a sad situation I cannot imagine how to solve. Regards, Bob S.
On Fri, Apr 12, 2013 at 2:50 AM, Alan C <c...@lantic.net> wrote: > The educational side of this thread has been most interesting. > > I thought the educational system in SA was very bad but it seems the > problems are universal. We have private schools funded by the parents (no > Govt. assistance) which have the best facilities and teachers. Costs are > very high but results are outstanding. Then we have the Model C schools (the > Govt. schools in the former "white" areas) which are funded partially by > parents & partially by Govt. The standards are still pretty good but > discipline is becoming a problem. Lastly we have the so called township & > farm schools which are totally (but inadequately) funded by the Govt. The > teachers are unionized, discipline is non-existent & performance is > terrible. There seems to be no political will to redress the situation apart > from tampering with syllabi & lowering standards to keep the pass rate up. > Nevertheless, there have been remarkable results from some of these schools > where there remains a nucleus of dedicated teachers (pity they are not all > like that). The general demise has also spread to tertiary institutions. > Apartheid has been gone for 20 years but still gets the blame. > Unfortunately, there is a terrible lingering obsession with race in SA - now > a type of reverse apartheid. In the old days, the Coloureds & Indians were > not white enough - now they are not black enough - eternally caught in the > middle. Social tampering, quotas & "affirmative" action are the order of the > day. In the end, it really all comes down to politics and the securing of > votes. Where do all the politician's children go the school? You guessed it! > > Alan C > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
