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Also false. I went to public schools and was worse off for it. I can honestly say that most of my teachers were awful! Public school brutalized me physically, i

Also false. I went to public schools and was worse off for it. I can honestly say that most of my teachers were awful! Public school brutalized me physically, intellectually and emotionally. It killed my desire to learn. I didn't begin to really grow again until several years had passed following high school. I know I sound bitter, but I have reason to be. My teachers turned a blind eye to bullying, and were incompetent otherwise. If I had never gone to public school, I would have been much better prepared for college, and sooner than I was. I'm serious - letting me stay at home with some books would have done more good than what they did to me. So yes, public school teachers do make too much money, because there shouldn't be such a thing as public school. If this sounds crazy to you, how did the ancient Greeks get along? They didn't have schools of any kind (as we'd define a school today), yet they managed to create Western civilization. Edit: One more thing - my mom worked as a teacher in Madison, WI schools for seven years, and she agrees with me (finally - when I was growing up, she thought that I was the problem). She has more stories about teacher stupidity, laziness and waste than you will ever want to hear. She was very idealistic when she came in, and now that she knows about the underside of public education, she's sorry that she ever sent us into that system (of course, this is about twenty years too late, because I started kindergarten in 1986.)

cleverjake 16y ago
One has to wonder if the lack of quality has to do with the lack of a good salary. I like to think im good at my job, and I wouldn't work at a place that paid me less, let alone substantially less, than I think I am worth.
- maxharris 16y ago
  I think it's because of the way they're organized. First, they're unionized, which makes it very hard to change them out. It also means that they are always overpaid with lavish benefits, and that innovative teachers are crushed by the group. Even more important is the fact that the curriculum is defined by the state (a very rigid thing, indeed). This means that it's practically impossible to do a good job, even if the teacher doesn't begin his or her career with evil intent. Why should all of us be forced to know all the same things? Isn't diversity in intellectual matters valuable?
rudiger 16y ago
Not every public school is as bad as the one(s) you went to.
- maxharris 16y ago
  True, but that's not the point. The reason my school was so bad was that it was a public school. (See my other post for more on this.) Some of the better public schools might survive as private schools when the budget woes force change along (hopefully not long from now), but everyone would be better served if the bad ones (such as mine) were to close their doors. (This is why the public-sector unions have to go. Even if you agree with me, you're probably thinking, "but the unions wouldn't hear of it!") As for any accusations that this runs counter to some egalitarian principle, I don't agree. Michael Faraday had no formal education, yet he rose to astounding heights in science. We are crushing the many would-be Faradays of our own time, while simultaneously wrecking our public budgets. I know it's a minority position to call this out, but I sincerely hope that it won't be that way much longer.

cleverjake 16y ago

One has to wonder if the lack of quality has to do with the lack of a good salary. I like to think im good at my job, and I wouldn't work at a place that paid me less, let alone substantially less, than I think I am worth.

maxharris 16y ago
I think it's because of the way they're organized. First, they're unionized, which makes it very hard to change them out. It also means that they are always overpaid with lavish benefits, and that innovative teachers are crushed by the group. Even more important is the fact that the curriculum is defined by the state (a very rigid thing, indeed). This means that it's practically impossible to do a good job, even if the teacher doesn't begin his or her career with evil intent. Why should all of us be forced to know all the same things? Isn't diversity in intellectual matters valuable?

rudiger 16y ago

Not every public school is as bad as the one(s) you went to.

maxharris 16y ago
True, but that's not the point. The reason my school was so bad was that it was a public school. (See my other post for more on this.) Some of the better public schools might survive as private schools when the budget woes force change along (hopefully not long from now), but everyone would be better served if the bad ones (such as mine) were to close their doors. (This is why the public-sector unions have to go. Even if you agree with me, you're probably thinking, "but the unions wouldn't hear of it!") As for any accusations that this runs counter to some egalitarian principle, I don't agree. Michael Faraday had no formal education, yet he rose to astounding heights in science. We are crushing the many would-be Faradays of our own time, while simultaneously wrecking our public budgets. I know it's a minority position to call this out, but I sincerely hope that it won't be that way much longer.