Thoughts on Berwyn?

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Morton is no longer looming. It's already a major concern, and has been for quite some time.

I've posted a New York Times article from 1994 a few times on this forum that talks about the downfall of Proviso West, and it seems like the Morton Township high schools have followed a similar pattern. Sadly, it's a downward spiral that happens when (mostly white) parents of middle class or higher backgrounds start to withdraw from the Public School system. Then people without a stake in the school system refuse funding initiatives, further hurting the schools.

The only way to solve it is mass participation in public education, but no one wants their kids to be the guinea pigs.

[BRU67]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

I've posted a New York Times article from 1994 a few times on this forum that talks about the downfall of Proviso West, and it seems like the Morton Township high schools have followed a similar pattern. Sadly, it's a downward spiral that happens when (mostly white) parents of middle class or higher backgrounds start to withdraw from the Public School system. Then people without a stake in the school system refuse funding initiatives, further hurting the schools.

The only way to solve it is mass participation in public education, but no one wants their kids to be the guinea pigs.

Yes, if the middle class or higher backgrounds in the community started sending their kids there, it would turn around overnight.

[Lookout Kid]

Originally Posted by BRU67

Yes, if the middle class or higher backgrounds in the community started sending their kids there, it would turn around overnight.

Have you seen this?

Private school vs. public school: Only bad people send their kids to private school. - Slate Magazine

The author is dismissive of the other reasons for private schools, including religious education. And her thesis is silly for other reasons, like her terrible defense of her own "crappy public school education". But it got a lot of discussion on NPR and other national outlets this past week. WBEZ used the article as part of a show about the turnaround of Nettlehorst Elementary in Lake View, which was a much more interesting conversation than the one about the article itself.

(Chet will love this article, by the way. I think a vein will pop out of his head and steam will flow out of his ears.)

[MassVt]

Originally Posted by Lookout Kid

Have you seen this?

Private school vs. public school: Only bad people send their kids to private school. - Slate Magazine

The author is dismissive of the other reasons for private schools, including religious education. And her thesis is silly for other reasons, like her terrible defense of her own "crappy public school education". But it got a lot of discussion on NPR and other national outlets this past week. WBEZ used the article as part of a show about the turnaround of Nettlehorst Elementary in Lake View, which was a much more interesting conversation than the one about the article itself.

(Chet will love this article, by the way. I think a vein will pop out of his head and steam will flow out of his ears.)

I read the article. If Chet does, he'll survive quite nicely, and without any "emissions".

I think that the author was simply stating that attending public school with kids from all walks of life was perfectly fine, and that there won't be any ill effects that will haunt the child throught his/her life. In fact, it may be better for them in the long run, with the broader exposure.

The title of the article was just meant to be an attention-grabber...

[chet everett]

I saw that article and even listened to the BEZ show ( I listen to NPR a lot more than some of you might guess...).

My take on the article, like that of an increasingly amount of online (and even a depressingly large amount of traditional opinion pieces) content is that it has so much emphasis on personal experience and so little objective thought to back it up that is not worth dissecting. There was a time not too long ago when editors thought that the lack of any real constraints on resources would foster long form articles and investigative journalism. Instead of such high minded content the web is rapidly devolving to the lowest forms of junk -- crazy misogynist bro-type stuff modeled after Tucker Max that calls Chicago an awesome spot in the once respectable Outside Magazine becuase it so easy to spy babes in skimpy swimwear along the lakefront, morons that still don't want to acknowledge that deciet perpatrated by the current president by his 180 on campaign promises to promote a nation unseparated by "red and blue" boundaries are now the leading flacks at once interesting sites like Slate, Salon or Wired, looney extremists far outside the mainstream and well out of their depth are ranting about their own imagined slights now that talentless exhibitionists have seizeed control of everything from Jezebel to the once promising indie TV/films promoted by HBO...

It is too funny that a person that acknowledges their own deficient education and subsequent lack of success would urge others into the same swamp of inferiorioty with a straight face. Granted not everyone that goes to a top perfroming private school will have a smoothly paved road to success but one might at least acknowledge the virtues of a costly private school include things like a sense of gratefulness and a desire to help others as evidenced by the extremely generous efforts that every such schools makes to extend tuition assitance to the less fortunate. Further the critical thinking and data analysis skills that most private schools (and the better public schools ...) pride themselves on ought to give one the ability to really blow holes in not just some hare brained business plan to find the ones that succeed but point out the flaws in logic that folks that have muddled through crappy schools make in their ability to generalize from their own particularly crummy life choices.

Some of this is to be expected in the fake "anti-elitism" that is currently trendy, as well off kids use the generosity of their parents to live a life filled with costly nights out, ridiculously overpriced fake "track bikes", and a uniform of nonconformity. Anyone that wastes too much time worried about such fads will likely miss out on the things that really will advance indivuals / society...