From the article, Sandra Tsing Loh:

the generation before us, those dreaded baby boomers, they swiped the Visa and left nothing behind. It was like strip mining. They took what they could and left nothing for the rest. Not that I blame the boomers, but why not? Let's blame them! They stopped the war, then they worked at corporations, and they were done -- and they still think they've saved the world. But in terms of public education, many of them left a blasted landscape behind.

According to the article, Ms. Loh is 46. By my calculations, that puts her birth date at either 1962 or 1961.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomers

She is a Baby Boomer.

What up?

It sounds like a lot of parents here want to send their children to public schools because they themselves went to public schools and don't want to feel that their own opportunities were inferior to the ones their children had.

There's one good reason to send your kids to public school: because you can get as good or better education there for free, as opposed to paying lots of money for a private school. That's it. We need to stop dressing up choosing public schools with all of these pseudo-reasons like how it represents "investment in your community" or because you "believe in public schools" or because you need to "prove" that it's just as good.

There is no such thing as a "public school kid" as opposed to a "private school kid." The goal is ensuring your children become learned, educated, thoughtful people, and that will happen wherever you send you children, assuming you make the right choice, whether that is a private or public school.

I'm a history teacher in an overcrowded Chicago public high school. There are so many issues we have to deal with on a daily basis that have nothing to do with teaching that private school teachers don't have to deal with, that you can hardly compare the two. But that doesn't mean that kids can't get a good education in our school, they can. We do the best we can under very difficult circumstances, with a lot less money than suburban public schools receive. One major problem is that we don't have enough parental support. We do have many who really care about their kids, not to mention the kids that are self-motivated to get a good education. But we really need more support from all the parents than what we get. For example, last fall we had an evening freshman parent orientation. The freshman class last year was 1,200 students. At the orientation we only had about 40 pairs of parents in attendance. Out of 1,200.

Like all schools, we have great teachers and those that are just coasting along until retirement. However, the coasters are definitely in the minority. Whomever said that the urban schools get stuck with the worst teachers is just talking out his/her nether regions. I'm at CPS because I wanted to teach there, and by the way I abandoned an extremely lucrative job in the business world to teach because my former occupation was completely soul-destroying. We have a lot of teachers at our school who are passionate about education and want to do the best job they can for the kids, so please don't make sweeping statements about teachers in urban public schools.

The kids, while having lower skills than those from fancier suburban schools, or private schools, are truly lovely people who deserve just as good of an education as rich kids do. In fact, they need the best teachers because they don't get the help at home from their parents that middle class and wealthy children get. They're behind from the moment they step foot in school, and for some it just gets harder and harder as they get older.

Here are some of the issues I have to deal with on a daily basis:

-Kids who are late, or completely miss, their first class of the day because they have to walk their younger siblings to elementary school

-Kids who get early dismissals often because they have to babysit their younger siblings, and therefore miss class

-Kids who can't do their homework because they don't have anyone at home who can help them

-Kids who can't do their homework because they have jobs

-Kids who can't do their homework because they have to take care of the family when they get home from school

-Kids who just flat-out don't care about school, don't see the value in it, because they're illegal and therefore don't think they're going to be able to get a decent job, let alone go to college

-Kids who are being abused by their parents, or (for girls) abused by their mothers' boyfriends

Kids who are homeless or living in shelters

Kids who get jumped on the way to/from school by gangbangers

Kids (and teachers) who have to deal with really overcrowded classrooms because our school is the best neighborhood high school in the area and parents find ways to send their kids there

How many private schools have to deal with this stuff? We still are responsible for educating these children and are beholden to the powers-that-be for test scores (which include the scores of English language learners and special ed kids), while having to deal with the above issues on a daily basis. Having said that, our school offers both an Advanced Placement program and the International Bacchalaureate degree, so we get kids from other neighborhood schools attending our school. We also have the AVID program, which is geared toward kids who are C/D students who want to go to college.

I always tell my students that you can get a good education if you take advantage of all the programs we offer (tutoring, ACT prep classes, sports, clubs, etc.) and make an effort. And for lateagain, who I noticed said he/she is a substitute, why not get an actual teaching certificate and make a difference, instead of complaining about all the lousy teachers in the district you sub for?

Therefore, I have to thank Sandra Loh, who instead of providing the usual ignorant rant about how bad public schools are, how bad the teachers are, etc., is actually trying to show that public education is actually not as bad as everyone thinks it is. I would also challenge all of you who spout off about public education to go to a school and sit in classes for a day - yes, you can do that. I'll be you'll be surprised at what you'll see.