My niece, whose father is an OB-GYN, attended private schools for many years. For the last three years of high school, though, her parents moved into the city and she enrolled in a public school (admittedly, one with a good reputation, but still public and with kids from widely varying socioeconomic backgrounds.) She liked the public school much better than her private school, and is now doing very well in college (she hopes to follow in her father's footsteps and someday be a doctor herself.)

Like, why the hell do we need them? What's wrong with this picture: we send our kids to school for 6-7 hours a day and they come home needing basic tutoring in math and reading? WTF? These places are cropping up all over the place. No, let me correct that: they're popping up in the suburbs, where parents can afford them. So the inner city, poor kids, already saddled with the worst teachers, don't get the tutoring clubs either.

But, back to the tutoring places. I get that there is some element of appealing to the vanity, insecurity, or sense of competitiveness of the rich parents. But it can't just be that. The kids must be lacking in the basics to qualify for the extra help, right? And the test scores are still pretty bad internationally, right?

There truly is something wrong with this need for out-of-school help. I honestly don't think it's about quantity of work or time put into work. I think there needs to be a major paradigm shift in goals of public education: We need to go back to the Enlightenment principals of reason and autonomy. Critical analysis, practicing scientific thinking and argument, figuring out truths and discerning subtlety and knowing where to go for answers in this age of information glut. These are the priorities. Some of the unusual schools around the country are doing this. We need to stop this crap about memorizing the capitals of states, information that is easily obtained upon need of it.

What districts have you been teaching in? My mother was at Mayfield for almost 15 years, and my father is with Orange (although he teaches at Beech Brook, the county special ed program that just happens to be situated in Orange -- which, nicely, means an Orange salary for him, and the program is extremely diverse). Anyway, in her later years at Mayfield my mother noticed a huge influx of African-American students (in addition to the usual high numbers of Russian immigrants).

My brother went to that same downtown Jesuit school as your son. Where "diversity" means less than 5% African-American. Um, no. That place is notorious for its LACK of diversity. I went to the all-girls Catholic school in the Heights, where it was 40% African-American -- not quite representative of the demographics of the area, which is about 50/50 black/white, but a whole hell of a lot better than that Jesuit place downtown. Of course, the Heights aren't exactly anyone's idea of lily-white suburbia anyway...

And, to neptuneflame: Here's an example for you. At my parochial high school (where I went not because my parents didn't believe in the public school system in our city -- all my friends went there, and did very well -- but because they were deeply religious), we had a number of science teachers who were not certified teachers, but who had been practicing scientists, usually with master's degrees in the field. They were all invariably older women with high-achieving husbands who had moved around a lot for his job, gotten tired of new labs all the time, and decided to teach science instead. They were also the greatest teachers I ever had, by a LOT. A lot a lot. They were all (and I went to a small school, so I'm only talking about three people here -- not a representative sample, but still) loving, patient, understanding people who had gravitated towards teaching because of those traits, but who all had an incredible depth of knowledge to be able to challenge even the brightest students.

Conversely, I had a physics teacher who had a teaching degree and certificate and who didn't know calculus. Let me repeat: my physics teacher did not know calculus. I took an advanced math class the summer before my senior year of high school and ended up more or less teaching all my classmates the math they needed to understand the material. This teacher -- certified! Trained in education! Taught how to reach students! -- was absolutely the worst I ever had, because she was incapable of explaining even the simplest detail from the book. But, ah, she knew how to "discipline"!

Anyone who thinks mastery of the subject is secondary deserves to be taught physics by someone who doesn't know calculus. It is every bit as essential to being a good teacher as being a caring person and strong communicator, and among the people my age (mid-20s) I know who have gone into teaching, all the ones who have succeeded most brilliantly have had a degree in their fields. Some have had an additional teaching degree as well and some have not, but all have a degree in their fields. The ones I know who studied education as undergraduates and went right to work as certified teachers? They have yet to impress their students or administrations in the same way. And while not everyone I know who went into teaching with a degree in another field has stayed there, those who didn't succeed at least had a way out -- while those with only teaching degrees are stuck being mediocre teachers for a whole lot longer.

I just typed a long letter to you but it got erased b/c we turned the corner on the day in California, so I'm not going to redo at length. In a nutshell:

1. Can't say specifically where I teach after I've trashed the teachers. Generally west side. But remember I'm a substitute so I have lots of schools.

2. Said Jesuit high school still more diverse than my own southwest suburban high school. Can you believe? By a mile. Socioeconomically as well. Also politically: teachers there are surprisingly liberal except for the theology department, but of course there's a big divide among the student body. My son put it this way: 1/2 the kids are apolitical. Of the kids who are informed and care (the other half), 1/2 are liberal and 1/2 are conservative. But when there are fake elections or whatever, the 1/2 who don't care go with the conservatives b/c of their parents or the theology department. But the teachers go with the left. I have no issue with this kind of diversity. It's good for my kids to develop arguments, think independently, or even learn a thing or two.

3. I too went to a private girls' high school, in NY. Loved it. And no doubt influences my unwillingness to knee-jerk dismiss all private school kids and parents and teachers as worthless and shallow. But I'm not so failing in imagination that I can't fathom public school students and teachers also having excellent experiences. Just that my own anecdotal, first-hand experience as a teacher demonstrates very poor quality. But as I've mentioned, there's a big disparity b/t districts.