US education techniques

[Geoff m]

Hello,
I live in the UK and recently started reading a book by Johanna Michaelsen called Like Lambs to the slaughter about the US education system. It was published in 1989, so is a few years old now, but I was wondering if it really is fact? If it is true what I am reading, I find it quite astonishing. Is there anyone out there who has read this? tell me what you think.
Geoff

 

[Cimorene]

1989 is more than a few years old! I live in Canada now but am American & went to public schools when we lived there. I loved them! They were great. You hear all this criticism about Common Core but I liked it. I started kindergarten in 2005 so maybe by then the problems written about in that book had been taken care of. My sister is special needs in 3 ways, she's gifted, she has Asperger's & she has juvenile diabetes. The public schools did a really great job with her too!!

 

[JackRT]

Hello,
I live in the UK and recently started reading a book by Johanna Michaelsen called Like Lambs to the slaughter about the US education system. It was published in 1989, so is a few years old now, but I was wondering if it really is fact? If it is true what I am reading, I find it quite astonishing. Is there anyone out there who has read this? tell me what you think.
Geoff

I have not read that book. I am a retired educator of almost 40 years experience in Canadian universities and public high schools. I cannot speak of the situation in USAnian public schools but I can say that there seems to be a concerted effort of the religious/political right wing in the USA to destroy the public school system. Is this one of those books?

 

[South Bound]

Hello,
I live in the UK and recently started reading a book by Johanna Michaelsen called Like Lambs to the slaughter about the US education system. It was published in 1989, so is a few years old now, but I was wondering if it really is fact? If it is true what I am reading, I find it quite astonishing. Is there anyone out there who has read this? tell me what you think.
Geoff

Never read it, but I taught at the secondary level for years and can tell you first hand that the way we do education in this country, particularly in government schools, is a complete train wreck. It's no wonder we can't crack the top twenty in math and science.

 

[South Bound]

there seems to be a concerted effort of the religious/political right wing in the USA to destroy the public school system. Is this one of those books?

As someone you would no doubt consider "right wing", I've never heard of such a conspiracy, but I have no love for government schools.

 

[JackRT]

As someone you would no doubt consider "right wing", I've never heard of such a conspiracy, but I have no love for government schools.

I do not have enough familiarity with US schools to comment further other than to say that the USA seems to have both some of the finest schools in the world and some of the worst. The question is "Why?"

 

[South Bound]

I do not have enough familiarity with US schools to comment further other than to say that the USA seems to have both some of the finest schools in the world and some of the worst. The question is "Why?"

Because they've largely been taken over by the federal government and unions, because they're little more than indoctrination centers and social experimentation labs, and because they do such a terrible job educating our children.

We should be leading the world in math and science and yet government schools can't even crack the top twenty. There's no excuse for that.

 

[JackRT]

I was a member of OSSTF (a teachers union) for 29 years. During that period of time we had to fight tooth and nail not only for fair compensation and working conditions but even more importantly for protecting our young people from ill advised government "medaling". I am pleased to report that we had a great deal of success in that. However, I am also aware that unions are struggling to stay alive in the USA. Perhaps the education system is to blame for failing to teach the history of unions in the USA and the great good they have accomplished?

 

[South Bound]

I was a member of OSSTF (a teachers union) for 29 years. During that period of time we had to fight tooth and nail not only for fair compensation and working conditions but even more importantly for protecting our young people from ill advised government "medaling". I am pleased to report that we had a great deal of success in that. However, I am also aware that unions are struggling to stay alive in the USA. Perhaps the education system is to blame for failing to teach the history of unions in the USA and the great good they have accomplished?

There was a time when unions could be argued to have served an important purpose.

Now, they're just political action committees.

And whatever you may think about unions the fact remains that the NEA and the radical (even by NEA standards) AFT are among the things destroying our education system and have taken over our government schools.

 

[Cimorene]

Never read it, but I taught at the secondary level for years and can tell you first hand that the way we do education in this country, particularly in government schools, is a complete train wreck. It's no wonder we can't crack the top twenty in math and science.

What state did you teach in?

 

[Geoff m]

Never read it, but I taught at the secondary level for years and can tell you first hand that the way we do education in this country, particularly in government schools, is a complete train wreck. It's no wonder we can't crack the top twenty in math and science.

it might be worth a read just out of interest, I have barely been able to put it down. I don't know if you know anything about the author, but she was involved in occult before becoming a devout Christian. My view is that the book is aimed at Christian parents whose children were being taught using methods of Eastern mysrticism / religion & occult techniques, while the Bible and God were not allowed to be mentioned in the classroom. Methods of meditation and New Age humanism beliefs being used so young children could find their third eye, spirit guides etc,,,, in short the methods used are steeped in asian religions / witch craft, which were designed and developed in the years BC by shamen and yogi..
If I knew the history and purpose of yoga, which I have just read in this book ,15 years ago, I would have never given it a try. Thankfully all it did was pull a muscle and that was enough for me to stop.
This book is pro-Christian and published by harvest house publishers Oregon, I got this copy from amazonUK for just £2 second hand so it should be easy to find in the USA.

 

[South Bound]

What state did you teach in?

New Jersey

 

[Cimorene]

I do not have enough familiarity with US schools to comment further other than to say that the USA seems to have both some of the finest schools in the world and some of the worst. The question is "Why?"

I think a lot of it has to do with $ bc a lot of the funding comes from the local taxpayers. It's why they're super strict in some areas about zoning, & you're not allowed to attend a school unless you live inside the zone for it. When we lived in Chicago we were in this tiny apartment that cost a huge fortune, & we couldn't move out of that area bc the school we went to was the best. It was especially important with my sister that she go to that school. It was a nice apartment in a high rise but it was crazy expensive & too small. No exceptions could be made bc of her Asperger's & health, she had to live in that zone. Other schools in Chicago are awful.

Some families have been so desperate to get their kids into better schools in areas where they can't afford to live themselves that they've used the addresses of friends or relatives. You can get in major trouble for that tho if you're caught. This 1 mom got arrested for doing that bc it was fraud. The main reason my family moved to a suburb of Seattle when we were in WA was bc my sister was about to start HS & that city had the best school. My parents had to commute like an hour to work after the move. Private schools were like $30K a year so with 3 kids that wasn't doable for them.

 

[Widlast]

Hello,
I live in the UK and recently started reading a book by Johanna Michaelsen called Like Lambs to the slaughter about the US education system. It was published in 1989, so is a few years old now, but I was wondering if it really is fact? If it is true what I am reading, I find it quite astonishing. Is there anyone out there who has read this? tell me what you think.
Geoff

Haven't read that one, have read others like it (or so I assume).
The American Education System is designed to make compliant slaves for the New World.
No thinkers, philosophers, inventors, or great men of any stripe desired.

 

[Geoff m]

Haven't read that one, have read others like it (or so I assume).
The American Education System is designed to make compliant slaves for the New World.
No thinkers, philosophers, inventors, or great men of any stripe desired.

I really would keep an eye out for this read, it has had me rivoted