Children At Risk --- 15 Ways Public Schools Can Harm Your
Children
Unfortunately, public schools, even in the "best" neighborhoods,
can harm our kids in many ways. Here's a list of 15 ways public
schools can hurt children (and parents):
1. Public schools cripple millions of children's ability to read
by using the "whole-language" instruction method (now called
"balanced reading instruction" by many public schools).
2. Many public schools spend almost 50 percent of the school day
on non-academic subjects that waste children's precious time.
The rest of their time is spent on classes such as
sex-education, personal safety, consumer affairs, AIDS
education, save-the-environment, family life, study halls,
multiculturalism, homeroom, electives, counseling, or sports
activities.
3. Public schools teach "new" or "fuzzy" math (sometimes called
by different names). These instruction methods can cripple
children's ability to learn basic arithmetic. Students who fear
math are less likely to pursue good careers like computer
science and engineering that depend on a love of and competence
with math.
4. These schools force children to read dumbed-down textbooks in
English, History, and many other subjects. The textbooks are
often geared to the slowest learners in the class and water-down
the subject matter. Dumbed-down classes based on dumbed-down
public-school textbooks therefore waste children's precious
time. This is especially true for children who are quick
learners, who must endure 12 years of excruciating boredom in
public school classes.
5. Public schools force children to study subjects they might
hate, can't learn, will never use in their lives, or which bore
them. For example, many public schools force students to study a
foreign language. Children learn better when they study subjects
that interest them.
6. Author John Gatto, in his book "Dumbing Us Down" said that a
child eager to learn can learn to read, write, and do basic
arithmetic in about 100 hours. Yet our public schools keep
children locked up for 12 years, yet can barely teach millions
of kids to read.
7. Public schools force parents to pay heavy school taxes for an
inferior, often mind-numbing education for their children.
8. Public schools are a government-controlled near-monopoly. Bad
schools don't close down because compulsory taxes prop them up.
Incompetent or mediocre teachers aren't fired because tenure
laws protect them. That's why public schools will never improve
and will always waste children's precious time.
9. Many public schools subject children to drugs, bullies,
violence, and values many parents disapprove of.
10. Public schools pressure many parents who have bright, normal
children to give their kids potentially dangerous mind-altering
drugs to make the bored kids "behave" in class. Over four
million allegedly "unruly" kids line up for Ritalin every day in
public schools across America. Methylphenidate (sold as Ritalin)
and cocaine are both listed in "Schedule II" of the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency's Controlled Substances Act (CSA).
11. Public schools are compulsory. They therefore violate
parents