I can overhear the following statement at the checkout register today:

"Ummm hmmm, yeah, my baby, he do got asthma."


WTF? What the hell are teachers and parents doing where that crap passes as acceptable? I would smack my kid in the back of the head if I ever heard her speak like that. It amazes me that these people can't understand why they're working the register at Target on a Sunday morning.

My kid goes to a "magnet" school - historically black neighborhood, under a desegregation / busing court order so they make it a "magnet" school to attract white kids.

This week she had a sub teacher, and comes home to tell us that the black kids had to translate for the white kids because nobody could understand what the teach was saying.

True story. The teacher could not be understood by the white kids; so the black kids had to translate.

Sometime I'll post some of my other assorted observations about this school...

True story. "...assorted observations ...


The dumbing down continues. You don't know if it's "true" and you don't have "observations". Rather, you've just "heard" stuff, and now you have ill-begotten opinions (And you know what's said about opinions). After you visit the school/classroom, observe the teacher(s) in action, talk to a variety of the school's/district's representatives (Teachers, administrators, support folks, etc.), and attend a couple of school board meetings, then let us know what you've learned.

I can overhear the following statement at the checkout register today:

"Ummm hmmm, yeah, my baby, he do got asthma."


WTF? What the hell are teachers and parents doing where that crap passes as acceptable? I would smack my kid in the back of the head if I ever heard her speak like that. It amazes me that these people can't understand why they're working the register at Target on a Sunday morning.

Why do you hate America! Just kidding. Look at pop culture dawg. Man I pop uh cap in da teachs azz if they tell me how to liguisticate myself.

I say put all of our education materials on YouTube, have LiLo, Paris Hilton and Britney Spears read it aloud and we'll have the most educated nation on the planet. Now the three of them probably won't learn a thing, but that's no real loss.

The dumbing down continues. You don't know if it's "true" and you don't have "observations". Rather, you've just "heard" stuff, and now you have ill-begotten opinions (And you know what's said about opinions). After you visit the school/classroom, observe the teacher(s) in action, talk to a variety of the school's/district's representatives (Teachers, administrators, support folks, etc.), and attend a couple of school board meetings, then let us know what you've learned.

We're pretty involved in my kid's education. My wife spends quite a bit of time helping out at the school. She's been there all day for the past week and will be there again all next week. I'll be there in a couple weeks. We've directly observed quite a bit and have talked to many a teacher/administrator.

We didn't believe that the kids were only being given five minutes to get their lunch and eat it until we observed it with our own eyes. Didn't want to believe that the administrators and teachers were playing the standardized test game until we observed it with our own eyes. Didn't want to believe that a teacher would lie about a student's performance until we actually caught her in her lie.

There are lots of other things we've directly observed. It's surprising how much teachers and counselors will tell you if you spend a little time. Sadly, most of what we have observed and learned isn't good.

We're pretty involved in my kid's education. My wife spends quite a bit of time helping out at the school. She's been there all day for the past week and will be there again all next week. I'll be there in a couple weeks. We've directly observed quite a bit and have talked to many a teacher/administrator.

We didn't believe that the kids were only being given five minutes to get their lunch and eat it until we observed it with our own eyes. Didn't want to believe that the administrators and teachers were playing the standardized test game until we observed it with our own eyes. Didn't want to believe that a teacher would lie about a student's performance until we actually caught her in her lie.

There are lots of other things we've directly observed. It's surprising how much teachers and counselors will tell you if you spend a little time. Sadly, most of what we have observed and learned isn't good.


4 years ago if one would have asked me if I would consider a private school for our then daughter to be, I would have said you were high. Now, it is front and center. After a series of events where I've had 1st hand experience with the teachers union and the bloated bureaucracy of the SD school district, we're out. The governator's proposed 5 billion dollar cut in the education budget is just icing on the disfunctional cake. My daughter's education is not going to be held hostage by fickle, myopic bureaucrats.

Saturday she had an "assessment" as part of the application process. She did well. We hear in two weeks.

I can overhear the following statement at the checkout register today:

"Ummm hmmm, yeah, my baby, he do got asthma."


WTF? What the hell are teachers and parents doing where that crap passes as acceptable? I would smack my kid in the back of the head if I ever heard her speak like that. It amazes me that these people can't understand why they're working the register at Target on a Sunday morning.


Sounds like some of the sh^t that comes out of the Lounge. :p

I hate to say it, but that was something that was absolutely critical to me when we were looking for daycare- we visited a couple centers where the daycare providers spoke broken english, and to me, that was just plain unacceptable.

I don't want my daughter to pick up any accent, be it 'sconnie, redneck, hispanic or urban. I want her to learn clear, unaccented english. It'd be great if she learned spanish as well, but I really don't want her learning a mish-mash of the two.

but it gets worse.
a good friend of mine teaches 8th grade..some of the homework she receives is answered by some of her students in "text"...
she received an "IDK" on a math problem last week...the kid was too PH*CKING lazy to even write "I don't know"...he received in return an F.

he was brought to the front of the room and made an example of...teachers are trying, and getting no help from lazy ass parents.

The dumbing down continues. You don't know if it's "true" and you don't have "observations". Rather, you've just "heard" stuff, and now you have ill-begotten opinions (And you know what's said about opinions). After you visit the school/classroom, observe the teacher(s) in action, talk to a variety of the school's/district's representatives (Teachers, administrators, support folks, etc.), and attend a couple of school board meetings, then let us know what you've learned.

Oh man that's a big ol raft of assumptions you just hopped on to.

Well, you're correct on the first point. I "heard" the story from my daughter, whom I trust to convey the basic facts reliably. I base this trust on personal experience of her veracity in these matters. I have visited classrooms. Watched teachers in action. Talked to a large variety of representatives, and yes attended school board meetings.

You see, we are a pair of the rare and mythical "involved parents" and since my oldest is a "special child" in a minor way, we get more than the usual dosage of involvement. Wife volunteers most days, close family friend is the principal's assistant, large network of other parents we keep in touch with.

And I'm not baggin on all the people who work for the schools. Most of them are top notch folks who really care and are well trained and work hard and do the right thing. As Iwould expect, given the scores of the district and the schools we attend.

Except that every once in a while, perhaps a little more frequently than I would prefer, we get one of these head scratching, WTF moments like the one I described above.

4 years ago if one would have asked me if I would consider a private school for our then daughter to be, I would have said you were high. Now, it is front and center. After a series of events where I've had 1st hand experience with the teachers union and the bloated bureaucracy of the SD school district, we're out. The governator's proposed 5 billion dollar cut in the education budget is just icing on the disfunctional cake. My daughter's education is not going to be held hostage by fickle, myopic bureaucrats.

Saturday she had an "assessment" as part of the application process. She did well. We hear in two weeks.


Glad you found a decent school. We've looked at all of the private schools within a reasonable distance. All I can say is "ugh." We've essentially resigned ourselves to the fact that we need to homeschool the kid. What that works out to is that she spends from 9 to 3 in school, then from 3:30 to 7 or so being homeschooled. It sucks... because her school is a ****ing joke, she doesn't get to play like we did at that age. Can't just let her go with the piss-poor education she's getting in school though.

I hate to say it, but that was something that was absolutely critical to me when we were looking for daycare- we visited a couple centers where the daycare providers spoke broken english, and to me, that was just plain unacceptable.

I don't want my daughter to pick up any accent, be it 'sconnie, redneck, hispanic or urban. I want her to learn clear, unaccented english. It'd be great if she learned spanish as well, but I really don't want her learning a mish-mash of the two.

No English is unaccented.

No English is unaccented.

True, but some is far less accented than others... good old flat, basic, newsreader english.

Glad you found a decent school. We've looked at all of the private schools within a reasonable distance. All I can say is "ugh." We've essentially resigned ourselves to the fact that we need to homeschool the kid. What that works out to is that she spends from 9 to 3 in school, then from 3:30 to 7 or so being homeschooled. It sucks... because her school is a ****ing joke, she doesn't get to play like we did at that age. Can't just let her go with the piss-poor education she's getting in school though.

to paraphrase AinE, that sucks big Donkeyballz....

We live in an area known as Uptown, cool diverse old neighborhood. Downside is that the local schools suck....as in bottom of the barrel score wise. The two decent and getting better elementary schools nearby but not in our area are on a lottery system with very low odds of getting in....the two private schools we're looking at are amazing with numbing pricetags to match ....but, doing the numbers, moving to suburbia hell with good schools would be only somewhat cheaper financially and a whole lot more expensive in the cost to the soul..... so no new bikes for svend but my daughter will be in a school with facilities and staff that blow doors on anything I grew up with and in some ways rival my University.