No, I'm not making a generalization. We have quite a few such people in the part of the country where I live.

No, it isn't. It's based on real people.

No one needs those damned government indoctrination centers. No one needs to be subjected to a system that does such a piss-poor job of educating! When every one of these government indoctrination centers has all of their fourth graders able to start reading at a fifth grade level at the end of fourth grade, when every graduate from high school is able to read at beginning of college level and do math at a college level by the end of their senior year of high school and be able to find any place mentioned in the news on a map, then just maybe you can start talking to me about how the poor need the public schools.

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A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Yes, it is, you are basing a view of everyone off of a few.


So because the schools aren't 100% perfect than they are a complete waste? They won't be needed if they can't help every single person that walks through their doors? I thank God that you don't run the country.

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Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

No, damn it, it isn't. Now, knock of this crap of presuming to tell me what I mean by my own posts!




No, they're a complete waste because they don't even enforce grade level. There are certain minimum standards that must be maintained and, yes, grade level is that minimum standard and I do expect them to at least meet that standard.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

I'm not telling you what you mean, I'm saying what you said. If you didn't mean what you said, you shouldn't have said it.


And most students meet and pass those minimum standards, as most go on to college and most go on to help make a better society and to provide the things that you purchase at the stores.

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

I meant exactly and only what I said. You chose to "interpret" it as applying to a whole bunch of other people. Don't ever presume to insert your own meanings into what I post! I mean exactly and only what I post and if you can't get it right then shut the hell up about anything I post!




Well, no, they don't - not in a lot of school districts.

Many of them requiring remedial reading and math because they're only able to read at a sixth grade level or less and can't do math at much more than a ninth grade level.

You call what we have now a better society?????

Ah, yes, the great purpose of American society: to consume, consume, consume!

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

Most, in most school districts. There are some that can't read well, and there are some that can't do math well, but most can.

I call it is better than if we didn't have public education.

Are you just gonna whine and have a tantrum? Or are you going to address the issue that we are talking about? I never said anything about "consume, consume, consume!" I said that they provide the things that you buy, be that food, be that parts to fix your car, be that whatever.

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

If they can't read and do math at least at grade level then they can't do it "well."

American society was doing pretty well for itself before public education came along. We can't say the same thing today.

Yes, I know what you said and I know how I responded. America is a consumerist society and that's all we're being encouraged to do (hence the bribe, er um, economic stimulus package intended to induce us to spend more money on things). As for the people that provide things like food, car parts or whatever, most of them live in Asia or Latin America because America has priced itself out of the labor market. It doesn't take a high school education to flip burgers or pull car parts off the shelf.

__________________
A panda walks into a cafe. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.

"Why?" asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes toward the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.

"I'm a panda," he says at the door. "Look it up."

The waiter turns to the relevant entry and, sure enough, finds an explanation.

"Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves."

No, but it takes an education to run a resturant, or run a car repair shop, or even to repair cars. It takes an education to fix computers, or to teach, or to be a politician, or to make computer chips, or to etc etc etc...

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides

But that education does not have to be public schooling. Especially for some of the jobs you mentioned. That is why I think it should not be mandatory and it could be state run but still giving parents the choice(voucher system or something similar that still gives parents the choice and forces schools to compete).

No, public schooling is not required, but education is. And the only way to make sure that everyone gets an education is to have public education as a catch-all. If you want to do private schooling, you can, if you want to home-school, you can (so long as you follow that state laws and state tests). The only option that you don't have is to do nothing and not educate your kids.

__________________
Set your destination with your heart, get there with your mind.

"The wisest men follow their own direction." - Euripides