School Daze
Today I was reading the Examiner and came across a "Charticle" (And really I could just write a blog post on how that word amuses me. It kind of reminds me of the Statshot feature that The Onion has...except that the Charticle is supposed to be real and The Onion is being satirical.)
In any case, the "Today's Charticle" I saw was about how 4 of every 10 members of Congress have sent at least one of their kids to private school. There was more info and percentages and stuff. The point of it was the while our government officials use their priviledged positions to send their kids to private schools, they still make restrictive laws that make it difficult for everyday people to do so.
And I was reminded of this conversation I stumbled up in the kitchen at work where someone from England took Americans to task for condoning the fact that the Obamas decided to send their kids to private school. He said we were making excuses--he scoffed at the security complications being an issue--and that in other countries they'd expect their leaders to send their kids to public schools as a show of faith in the system. And when I asked what other countries these were, he couldn't name any besides England.
Americans are certainly no strangers to hypocrisy and making our own rules, but sometimes people just want to deride us because it is a fun pastime. Given the realities of DC public schools, none of us can blame them. No one said the president's kids had to be sacrificial lambs.
3 comments:
I don't think it's hypocrisy at all for the Obamas to enroll their kids in private school. There IS a security concern, but -- let's face it -- our public schools are not and will never be on par with the private schools. And that may simply be because, in private schools, you have the parents pouring money into the school to ascertain that their children have new books and funds for activities and higher paid teachers. I agree with you that it should be made easier for parents who don't have the kind of income to pay out-of-pocket for private school to send their children to quality schools. Eiter that, or put the needed money into the school system so that ALL schools are on the same level. Unfortunately, that is not where the priority is in this country and our society. We prefer to keep fighting wars and paying millions to people who can hit a ball with a bat or put a ball through a hoop, than to pay our teachers a decent wage and make sure our children have books that were published in this decade.
Public schools in England are not equivalent to public schools in the United States; only the name is the same. The premise is totally different.
I've heard that private/public schools are the reverse in England, but I'm sure that this man knows the difference. He just wanted to get on his "America sucks" soapbox--even though he is employed here and raising his kids here.
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