madaser123 t1_iut9f2h wrote on November 2, 2022 at 9:15 PM

I lived in Jersey City and got my education there as a child until high school. Now as a parent, can someone help me understand why teachers in school are the only way we expect our children to get a good education. Public schools are free and take up a majority of our kids time teaching imo subjects that may not be relevant for their future careers etc.

My main concern is where is the parent's responsibility to teach their children via themselves, tutors, or kumon like structures. After school my mother would give me a workbook for English, Math, and Science to complete for about an hour. Then I would have a Islamic school I would attend for an hour. Asian parents do this with their children for religious and musical purposes.

Some may argue that as parents they do not have time or resources for these things. I'm calling bullshit. You can add some or all of these things. I agree teachers play a role in our education. I had some great teachers but more importantly I had great parents who stressed the need for education and how it would impact my life starting at the age of 6.

We don't need to pay the board of education shit when obviously they don't know what they are doing. Educate your own kids using work books from Amazon for their appropriate grade level or enroll them in after school things like kumon [stressing science and math].

There are great high schools in jersey city such as McNair. It is kind of public meaning you have to take the psat to get in but no money once accepted. The BOE candidates cannot even copy a successful model. We have idiots trying to steal money from taxing paying parents to fund a helpless situation.

Please if I am incorrect about any of this. Tell me so I can see where I am going wrong. I was a poor immigrant in this country before I reached academic success and it was more from my parents than teachers.

TLDR: Parents need to play a role in education. There are other resources than teachers for education. Learn from successful schools such as McNair. Stop raising my fucking taxes cuz I don't believe in the BOE to educate their own children.

Jadien t1_iutbm4u wrote on November 2, 2022 at 9:30 PM

Part of the value in paying for public education is getting to live in a society where the kids who didn't get educated at home at least got educated in school.

rbastid t1_iutlwpj wrote on November 2, 2022 at 10:41 PM

This would be a valid point, if these students were educated at schools.

As a country (and especially Jersey City) school spending has exploaded, while grades have plummeted. Like a business at some point they need to justify their spending with results.

madaser123 t1_iutexfk wrote on November 2, 2022 at 9:52 PM

What do u mean by that? Which kids cannot get educated at home. Like I said my mom/dad came from Pakistan with no formal education. I did the workbooks on my own. I did get lucky because my parents could afford kumon.

However we have access to khan academy. Youtube. Plenty of resources that were not available before. Education is power and now it is available online. I know parents can be busy but we have to make time for our children.

We have to stress to our children that education is their job just like parents have jobs. This is why certain ethnicities Asian communities go very hard in education. I think some parents kinda just want to believe school is supposed to educate them. That is unfair because teachers are different and students are different. As parents we cannot shirk our responsibility to others including education. I'm not saying teachers are not supposed to do their jobs. I'm saying they have 20 plus students at time and their job is difficult as well. We got to do better as parents for education. America has declined significantly in terms of education for our kids

ThenIGetAChipwichOK t1_iutg9a6 wrote on November 2, 2022 at 10:01 PM

Sure, parents have responsibilities, but kids can’t help who they’re born to, and some of them are born to parents who don’t care, or aren’t capable of caring, or whatever, and that’s part of why we have compulsory and free public education in this country. When parents don’t or can’t meet their children’s educational needs it’s not the parents who get punished, it’s the kids.

Jadien t1_iuthj5i wrote on November 2, 2022 at 10:10 PM

Whether or not the parents can, many won't. And your children will live their lives surrounded by their children, and it may greatly benefit your children for them to be surrounded by at least partially educated people.

rbastid t1_iutlif1 wrote on November 2, 2022 at 10:38 PM

I feel like this is similar to a joke I would tell people, that was 75% truth. I learned far more watching the discovery channel and learning channel (back when the stations were actually about science and learning) as a kid than i did in grade school.

Like you said, today children have many more resources than we had, but instead of parents saying "spend 1 hour watching this educational video" they'll let them play on their phones (all those free chrome books and deeply discounted internet connections for students and low income families have most likely spent minimal time actually educating children.) This actually will help children in the long run too, because they can focus on things that aren't taught in schools, which are more applicable to future careers, as most schools still just teach you whatever book the School Board approved for this year's classes.

Good teachers are a vital resource, but the many bad ones and the million "teacher's aids" aren't. And no parent should want to leave their child to be 100% educated by schools, as you're then not trying to help your child better themselves above their classmates, which means it'll be hard for them to better themselves later in life.

Blecher_onthe_Hudson t1_iuwfhsj wrote on November 3, 2022 at 2:50 PM

>Learn from successful schools such as McNair

There's nothing to learn when a school's success is based on skimming the best students from the rest of the district. Your premise would hold a lot more water naming a very successful lottery entry Charter like LCCS as a model. It produces superior results on a fraction the budget of a district school, and yes, it still has to pay for special ed students.