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Your big fix: kids
What do you think L.A. children need to thrive?
1.
If your child does not already have an appetite to learn, the discipline to behave and pay attention, the love of reading (and visualizing the words), and the ability to think long before entering school they will likely have trouble taking advantage of school. Parents, you are responsible for developing these characteristics in them. Don’t let them be left behind.
2. I would suggest that we are asking the wrong questions about education. Instead of wondering what new political or economic agenda we want to inflict on our schools next, I think we need to ask the question of WHY politics or economics should be involved in the schools at all. In the same way that we would never allow the government to tell us where or how to worship, or how to think, all cultural realm activities, such as education and religion, need to operate in freedom from political and economic domination, just as our churches, museums and libraries currently operate.
3. What do L.A. kids need to thrive? Presently, there is a dramatic imbalance in power between families/parents and the system. They need a political elite that finds this unacceptable. Parents should have the option to exit a school and apply the resources elsewhere ---- including in private and charter schools. Monopolies are not a good way to deliver a service. Tom Shuford Lenoir, NC
4. Kudos to Roy Romer for recognizing the true heroes of education - dedicated classroom teachers. After nearly 30 years in going the extra mile in inner city schools, while ignoring a smear campaign orchestrated by the right wing and the media, including the Los Angeles Times, I retired. My greatest honor is that a number of my students have chosen to follow my footsteps. This select group of beautiful, wonderful young people have overcome crippling obstacles and the mean streets of south LA to give back to their community. Cherish them. Honor them
5. I recently left LAUSD after eight years during which time I taught English and was the coordinator of the Taft High School Humanitas department. But they do not address the single biggest problem (and I speak here only of high school where I have some working knowledge but I'm sure the problem starts earlier) - THE KIDS CAN'T READ. THE CAN'T READ AT GRADE LEVEL AND THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY READ. THEY READ TO FINISH, NOT FOR UNDERSTANDING. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS AND FAILURE ACROSS THE BOARD IS A GIVEN - IF YOU CANNOT READ AND COMPREHEND.
6. Somr schoolgirls are physically mature anough to conceive. They and boys must be protected from precocious parenthood --with early lessons for boys and girls about natural selection and the reproductive process, in medically-accurate language. The ere of snickers over "Sex Ed" must end. If conceptions occur, taxpaid abortions should be the accepted and supportive way to keep open the way to graduation.
7. All public education needs federal funding and national standards, with no private suppliers selling tests. States insist on interfering, but some states have small tax bases and lots of religiously tax-exempt property. They claim "State's Rights," --but states don't have rights. People have rightds AND THEY MOVE.
8. god bless you, sandra! you are dead on once again!
9. I teach 120 students divided into 5 classes, 24 kids per class. One class has 30 another about 17. See if you can guess which class is more successful? You are right. That is my solution. Either raise Prop. 13 taxes, shift more revenues to schools, or, and I like this one, charge parents based on income, but lower class sizes. Make public schools a little more like private schools: reduce class size, bring in more money and resources, create a reputation and get a continually higher percentage of students into college. In other words, create more charter schools.
10. 3) Schools, especially many private ones, RESENT any parent involvement in their kids' educations, other than raising money. E.g., my son went to France for a one-week family wedding -- amazingly full of culture, practice in French -- but the school just saw it as distraction from homework, and his grades for the whole semester suffered. Talk about being unable to "think outside the box," of how to bring that back into the classroom (not even by his French teacher,) Parents are supposed to "turn over" their kids to authoritarian schools which put up a wall to their fuller lives and real learning.
Submitted by: Jimmy Jones
2. I would suggest that we are asking the wrong questions about education. Instead of wondering what new political or economic agenda we want to inflict on our schools next, I think we need to ask the question of WHY politics or economics should be involved in the schools at all. In the same way that we would never allow the government to tell us where or how to worship, or how to think, all cultural realm activities, such as education and religion, need to operate in freedom from political and economic domination, just as our churches, museums and libraries currently operate.
Submitted by: Holly Derheim, Inst for Social Renewal
3. What do L.A. kids need to thrive? Presently, there is a dramatic imbalance in power between families/parents and the system. They need a political elite that finds this unacceptable. Parents should have the option to exit a school and apply the resources elsewhere ---- including in private and charter schools. Monopolies are not a good way to deliver a service. Tom Shuford Lenoir, NC
Submitted by: Tom Shuford
4. Kudos to Roy Romer for recognizing the true heroes of education - dedicated classroom teachers. After nearly 30 years in going the extra mile in inner city schools, while ignoring a smear campaign orchestrated by the right wing and the media, including the Los Angeles Times, I retired. My greatest honor is that a number of my students have chosen to follow my footsteps. This select group of beautiful, wonderful young people have overcome crippling obstacles and the mean streets of south LA to give back to their community. Cherish them. Honor them
Submitted by: William Joseph Miller
5. I recently left LAUSD after eight years during which time I taught English and was the coordinator of the Taft High School Humanitas department. But they do not address the single biggest problem (and I speak here only of high school where I have some working knowledge but I'm sure the problem starts earlier) - THE KIDS CAN'T READ. THE CAN'T READ AT GRADE LEVEL AND THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY READ. THEY READ TO FINISH, NOT FOR UNDERSTANDING. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS AND FAILURE ACROSS THE BOARD IS A GIVEN - IF YOU CANNOT READ AND COMPREHEND.
Submitted by: david castro
6. Somr schoolgirls are physically mature anough to conceive. They and boys must be protected from precocious parenthood --with early lessons for boys and girls about natural selection and the reproductive process, in medically-accurate language. The ere of snickers over "Sex Ed" must end. If conceptions occur, taxpaid abortions should be the accepted and supportive way to keep open the way to graduation.
Submitted by: Schools need Pro-Choice Lawmakers
7. All public education needs federal funding and national standards, with no private suppliers selling tests. States insist on interfering, but some states have small tax bases and lots of religiously tax-exempt property. They claim "State's Rights," --but states don't have rights. People have rightds AND THEY MOVE.
Submitted by: What all school kids need
8. god bless you, sandra! you are dead on once again!
Submitted by: anji williams
9. I teach 120 students divided into 5 classes, 24 kids per class. One class has 30 another about 17. See if you can guess which class is more successful? You are right. That is my solution. Either raise Prop. 13 taxes, shift more revenues to schools, or, and I like this one, charge parents based on income, but lower class sizes. Make public schools a little more like private schools: reduce class size, bring in more money and resources, create a reputation and get a continually higher percentage of students into college. In other words, create more charter schools.
Submitted by: John
10. 3) Schools, especially many private ones, RESENT any parent involvement in their kids' educations, other than raising money. E.g., my son went to France for a one-week family wedding -- amazingly full of culture, practice in French -- but the school just saw it as distraction from homework, and his grades for the whole semester suffered. Talk about being unable to "think outside the box," of how to bring that back into the classroom (not even by his French teacher,) Parents are supposed to "turn over" their kids to authoritarian schools which put up a wall to their fuller lives and real learning.
Submitted by: jane
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