Thomas Friedman has a column in the New York Times about attending the graduation ceremonies at the SEED high school in Baltimore. His wife, he writes, “chairs the foundation behind the SEED schools.” The column, of course, is a celebration of the young people who have made it to graduation in this very unusual school. It is a boarding school, which begins in sixth grade. Although other SEED schools are charter schools, this one in Maryland is not; it is described as a “statewide public college-preparatory boarding school.” It relies on private contributions to get started, but its operations are funded by public dollars.
Friedman writes:
As the saying goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Unfortunately, not everyone made it to the finish line: Of the 80 who won the lottery that day in 2008, only 29 stuck it out or made it from sixth grade to graduation. The good news is that the graduates are going to the University of Virginia, the University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, U.S.C., Villanova and others; one is joining the Coast Guard.
SEED has long been lauded in national media for its test scores and its college placements. But, at the Maryland campus described by Friedman, only 36% of students persisted from sixth grade to graduation from twelfth grade.
I first became aware of the SEED boarding school concept when I saw the movie “Waiting for ‘Superman.'” It was one of the charter schools featured as an escape for students who seemed doomed to fail in urban public schools. I wrote a review of the movie and in doing so, checked out the schools that were featured. What I learned about SEED in 2010 was that it had a very high attrition rate, and it was very expensive (at that time, about $35,000 per student in public funding, more recently the cost per student was $40,000).
Here is a description of the D.C. SEED charter school that was featured in the movie,
“In order to help kids do better in school, the SEED School takes them away from their home environments for five days a week and gives them a host of supporting services. The results of this educational experiment have been promising so far, and SEED believes their model can be used on a broader scale.
When consultants Eric Adler and Rajiv Vinnakota founded the school in 1998, it was the first and only urban public boarding school in the country. Much like Geoffrey Canada of the Harlem Children’s Zone, Adler and Vinnakota saw the classroom as only one component of a college-preparatory education.
“The SEED model includes academic, residential, mental health, physical health, social, and enrichment programs,” explains Laura O’Connor, director of communications for the SEED Foundation. The school provides volunteer tutoring, extracurricular programs like robotics and cooking classes, and a scholarly environment where Facebook, MySpace, and television are forbidden.”
I take away three lessons from the story that Friedman tells.
One is that public schools should have the resources to provide “academic, mental health, physical health, social, and enrichment programs.” They too should have the advantages that are clearly beneficial to students.
Second, SEED is not in any sense “scalable.” No state is ready, willing, or able to pay $40,000 per student for children who live in distressed urban districts. Nor should a school with an attrition rate over 60% be considered appropriate for entire districts.
Third, without knocking the people who are trying to help kids in need, I question the value of separating children from their families and communities as a broad-scale approach. It is not likely to happen because it is too expensive, but it also operates on the presumption that the children can thrive only by getting away from home. For some that may be true. But for our society, it is a way of evading our obligation to address the systemic problems of segregation, poverty, and racism. Saving our children one at a time is a noble cause, but it is even more noble to fix the social and economic conditions that put them at risk.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dr. Ravitch: AGREED: In spades.
Too, I terminated my subscription with the Chicago Tribune yesterday after their atrocious editorial on charter schools. This was, as I told them in a LENGTHY letter telling them why my subscription was being terminated because of a long series of abysmally ignorant editorials in so many vital areas.
The Trib did print a letter to the editor from someone in the Chicago area pointing out some of the fallacies in the editorial but again, for me, it was the final straw.
One point: I said they had a lot of chutzpah to demonize the public schools when the media, including the Trib has failed us so miserably in at least these vital areas: clima te change, the war in Iraq, the failure of the banks leading to our present fiscal mess, etc and now they make war on the public schools.
Some may disagree but these are my sentiments.
Cannot say I totally agree with Diane, nor with Gordon, both of whom I generally do agree with. In my 45 years of educational research experience, I have had the obligation as part of longitudinal studies, to interview parents, guardians, surrogates, in their homes and/or in the environment that surrounds their student charge. It is often beyond any horror movie. Those in large inner cities generally live in public housing, surrounded by drug dealers, hookers, and all sorts of criminals, and primarily infiltrated by warring gangs.
If I had a chance as a concerned and rational parent there, I would certainly prefer my child live in a boarding school far from this “maddening crowd.”
In the outlying areas, often seen in southern towns, where students live in the greatest unseen rural poverty, and pregnancy is common at 12 years old, again, if I were a parent with any sense, I would rush to sign up my child to live in a clean orderly environment like a boarding school.
Thomas Friedman is far from a hero in my opinion, and he grew up with vast wealth. $40K per student presents a huge burden to taxpayers who fund this private school paid for by the public, and with only about 1 out of 3 graduating, shows that this is less than a half way measure to resolving the problem of poverty and advancing opportunities for these poverty stricken students.
We all seem to agree that poverty is the main issue we must resolve, but this is going too slowly to not look for other sources of change for poor children more rapidly.
It seems to me that it presents a start in addressing how to educate these children and garner at least some success. If public schools could offer similar opportunities to this population of students, perhaps magnet-type boarding schools overseen by school districts, which cost far less, it would be a worthy test to see how many matriculate successfully. Grad Schools of Ed have been hypothesizing about this as an avenue of experiment for decades.
There are too many variables nationwide to paint this with one fairly worn out brush.
I am extremely uncomfortable with the idea of taking the kids out of their families to “civilize” them. It sounds very much like the old Native American boarding schools. The loss of a connection to anything is a huge concern. Let’s help the communities, not take children out of them.
I agree about the Native Americans forced Mission boarding schools. That was a very different set of circumstances. Now, however, these kids in the inner cities are relieved if they don’t get shot by gangsters by the time they are 10…and in too many instances there is NO stable family to nurture them, and often no reliable adult to care for them. CASA judges are horrified to be forced to give them back to parents who abuse and ignore them. Talk to the CASA volunteer lawyers who weep when they are given back to crack whore mothers who burn them with cigarettes and farm them out on the streets to get drug money. That is reality.
If even a small group could have some stability in a boarding environment where they are well fed and cared for, and given an opportunity to succeed in their education, that is a beginning.
It is magical thinking to hope that poverty in America is going to be eradicated, and to say ‘let’s only attack all poverty’ which damns kids who could be saved.
Yes, but is it right to remove kids from their families, unless there’s verified abuse? I don’t think it is.
Don’t know where in the West you live,but in LA there are thousands of kids in the system with horrific “verified” abuse. They are too often children of color from the inner city areas, or are homeless kids. I was in the ER at UCLA with a 5 year old whose mother had put a hot iron on his lips to shut him up when he cried. These are memories that do not go away.
We recently had a 7 year old Latino little boy in the news, terribly underweight, beaten to death by his mother’s boy friend while she watched. Every day presents a new disaster for these children. So don’t you think they would be better off, not in foster care (for profit of the foster parents) but rather in a carefully supervised public boarding school where they get attention and education? I do.
Good points, but kids taken out of such environments for their own safety are often too worried about those left behind to gain much from the experience.
The challenge then is to fix society and the environment and not the schools. Schools have pretty much the same curriculum and similarly trained teachers so it proves the environment is the be all and end all when it comes to success or failure. When people are subjected to racist policies that leave them struggling in poverty in neighborhoods with few opportunities and role models that were successful before them, they are left with little choice but to engage in underground activities or see having a baby as a career choice. There is a breakdown in society, a loss of self respect and hope for the individual, and a crisis in parenting of these unfortunate kids. The solution is to demand a minimum living wage and affordable housing and health care, as well as a well rounded education system with adequate resources. Is Thomas Friedman fighting for these? Too often the moneyed interests pushing education reform would cut the already inadequate benefits to the poor and middle class, but have no problem with these expensive solutions (not) because they take money out of taxpayers pockets and put it in theirs.
I could not agree more with Geraldine Hayes. Poverty is a socio-economic issue impacting families and communities and needs to be addressed as such, including with work programs and jobs with livable wages. Just as with charter day schools, serving only the strivers (which is what you’re left with when you have over 60% attrition) in residential schools is no answer. And child abuse/neglect is not specific to low income children of color; it cuts across socio-economic and cultural groups.
I’ve also worked with children and teens who were abused or neglected and who became wards of the state due to that. The state placed them in a faith based group home and the kids attended a therapeutic day school, subsidized by both the state and the school district, or, if they ready, they went to neighborhood schools. The children received ongoing therapy in the group home as well, which was structured, regulated and well-monitored –nothing like what has been reported lately about group homes in California. If kids have been abused or neglected, this kind of arrangement provides a nurturing home like atmosphere with guidance and supports, which is much more appropriate than sending them off to boarding school.
Right on Diane. Ravitch 1 Friedman 0. Friedman seems to be regarded by many as a wise Solon in modern America. However, I am always left after reading his work thinking that there are so many wholes – like Swiss cheese just to be clear- in his ideas. Certainly his ideas re; education represent the biggest whole of all.
I stopped reading Friedman years ago after his umpteenth piece on how the “world is flat”.
The world IS flat if he can see no further then his front porch.
“Tom Friedman in a nutshell”
The world is flat,
My wallet’s fat
We’re turning cor[o]ner
In Iraq
What is interesting here is SEED could be demonstrating the cost per student to educate children in challenging environments is far higher than Reformers and conservative/neoliberal lawmakers will admit. Costs to educate increase nonlinearly as more challenging students are reached. Private schools know this and, while they often claim superiority, are less than honest about how they achieve better results – mainly by excluding children they do not want to teach or expecting parents to compensate. Not only is cost per child nonlinear, it is probably asymptotic. There will be some children that require immense resources and, unfortunately, realistically cannot achieve success. Which is why Bush’s NCLB 100% proficiency goal was naïve at best. Educators already know this, but continue to try with limited resources and faltering public support to do the impossible. So if it takes $40,000 to produce a 36% success rate, what is the cost for 50%, 70%, 90% success rates demanded of teachers by Reformers?
Right on..Mathvale.
“if it takes $40,000 to produce a 36% success rate, what is the cost for 50%, 70%, 90% success rates demanded of teachers by Reformers?” You may assume non-linearity (but we won’t tell you just how non-linear)
I think that would make a good 4th grade PARCC test question, don’t you?
MathVale: the rheephormsters are always going about preening themselves and crowing about hard data points and congratulating themselves on how they are making us take their bitter medicine because “that’s what the data says”—
When you don’t cherry pick your students and parents, engage in push out/counsel out/midyear dumps, and the like, then it turns out that you aren’t able to purchase a world class Mercedes Benz-style education at the Rheephorm 99¢ Store.
For the corporate education reform crowd, a Homer Simpson “Doh” moment.
Or it would be, if they actually looked at data instead of subjecting it to EIT [EnhancedInterrogationTechniques].
😎
Arne Duncan and Tom Friedman say the same things, usually at the same time:
“Education Secretary Arne Duncan on Tuesday proposed the idea of public boarding schools, saying there are “just certain kids we should have 24/7.”
“One idea that I threw out … is the idea of public boarding schools,” Duncan said at the National Summit on Youth Violence Prevention in Crystal City, Va. “That’s a little bit of a different idea–a controversial idea–but the question is do we have some children where there’s not a mom, there’s not a dad, there’s not a grandma, there’s just nobody at home?”
“There’s just certain kids we should have 24/7 to really create a safe environment and give them a chance to be successful,” he said.”
For a while they were both cherry-picking the same quotes out of The Smartest Kids in the World during the coordinated sales campaign for the Common Core.
“Arne Duncan and Tom Friedman say the same things, usually at the same time.”
Have you ever seen one talk while the other was eating an apple? In fact, have you ever seen either one of them talk while Bill Gates was eating an apple?
“Have you ever seen one talk while the other was eating an apple? In fact, have you ever seen either one of them talk while Bill Gates was eating an apple?”
Chuckle.
Yes. They all perform from the same script written by a small group of “policy makers”. Certainly like the model legislation that comes out of the ALEC retreats. Whether Cameron in U.K., Merkel in Germany, or Kasich in Ohio, it becomes surreal listening to the same message repeated.
Remember this?
“As Tom Friedman often points out, 21st century workers need the knowledge, flexibility and ingenuity to thrive in jobs that haven’t been invented yet. ”
“Jobs that haven’t been invented yet”. They all thought that was incredibly profound.
I always wonder if some of the people in Duncan’s audience are like “who the hell is Tom Friedman and why do I care what he thinks?”
http://www.ed.gov/news/speeches/educating-every-student-college-and-career-success
American companies are firing Americans with high tech skills and replacing them with foreigners on H1-B visas. See the current front page of Tom’s New York Times. Downward mobility is not an educational problem, it’s a political problem.
Regarding the script, I picture an alien circling the earth in a flying saucer with a lever to control Duncan, Gates, Obama etc and a microphone to put words in their mouth.
And actually, with Obama all the alien has to do is text the teleprompter.
Or maybe Gates is the alien
And ALEC is the Death Star.
There are some experts on this’s line of thinking. They are called Native Americans. Let’s ask ’em.
West coast teacher: much said in few words.
With those few words you have just eviscerated the latest “new” idea from the thought leaders of the rheephorm crowd.
😎
I am far from a Rheeformer, and I volunteered as a tutor and education advisor on the Chumansh reservation in Santa Ynez before the huge hotel and gambling casino made the 183 members all multi millionaires. And I say again, you cannot paint it all with one brush.
There are many American Indians who live in despair and abject poverty, but many have had Wall Street corporate help and found the Golden Fleece of gambling. In California, the casinos are supposed to give a percentage of their huge takes to further public schools, but we are almost at the bottom rung of cash investment per child.
Some of you are over simplifying and saying the easy words, but not coming up with answers, even incremental answers. And those who have not lived close to real deprivation and poverty do not have the reality learning curve to be in this conversation. Parents who beat, burn, molest, prostitute their children are NOT a family.
Perhaps this is what you’re saying Ellen:
“The human costs are incalculable: broken families; children who are malnourished; babies who are neglected, beaten and sometimes killed by alcohol- and crack-addicted parents; eight year-olds sent out to steal or buy drugs for addicted parents; sick children wallowing in unsanitary conditions; child victims of sodomy, rape and incest; children in such agony and despair that they themselves resort to drugs and alcohol for relief. For some of these children it may be possible to cauterize the bleeding, but the scars of drug- and alcohol-spawned parental abuse and neglect are likely to be permanent.”
No Safe Haven: Children of Substance-Abusing Parents, January 1999. Joseph A. Califano, Jr.
Well, y’know, it’s all about cutting costs …
While taking the kids out of their home/community environments might seem like a solution, it is an on the cheap, minimal solution to the underlying problem of generational poverty and all of the toxic components that go along with it. Worse, it ignores what I believe is the more probable driver of the success of the kids who survive the morally bankrupt attrition that we see in so many charters. Removing them from their homes/communities is just one side of the coin. The other and more significant side is the whole context shifty thing that happens when you are thrust into a different environment and have to adapt to it by learning about it. It’s not enough to just remove a harm, something good must be there to replace it, something in addition to the basic but very necessary “wrap around” services they are providing. If SEED added things to their program that further pushed that dynamic such as non-academic multi-day field trips to a farm or camping trips where the kids would learn skills, experience challenges, and see things that they never would experience while being stuck in their neighborhoods due to the lack of wherewithal of their parents to provide, these same types of context shifty new experiences that wealthier families take for granted could be leveraged to produce the same benefits for the SEED kids. To put it another way, SEED seems to be falling short on providing sufficient experiences that enhance brain plasticity and out of the box creative thinking and problem solving in favor of the usual focus on test prep, behavioral control and it’s associated attrition. And yes, there’s a lot of research on the many benefits of being out in nature. Other non-nature experiences can also fulfill this goal as well.
Jon…taking students out of their detrimental environment NOW, seems to be a minimalist solution to all America’s poverty issues. However, our form of government and our oligarchic interlopers will never solve the whole poverty problem. At least, with some real investigation as with longitudinal studies, not profiteering charter operations, this could be one method of saving some of these kids. And it should be a public investment in public boarding schools.
And behind this take the children out of their environment is the reality that we’re leaving behind everyone else.
So what do you suggest? Don’t help anyone if we can’t help everyone?
My Chicano friends remind often…poco poco…bit by bit.
Oh no Ellen, I wasn’t suggesting that. I believe the things that Diane said were good about the SEED schools need to be in every school in America. Surely with the billions from Race to the Top and Zuckerberg and Gates and the hedge fund billionaires, this could be done. If Carnegie can build libraries, why couldn’t Gates build medical facilities in every school?
Well the good news is it’s easily replicable. Ahem.
If we raised the minimum wage, we would reduce poverty. If we reduce poverty we will be able to educate all children. We could eliminate Title I within 10 years!
Where did you get this statistic Catherine? Title 1 will never be gone in 10 years with only a raise in the minimum wage. The immigration situation, and the real birth rate stats show that this section will increase exponentially. Suggest you read sociologist, Professor Jared Diamond’s book Collapse on how over population causes wars and destroys natural resources until civilizations die. See the Incas and the Aztecs for example of great societies perishing.
“Ponderosa
June 3, 2015 at 6:59 pm
American companies are firing Americans with high tech skills and replacing them with foreigners on H1-B visas. See the current front page of Tom’s New York Times. Downward mobility is not an educational problem, it’s a political problem.”
The US doesn’t care about working people. It’s just not a high priority for politicians in this country. It scares me a little because once it becomes known that they don’t enforce any of these laws there will be widespread workplace abuses. We’re basically running on voluntary compliance right now.
YES…it all revolves around US public policy and the corporate lobbyists who control it.
Disney is the company featured by the NY Times. Not only did they pink slip experienced workers, they made the workers train the young, lower paid replacements.
The head of Disney-Iger, Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch are all pushing for more laws like this.
Dear Dr. Ravitch:
I love this thread and your wisdom.
Every post in this forum is partially true, but your sentence – “”Saving our children one at a time is a noble cause, but it is even more noble is to fix the social and economic conditions that put them at risk.”” is a whole truth.
Sociologists and educational researchers ONLY observe, analyze, and write down their personal views that are based on ASSUMPTION, THEORY, and NOT truly practical (= to live in it and to have the SAME background of the suffering people).
I have lived through 50+ years of my own experiences from being a rich kid and being genuinely considerate for others (due to my strong belief in karma) to a poor adolescence (an immigrant with a language barrier= earning the lowest wage labor job), and finally to a below average senior regarding finance and health aspects. I hope that all of you will agree with me on the adage “”if there is a will, the will be a way.””
In conclusion, I whole-heartedly agree with Dr. Ravitch wisdom that THE BULLYING of social and economic conditions from PUPPET MASTERS upon the general population is the REAL CULPRIT and CHAOS in any society whether it is in a savage or civilized country.
Thank you very much for your wisdom, compassion, and courage to speak out the WHOLE TRUTH. May King. XOXOXO
Sorry to disagree May…researchers are boots on the ground and are right in the middle of all the dysfunction. What you call “assumption” is actually empirical observation based of in depth training to observe and report back. They do not collect data from a helicopter. I spent years in the midst of all the armpit school districts in the nation, with my fellow educational researchers, doing the hard work of delving into the poverty, from the garbage eating to the child mothers to hanta virus on the reservation to the enormous problem of child molestation there as well.
I am sad that you find this research and that of highly trained sociologists not worthwhile….for if that were true, why do we work so hard to save public education for everyone?
As usual, excellent analysis Diane. You Rock!
Hi Ellen:
Whatever all scientists, psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers discover during observation, after critical analysis, and then they only finalize the SUPERFICIAL TRUTH.
That is why we all acknowledge the complexity of HUMAN MIND = accumulation of many DIFFERENT reincarnated SUBCONSCIOUS habits of doing certain actions which can be genius or plainly ignorant without a logical explanation.
However, the only whole truth is all about EGO, GREED, and LUST that cause people of all levels to lose their CONSCIENCE. We create the word “”discriminate”” in order to cover the truth of jealousy or being envious to others who are better than us.
In short, there will always be dichotomous for all things to co-exist on earth. As a result, everything that we enjoy or suffer is impermanent as it comes and goes like death and re-born.
I agree with your hard work in 40 years of research, but you cannot understand the complexity of human mind scientifically whereas the SOCIAL and ECONOMIC “”intentional conditions”” imposed on people (the general population) to put them AT RISK by puppet masters who enjoy laps of luxury with a total comfort and control. For simple example, please be honest with our own conscience in order to ask a question that SHOULD business corporations have the RIGHTS to issue/enforce a VALID “”TEACHING”” CERTIFICATION or LICENCE as well as to revoke or suspend it according to their own rules and regulations upon the general population? (= of course through bribery or control certain official authority in certain social class)
We need to cultivate all new learners about civility, responsibility, and human conscience in order to have a new generation who is fearlessly doing the right thing to preserve humanity and civilization. Back2basic
The cost for this program is alarming. However if you work closely with inner-city children you will see that many of the children would be better off living separately from their parents part-time. There are several cases of open drug and alcohol abuse in front of children. In some cases there is a high degree verbal abuse occurring. A child can not concentrate in school when their home life is fragmented and chaotic. I would like to see more boarding schools throughout the country however they would need to be run with the utmost integrity and maintain a respect for the value of family regardless of poor parental choices. I too agree with you Diane that tackling poverty and inequality are even more valuable goals but in the meantime , sadly I do feel after having seen the conditions under which these children live that if we had the budget to house them elsewhere we should do it.
Yeah, and let’s leave them vulnerable to sexual abuse and who knows what else? No. No. A thousand times no.
Boarding schools should be illegal. Period.
Thank you Susan for speaking out the truth.
I completely agree with you 100+%
Children are vulnerable. Boarding schools, Children Aid society, orphanage operation are MOSTLY operated for profit, NOT for love and care.
Being parents, we should be honest to confirm and agree that our parental love and care show our patience, endurance, and unconditional understanding our children behavioral problems.
Being aunts, we keep our mouths shut and stay away any troubled nephews and nieces.
Being profit-maker(s) from vulnerable children, could any conscientious human beings imagine the vulnerable children’s lives being abused emotionally, physically and mentally by these monstrous profit-makers? Sigh. I just shudder to think about it. Back2basic
So relieved Roxanne to see a fellow professional voice here. The hysteria here about taking children from their (wonderful???) families is so specious when viewing the real (not imagined) world. Susan’s snide comments do not reflect that most damaged children are damaged at HOME by their beyond damaged, criminal, parents. Those who sneer at the stats, and denigrate we who are professional trained investigators, only show their ignorance of the issues.
I don’t think we adults want to admit to ourselves the level of child abuse that exists in our country and the world. And this abuse is not always physical. It is often mental and emotional abuse. Many children experience this from all economic classes, however children in the lower income groups experience it at a much higher rate. It usually arises out of stress and so when parents are worried about earning enough to feed the family they are more likely to take their stress out on their children. The browbeating which occurs in some homes would astound many educators. For this reason I support the establishment of more alternative homes for children. NOT INSTITUTIONAL homes but really caring and sound safe homes for children to do their homework at. We have something like this already . It is called foster care programs but as you can see from the news headlines they are not working out so well at all. In this case privatized alternative living programs may be better. Government run foster and social services have failed to protect children. We should begin making plans for this as populations grow and opportunities shrink. Sorry to be so glib.
“Government run foster and social services” bad but private good.
Take your neoliberal nonsense elsewhere.
Sloppy reading Susan…nothing that Roxanne and I are saying is in any way “neoliberal” nor “nonsense”. The Friedmans may be, but we who are long time educators are certainly not. When you rant that “all parents should take care of their children,” I wish it were so. But in the real world there are 13 and 14 year old mothers who are children themselves. And there are the alcohol fetal syndrome, and drug damaged older mothers who cannot, and will not, ever be able to be nurturing parents. You need to spend some time in the inner cities and on skid row to see how this proliferates in our society. In LA there are also over 13,000 homeless children ( some turning tricks for drug money in porta potties)…and this is the reality of what we have to work with.
Thank you Susan:
This is a true story when I coached the local house league soccer boy group age 7-8. I met a few of female single parents.
10 years later, one female mother of 2 boys HAPPILY told me that her two boys successfully worked as waiters in a well-known hotel. On the other hand, a married mom became a divorcee and SADLY told me that her son ONLY graduated from 2 year-program college as a technician, but worked odd job like security guard in the mall.
Both of these two mothers used to live in the same neighborhood. The divorcee had asked me for an advice to report on the single mother of two boys to children aid society because of single mother’s drunkenness.
My advice to the divorcee is that it seemed to me these two boys being emotionally and physically happy and well behaved. So, please do not do the wrong thing because the biological mother’s love is always better than any profit-care from any organizations.
This true story shows happy ending for the single mother.
My point is to show both Ellen and Roxanne that authority should help parents to have decent wages, better public education, good library and excellent “”park and recreational”” SIMPLE programs for children to participate with tuition-free, like reading, writing, soccer, swimming, track and field, musical stage…
Please DO NOT tear family apart based on research’s viewpoint. Back2basic
Boarding schools for minor children should be illegal if for no other reason than the tremendous liability involved. While regular public, charter, and private schools aren’t immune from instances of child abuse, these boarding schools are breeding grounds for this.
Parents have kids, they need to raise them. Don’t ask third parties to do your job.
This goes for the rich families as well as the poor families.
Susan..please read more carefully. I have said continually that testing the possibility of running public education supervised boarding facilities, COULD be worthwhile. I did not laud the SEED program (and never laud Friedman), but if at least 1/3 of their students came out of it with a real chance to succeed in life, it is worth learning from this and possibly applying the successful methods in a public venue, with professional educators oversight.
To all researchers and parents:
Please read the confirmatory truth that is written by Susan Nunes
“”Parents have kids, they need to raise them. Don’t ask third parties to do your job.
This goes for the rich families as well as the poor families.””
If we do not have time to fulfill our BASIC personal needs: work-rest-eat-exercise-learn, then please do not have more than one child.
Society becomes chaos because FAKE compassionate people/authority/religious leaders who love to live and to enjoy the lap of luxuries within the total control and comfort on the sufferance and trust of naive people who are deprived from the SOCIAL and ECONOMIC rights by puppet masters’ intent. Back2basic
I agree with you, May, as well as you, Susan.
My grandparents sent my mom to a boarding school and she told me that she really missed being home with her family and friends then and wished she hadn’t been sent there. My grandparents said the reason they sent her away was because it was a good school, but so was her local public school and my mom was a good student who skipped grades and didn’t get into trouble.
As an infant, my mom was adopted by a Jewish family and she was raised as a Jew, but they sent her to a Catholic boarding school, which is rather unusual. So my mom was confused and felt like her parents just didn’t want her. That always bothered her and no wonder.
What kind of parents adopt a baby and then send her away to boarding school? Same kind of parents who send their biological kids away to boarding school, I think, when there are plenty of good day schools around, because they’d really rather not have them around.
Thank you Teacher Ed for agreeing with me and Susan.
Is it Ellen the one who was bullied and set up to be eliminated from her teaching career?
I cannot recall which post where her story was told.
Anyway, Ellen and Roxanne appear to be naive and trusting educators who just cannot understand the reality and the cruelty in those monstrous PROFIT-MAKERS and TAKERS.
Since I was at the age of 4-5, the story of Hansel and Gretel has forever been in my mind, regarding poor parents (actual step-mother) who abandon their own children. Additionally, the witch lured these unfortunate kids to be her yummy meal later into the (ginger bread) house of candy (= false hope and dream). I just cannot comprehend until I am getting older and wiser.
When I first came to Canada and met with my today husband who was my then classmate, I kept asking him the same question – “Why can I, (immigrant like me) apply for grant and loan for college, but not poor people who was born and raised in Canada?”, or “Why do immigrants with FAKE degree hold management position in big company?” My husband amusingly smile and reply with two words – BRIBERY and CONNECTION.
I guess that I inherit a CONDITIONAL benefit from immigrant policy which is created through bribery and connection by some underground puppet-masters.
In conclusion, IF all leaders of all charity groups and its administrative staff GIVE themselves BIG salary + BONUS, and then their mission in helping the unfortunate is questionable. Are they with hyenas’ or lion king’s heart? Are they saint or evil?
I hope that educators will agree with me that we should advocate:
1) The minimum wage can sustain people’s basic needs like rental and foods.
2) Free Public Education in K-12
3) Corporate must sponsor VOCATIONAL college learners who will eventually work for them.
4) Government must sponsor RESEARCH PROGRAMS takers who definitely are the greatest asset for country and citizens.
5) Public Education PROTOCOL or PEDAGOGY should be free, transparent, and practical to learners at all appropriate levels. Back2basic
All very important points, May!
I think it was Susan who got set up and lost her teaching career. I don’t know about Ellen. I just remember that she’s disabled, as I am as well (though I receive no disability income nor accommodations.)
I think the root of the problem is our money-loving neoliberal culture, which has been infecting countries across the globe. I read this disconcerting news the other day:
“How the Red Cross Raised Half a Billion Dollars for Haiti and Built Six Homes”
http://www.newsweek.com/how-red-cross-raised-half-billion-dollars-haiti-and-built-six-homes-339145
Very alarming!