For Once I agree with ObamaFollow

Ok, "relearning," I can understand. Though, I would put effort into it just because I wouldn't want my grades to fall (or to get fired, if you use your example). That's not what I got from the post. I was taking it as simply not as challenging. Not repetative, just not as hard.

Well, I can understand that, I suppose. But I don't understand why you'd just throw it away once you'd put all that work into it.

And where were your parents while you started flunking classes?

In short, it was the reason I dropped business and went into mathematics.

As opposed to the prize of obtaining knowledge?

Believe me, they fought tooth and nail with me and the school administration but the school simply didn't care, so they did nothing to help my parents get me back in school. In lower income school districts, problem students are usually brushed off and ignored. My parents went to the extent of threatening the school with legal action if they didn't send a truancy officer after me. Unfortunately, they didn't have the financial means to back their threats.

Plus having a child who's smarter than the majority of the school administration doesn't make things easy. I would usually show up to my first class and then take off after it. Administration saw I was in class first hour and left it alone, the rest of my teachers were used to me not showing up and figured administration already knew I wasn't there because my first period teacher was supposed to report it.

I was also dealing with depression at that age and one of the biggest problems with depression is boredom, so it wasn't simply a matter of being bored and riding out the classes. That's one of the reasons a constant challenge was so important to me. It got to the point of being mind numbingly painful to sit there and listen to teachers go on and on about crap I already knew.

I wasn't trying to rebel against the school or anything, I just didn't see the point in continuing something that taught me nothing and took no effort.

Neither am I and that's not what I'm trying to portray. I completely understand that I am the exception, not the rule. I just feel I was failed by the school system and people with the potential I had slipping through the cracks due to monetary reasons is a major problem.

As I said, I've decided to go back to college. I didn't make the decision for myself, I made it because I knew I couldn't properly support my daughter on my current level of education and there's not a chance in hell I'm going to allow my daughter to go through the same thing I did.

As opposed to our current method, in which the same government money is handed out based on the desires of the organizations who donated the most money to their elected officials campaigns? You're right! That's soooo much better than allowing any sort of competition for the money.


Here's why I'm in favor of some sort of voucher system. You're all running around in circles over the issue of how you "test" performance. Who decides whether a teacher is a "good teacher" or a school is a "good school"? What criteria do they use? That's really the issue, isn't it? NCLB's problems were all about figuring out how to determine those criteria, and pretty much any and every method we come up with ends out being less than idea.

With a voucher program, the consumer of the product decides what is "good". Specifically, the parent or guardian of the child determines that criteria by choosing where to spend their voucher. I know. It clearly can't work because it doesn't involve massive numbers of government "experts" making those decisions. Or would it?


We can debate what we thing is best for each and every child in the US all day long, but it just seems like the parents might be the best source of that info. And the bonus is that we don't have to spend massive amounts of money trying to figure it all out. Just let them spend the vouchers. Sometimes, the simplest solutions really are the best.

So far, no. And I'd rather have an educational system which produces the smartest kidlets, not the one that makes the parents feel happiest in order to get their dollars.

Sorry, I'm not in favor of revamping the entire system just for the GOP talking point experiment when all the real attempts so far have shown that there's no educational benefit.

Sorry, ethnicity. I'm working on my finals and my brain's a bit fried right now. I just finished a paper discussing e-commerce and internet marketing and how it can be designed to focus on different genders and ethnic groups.

Didn't have a car or a license in 8th grade and money wasn't really an issue since I didn't have any to begin with. Other than taking away my books, which is the majority of what I did, what were they supposed to do? Taking away something that offers a level of educational value, albeit small, is a bit contradictory to the problem.

I won't sit here and say I was an angel, but I wasn't a trouble maker either. The fact that I was a good kid for the most part is one of the reasons the cops wouldn't get involved. I wasn't out causing trouble when I wasn't in school so I wasn't their problem.

When I dropped out at 16 I didn't have a license and I immediately found a full time job. When I had the money to go to driving school I went, got my license, bought my own car, paid my own insurance paid for my G.E.D. and continued with my life.

What are you majoring in?

Are you wanting to work in law enforcement?

Man, if I had it all to do over again, I'd be a blood spatter analysis like Dexter. Oh, except without all the killing.