Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
It’s hard for me to understand why so many people think school is universally right for every kid. Even if you think school is on balance the best choice for the vast majority of kids can’t you recognize that for at least some outliers it’s a total disaster to the point where whatever silver lining you might be able to point to like socialization and survival lessons are irrelevant? I mean hell I’m just going to say that this outlier of community kids definitely exist. For some kids, school is absolutely a net loss. And for some of those NOTHING is gained. It’s just bad. So it baffles me. I’m incredulous even as to why people are so insistent that EVERY kid must attend school.
For some kids school is so painful suicide is the right choice. Same as someone who doesn’t want to go through end game Alzheimer’s. Not for many. It may be very rare but for some it is like that. And they ****ing kill themselves.
I also suspect that the suffering that some children endure just going to school is greater than all the suffering caused by a school shooter in total including that of bereaved parents of the students who are murdered.
There are kids who decide they would rather die and then actually kill themselves because that’s how adverse they are to going to school. But still, even in the face of all that the singular message is: STAY IN SCHOOL.
**** that
If it’s got you ****ed up do something else. It’s honestly not that ****ing important for EVERYBODY.
|
It's about defending the comfortable status quo that forged you as a kid. It's like kids who get the **** kicked out of them by their parents laughing about it like it's a rite of passage that makes them stronger people. It's just easier than questioning your entire upbringing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OccultHawk
I agree but I will mention one drawback. At under ten it can be really hard to maintain the formality. A little larger herd actually tends to monitor itself better in some ways. If the kids are well adjusted 23 is a very reasonable class size. If they’re not an extra adult with authority like a co-teacher or an aid or a behavior specialist is probably a better first step than lowering attendance below 18.
|
I did go to military school where the teachers couldn't hit us but they did have very good disciplinary measures to keep us in line, and we were also a bunch of middle and upper class kids who thought that school was a gateway to money and privilege cause that's what it was for us.
But do you have experience with problem kids in small class sizes (like, actually ten or lower)? In my experience the informality of those classes is almost like democracy where we know the teacher, the teacher knows us, we all know each other, so there's a feeling of equality that humanizes us and encourages us to be laid back and not think of ourselves as just another faceless cog in the education machine. Like we could have conversations with the teacher as a group but at the same time it could be a casual thing and then it was time for class and it was like "Take it away, Teach" as opposed to "Sit down and be quiet while I take roll call".
I mean in military school I had class sizes so small that there was absolutely no comparison to any class I ever had in public school and a difference of even a few students could have changed that dynamic, so a class of 18 would have been a completely different beast to a class of 8, which is something I had back then regularly.