Original_To:  BITNET%"WORDS-L@UGA.BITNET"
Original_cc:  WHITERJ
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.words-l
Date:         Sat, 11 Apr 1992 16:01:00 MDT
 <WORDS-L%UGA.bitnet@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
From:         The Ronin <WHITERJ%MSCD.BITNET@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
Subject:      Re: sad thought (soapbox warning)

     I have read all of the messages that have come in on this topic
prior to making this response.  This is not backed up by scientific
studies, just my experiences.

     The biggest problem with public schools today isn't where their
money comes from, how much money is spent on them, the quality or
training of the teachers or the choice of the curriculum.  These may
have some effect, but they are dwarfed (even if taken as a group) by
the attitudes instilled in children by their parents.  My father went
to backwoods schools, but easily qualified to go to West Point at a
time when it was one of the top engineering schools in the country and
a large number of cadets had done a year or two of college prior to
applying.  While in many respects my father was an exceptionally
gifted man, I feel it was at least as important that our family (in
the extended sense) put a very high level of importance on education.
There was a great deal of support, encouragement, and expectation for
all of the family (including the daughters) to get an education.
There also was (and still is) the expectation that one would never
stop striving for more education.  My parents read to me up until I
learned how to read.  A number of things happened at that point that
reduced my time with them, but I always had books available to me and
was never discouraged from reading.  I also was not encouraged to
watch the TV as a means to keep me quiet and out from under foot.  I
still watched it, but I was at least as likely to listen to music
and/or read.  In elementary school I consistently had the lion's share
of the Scholastic Book Servie order for my class.  Once, when my
teacher announced that we didn't have enough books to meet the
minimum, I expanded my order.  And I read everyone of them.  It didn't
matter if we were in Kentucky, Gerogia, Texas, Colorado, Kansas or
Maryland, my education progressed because my parents supported and
encouraged me in it.  Not with money for good grades, but with
patience for questions and a willingness to point me in the right
direction when they didn't know outright.  We had a Britannica and an
Oxford Universal in the house, and my sister and I had free access to
them.  (When one considers that the military will only pay for moving
so many pounds of goods, how much books weigh, and that this was
before military salaries had risen to approximate private industry
levels, the number of books I had available in the house was
astounding.)  I always knew where the local branch of the library was,
and if I was old enough I had a library card.  When parents take this
kind of an interest in shaping their children's interests, the child
will excel regardless of the school.  But if the child hasn't
developed the thirst for knowledge, the finest school will be hard
pressed to help.  The schools get the child for maybe 6 hours a day, 5
days a week, 36 weeks a year.  That is not enough to counter the
effects of the parents most of the time.  Movements to extend the
school year so that kids have less vacation time are valid only if one
is hoping to diminish the parent's influence.  One misguided effort in
Denver is to crack down on truancy.  The backers claim that this will
show children that education is something to be valued.  Bah.  Even
people who slept through Intoduction to Economics should be able to
figure out that something that is of value will be snapped up.  It is
only things that one doesn't value that must be forced upon one.

The Ronin
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