From: tls@panix.com (Thor Lancelot Simon)
Subject: Re: Andre Marrou/Nancy Lord in '92!
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 02:12:33 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: PANIX Public Access Unix & Internet, NYC

In article <1992Jul24.121454.14132@husc3.harvard.edu> koumis@husc4.harvard.edu (Anthony Koumis) writes:
>In article <1992Jul23.212847.8017@bradley.bradley.edu> sreardon@bradley.bradley.edu (Steven Reardon) writes:
>>In <1992Jul23.152708.14105@husc3.harvard.edu> koumis@husc4.harvard.edu (Anthony Koumis) writes:

>>Nonsense.  Private businesses run better than public ones.  Who makes more 
>>profit per year: Burlington Northern or Amtrak?  Who gets higher test scores:
>>private school kids or public school kids?  And that's even considering that
>>the private companies/schools are laboring against unfair regulations and
>>competition from the government.
>>
>
>Private business run better than public ones ..... that is what all nice
>conservatives believe.  But I hate to break it to you, lots and lots 
>of private businesses are badly run, badly managed, etc.  In case you
>havent notices lots and lots of businesses are losing money in the US.
>Being private is no guarnatee it will run well.

Of course, being public is a guarantee that it _won't_ run well.  When private
companies go as heavily into debt as the U.S. government is, they cease to
exist, being merely legal fictions.  While some people here might suggest that
the U.S. government is similarly only a legal fiction, I fear that this is
wishful thinking... :-)

>
>And take a look at last weeks Sunday NY TImes, they had an article about
>Paris.  In it there was an item about the public, state supported
>schools that people want to go to.  In fact, have waiting lists to
>go to, are so prestigious that people move to the area to go there.
>In fact, most people in France who go to private school do so because
>they want a religious education not because they think private schools are
>better.

I find this a rather absurd and vauge description of the French educational
system.  To begin with, the public/private school distinction in France is not
at all the same as it is here.  In schools both public and private, the
curriculum is designated by the state, and the teachers are paid by the state.
Why are some "private" and others "public"?  I'm not really sure.  It's been a
while since I was in France, but I believe that I recall there being a small
(_very_ small) sum to be paid if one goes the private route.  Private schools
do have somewhat smaller classes (the ones I visited did, in any case, and a
number of my instructors agreed with the generalisation) and seem to be able to
provide more attention to the needs of the individual student.  On the other
hand, the best teachers are said to generally go to the public schools.  Is
there a salary differential?  I don't know.  I did once, but I've forgotten.
There _are_ religious schools, but one of the guiding principles of the French
educational system is that education be lay, not religious.  The private
schools that I knew of were all lay.  The important point, however, is that they
weren't really _private_.  The state paid the teachers, and the state dictated
the curriculum.  French college admissions testing (well, it's more than that,
but it's very complex) is a lot more comprehensive than ours, heavily
standardised, and coordinated with a multi-track program that provides a number
of different pre-rolled solutions at the high-school level for students who want
to do various different things in college.  It's rather restrictive, and it
forces one to choose quite early what one wants to do in life.  I was, to say
the least, surprised by the lack of true private education in France, but when
I asked about it, the answer I usually got was that those who could afford it,
and found that their children weren't well suited to either of the alternatives
availiable in France, often sent them out of the country.  Surprise, surprise.
Bears thinking...
-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon	 tls@panix.COM

"Better be careful there.  John might decide to start taking legal action
against people who refuse to buy stuff from him."  --Kevin McBride
Newsgroups: alt.politics.marrou,alt.politics.elections