Re: [pf] public schools/ was we took...

by Sharon Flesher

12 December 2000 01:58 UTC

Diane wrote:
> I respect Molly's opinion greatly.  However, at this point in our society,
I
> see no other choice for schools to do things in addition to educate.  In
> fact, I believe school's greatest asset is that -- when operating more or
> less correctly -- it enables people from diverse backgrounds to get along.
> I know many of you have had different experiences.  I'm just saying that
> I've seen a lot of kids helped -- saved, if you will -- through school.
> Shouldn't be that way; they should have loving families or adequately
> incomed families.  But they didn't. And school was where they got food,
got
> clean, got warm and/or got loved.  Sometimes they also learned to read and
> write.

Public schools also are a lot cheaper than prisons. The state of Michigan
could put a kid through 4 years of Harvard for what it costs to keep him/her
in prison for a year.

I'm very biased on this subject because I have benefited greatly from public
schools, first as a student and now as a parent (my son is in an excellent
neighborhood public school and thriving). My parents, while well-meaning and
loving, did not have the economic resources to provide me with a private
education, nor did they have the intellectual resources to home educate me.
Had it not been for public schools, my path most certainly would have been
one with lesser understanding of the world and my place in it. I doubt I
would be discussing positive futures on the internet.

Sharon Flesher
CarSharing Traverse, Inc.
Traverse City, Mich.
sflesher@traverse.net

"Be the change you wish to see." M.K. Gandhi