"Young people today are so ignorant of their rights under the U.S. Constitution that they easily give them up because they have no idea they even exist."
As a young person(on the other side of the coin than writein-- early '20s and a college student) I respectfully disagree. Everyone my age that I talk to is well-informed about politics of all sorts, including the basics of constitutional rights. The reason for this is as college students, we're required to take political science and government classes(at least at most schools). We can discuss all what is entailed in our first amendment rights because we know the history of the amendment, including all the supreme court landmark cases. Even if we might not remember all of them, since we studied and were tested on them, we have a working knowledge of the constitution.
Of course, there are several people in my generation who probably don't even know how many amendments are included in the bill of rights-- but that doesn't mean we're all like that! In fact, I could say the same for my parent's generation as well.
"Let's help our people first?" ?
The poor, the needy, the ones who really need help- they are all "our" people. They may not be citizens of this country, but they are still hurt and desperately in need and if you have compassion for those here, then why not those there as well? These students have a fundraiser for an issue they care about. It should be applauded, not attacked.
While I think our education system is flawed, I don't think it will accomplish anything to have longer school hours for more of the year. The matter is, the students who pay attention in school will keep paying attention and the ones who don't want to learn will still sit in the back of the classroom, daydream, think about how much they don't want to be there, etc. They'll only do it for a few more hours than before. Ultimately, longer days and more months out of the year won't accomplish anything unless we change our approach to education. Education has become for many a chore instead of a privilege and I think it's time we get back to viewing education as a life-long privilege and not just a prison we give twelve years(or more) of our lives to.
You can't just write someone off as inherently evil. Did these teenagers do a terrible, awful, evil thing? Yes. Should they, and they alone, pay for it? Yes, without a doubt. Do I feel sorry for them? No. Do I think they are bad people? Yes, they are, but I'm not willing to write them off as simply "bad people" because they weren't always like that.
No, it is not necessarily the parents fault that these particular teenagers turned out like that, but we can't write it off either. The bottom line is, we don't know what factors contributed to these particular people turning out the way they did. However, at the end of the day they alone are responsible for their actions.
I have tried for a long time to resist the urge to comment on the Advocate's stories, but this was the last straw. I do not claim to be an expert on homeschooling, having never experienced it myself, but I do know enough about high school having gone through it not too many years ago.
Yes, the point of schools is education. Yes, the school jackets, prom, homecoming-those things can be fun. It's OK to have pride in having a letterman. But they are not the reason that public schools exist. It would also be nice to have more flexibility in a schedule than what is allowed in high school. In a time when we sometimes get to see very little of our family, it would be nice to be able to spend more time with. There are perks on both sides. As for the hands-on argument- I don't even see how one can argue that. Unless the school is taking a field trip, can a student who is learning about animals in a public school take a trip to the zoo on their(or their parents') whim?
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"Young people today are so ignorant of their rights under the U.S. Constitution that they easily give them up because they have no idea they even exist."
As a young person(on the other side of the coin than writein-- early '20s and a college student) I respectfully disagree. Everyone my age that I talk to is well-informed about politics of all sorts, including the basics of constitutional rights. The reason for this is as college students, we're required to take political science and government classes(at least at most schools). We can discuss all what is entailed in our first amendment rights because we know the history of the amendment, including all the supreme court landmark cases. Even if we might not remember all of them, since we studied and were tested on them, we have a working knowledge of the constitution.
Of course, there are several people in my generation who probably don't even know how many amendments are included in the bill of rights-- but that doesn't mean we're all like that! In fact, I could say the same for my parent's generation as well.
"Let's help our people first?" ?
The poor, the needy, the ones who really need help- they are all "our" people. They may not be citizens of this country, but they are still hurt and desperately in need and if you have compassion for those here, then why not those there as well? These students have a fundraiser for an issue they care about. It should be applauded, not attacked.
While I think our education system is flawed, I don't think it will accomplish anything to have longer school hours for more of the year. The matter is, the students who pay attention in school will keep paying attention and the ones who don't want to learn will still sit in the back of the classroom, daydream, think about how much they don't want to be there, etc. They'll only do it for a few more hours than before. Ultimately, longer days and more months out of the year won't accomplish anything unless we change our approach to education. Education has become for many a chore instead of a privilege and I think it's time we get back to viewing education as a life-long privilege and not just a prison we give twelve years(or more) of our lives to.
You can't just write someone off as inherently evil. Did these teenagers do a terrible, awful, evil thing? Yes. Should they, and they alone, pay for it? Yes, without a doubt. Do I feel sorry for them? No. Do I think they are bad people? Yes, they are, but I'm not willing to write them off as simply "bad people" because they weren't always like that.
No, it is not necessarily the parents fault that these particular teenagers turned out like that, but we can't write it off either. The bottom line is, we don't know what factors contributed to these particular people turning out the way they did. However, at the end of the day they alone are responsible for their actions.
I have tried for a long time to resist the urge to comment on the Advocate's stories, but this was the last straw. I do not claim to be an expert on homeschooling, having never experienced it myself, but I do know enough about high school having gone through it not too many years ago.
Yes, the point of schools is education. Yes, the school jackets, prom, homecoming-those things can be fun. It's OK to have pride in having a letterman. But they are not the reason that public schools exist. It would also be nice to have more flexibility in a schedule than what is allowed in high school. In a time when we sometimes get to see very little of our family, it would be nice to be able to spend more time with. There are perks on both sides.
As for the hands-on argument- I don't even see how one can argue that. Unless the school is taking a field trip, can a student who is learning about animals in a public school take a trip to the zoo on their(or their parents') whim?