There are three kinds of people:

[ekpolk]

quote:

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Originally posted by Pablo:
I have three points to make:

1) Be careful what you say about public schools. OUR public schools are great. Basically because the local population gives a crap.
3) My 12 yo daughter is getting some killer math, including non-linear problem solving. One problem kicked my butt for almost a 4 or 5 innings of a WS game.
7) This is a bit sensitive (no I didn't read the whole CNN article) - but when you break the races out - yes Asians kick a$$ - but when you divide the USA into white, black, hispanic, etc - the white kids do much better. NO ONE is saying the color of anyone's skin has a thing to do with math skills - BUTT - it does seem a cultural driven thing. Which brings me back to the Asians. The culture drives them. Period.
11) My daughters are kicking fanny and taking names, like it or not when comes to math, thank you.

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I'm glad your daughter had a good public school experience. But I don't think you can generalize that broadly. I'd give the public schools where I live (Pensacola) a B- or C+ overall. In New Orleans where I work, far lower.

I recently worked for a hard-nosed Colonel, a truly good guy at heart, but one who'd eat you alive in a heartbeat if you crossed him. Like me, he's a reservist recalled to active duty. In civilian life, he'd been a Dallas street cop for over 20 years (who has survived being shot -- twice). It's not easy to get to him.

Since he's working on a teaching degree, looking forward to military/police retirement, he started volunteering to sub in the New Orleans public schools (we spent several months working a command center night shift together). He did this for about three call-ins, and then quit. The kids were so out-of-control, apathetic, hostile, and contemptuous of authority that he couldn't stand it. I can hardly imagine how bad it must have been to shake this guy who probably eats bowls of nails for breakfast.