Florida Ranks? - Can You Add to List?

[Mztk1]

My reasons for my son going to a private school go far beyond the education-his school routinely produces many of the brightest graduates in the area. With a private school he can actually have a Christmas party. Imagine that. Disruptive children are removed from school, no colored hair, no body piercings, dress codes, etc.

Not only do my kid's public schools HAVE Christmas parties, but they weren't allowed (and still aren't) to have Halloween Parties because parents object, and then they have "Come to Jesus Meetings" with teachers. Though I went to religious schools growing up and have a terminal degree in the Philosophy of Relgion, I am not a Christian (or religious for that matter), but I don't have a problem with my kids going to "Jesus Meetings". Life is a banquet, let them feast on the entire table.

The selectivity of private schools, kicking disruptive kids out, etc. is their major advantage. But the public schools here have gifted programs which all four of my kids are in, so that effectively does the same thing. The public schools also have a uniform code and as for colored hair and body piercings, if that's not allowed, my wife with her bottled blonde and earings would be kicked out.

 

[Couch Potato]

But you also moved to NC from FL, right? Sometimes states cover things in different order and it can make you feel like a genius when you go to a new school and they learning all the stuff you learned a year or two before. My senior year I moved and my Senior English class in my new school was my Junior English class in my old school. I went from a D to an A and felt real smart.

Does not apply in this case at all.

 

[Lynne]

I did both and sent my son to private the first 4 years and public the rest. The public high school, Edgewater, is respected but we have low test scores due to busing from the nearby F schools. I think a lot of the public system is sloppy and poor but at the same time it is strong in other areas. Social interaction education is a key to being successful in life - small private schools with limited diversity don't offer that. I agree with Jim on a lot of his points. The basis for a good education starts at home. If the parents are involved and pushing and the student is participating, then the student will succeed - no involvement generally equals no success.

I may stand corrected but.....haven't the "F" schools been bused for quite some time?

I totally agree with the "social" ramifications of high school. The impact lasts well past the teen years.

IMO the problems lies with the lack of community involvement. In our parents/grand parents day the community/extended family helped to raise our children. Here in lies the problem IMO. We no longer are our brothers keeper!!!

 

[Mztk1]

The problem is community has been lost to the almighty dollar. We have entered an Ayn Rand philosophical age of Objectivism where each one of us is out for ourselves. Even those more socially minded (which I believe is most of us) are more apt to lock themselves and kids behind doors because they feel nothing is genuine anymore, people are to be feared, and everyone who is friendly is friendly because they are after something (sex, money, just know what you got, etc).

My son was in the hospital for three days and the doctors and nurses were great. But the possibility was brought to my attention that the kindness was all for the sake of business. When we were kids (and I am speaking to those over 40 I guess), hospitals were non-profit (as was insurance), doctors made house calls, and the sense of community was geniune in all our neighborhoods. Today competition rules (a false interpretation of evolution carried on by the "survival of the fittest crowd) and so many people look at the differences in their neighbor and measure how they compare.

Maybe things were not any different at all, though. My wife is the person who brought this concept up to me on the way home from the hospital and I said to her, "But we were kids then and saw the world as kids, now we are adults and see it differently. Do you think Jonny (my son) sees it any other way then the world stopping to help him get better?"

Well, that's off topic a little...

 

[Couch Potato]

It's not just perspective. You won't see people band together to start a war like they did back in the 1770's or 1860's. We certainly didn't fight those wars over the almighty dollar. That sense of community just isn't there anymore.

[sarcasm off]
The more things change, the more they stay the same.

 

[Mike Phillips]

Hey Kids -

All I know is this: my youngest graduated high school 6/2 and I'm officially DONE with Florida's public schools. He's bound for WV to play some football; maybe he'll get an education along the way. The other one is well on his way in college.

Florida teachers did a good job with both my sons but I'm fed up. Being a native Floridian my perspective is quite different from so many who move here. My in-laws are from NY and I hear about how great the NY schools are and about their student's high SAT scores all the time.

The bottom line is, Florida is an immature state in many respects. While writing a narrative many years ago I learned Florida was ranked about 27th in the nation in resident population as late as 1945+/-. It has since risen to 3rd or 4th; no state has ever experienced that kind of growth - that I am aware of.

But why wonder? We have a comparative advantage in what? Climate, our proximity to South America and mile after mile of coastline. Not much else.

On one side we have the tourist industry workers who don't make enough money to tax and no one cares about them anyway because they don't vote. Thus, the state's attitude toward health care for children and public education. At the other end we have the retirees who won't come here if they are taxed and they never miss a vote. The middle class trying to raise children is stuck in the middle. Glad I no longer have a dog in that fight.

What I will miss will be interacting with so many bright young people and watching them grow and mature.

 

[nauthead]

Jim, government run schools are not allowed to have anything Christmas related, thanks to the All Crazy Lunatics United (ACLU) and other organizations like them. That's why government schools have "Winter Break".

 

[Jungle Boy]

In standard classes (after arriving here from PNG in 1980) during 11th and 12th grades in Florida's public schooling system, I felt like the brightest kid in the class. However, in the advanced classes there were many much smarter kids than I was. There were gifted classes as well, and I never made it into those.

So it depends - one can get a decent education in Florida's public school system, but it depends on the parents and the student.

Our children are home schooled, all four of them. They do extremely well in national rankings. In our school, we have one teacher (my wife) to 4 students. Our 2 older kids will dual enroll into college in 11th and 12th grades, at no cost to us (if they dual enroll at the local community college). The tuition will be at 10% (90% discount - basically free) of regular tuition at the Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Can't beat that.

You can get the best education in the world in Florida, but you have to work for it.

 

[Mztk1]

Jim, government run schools are not allowed to have anything Christmas related, thanks to the All Crazy Lunatics United (ACLU) and other organizations like them. That's why government schools have "Winter Break".

You'd be surprised by the school my kids went to in Plant City, then. The kids run the Xmas stuff, they run the bible classes. Teachers cannot participate but they cannot stop it either.

 

[Mztk1]

In standard classes (after arriving here from PNG in 1980) during 11th and 12th grades in Florida's public schooling system, I felt like the brightest kid in the class. However, in the advanced classes there were many much smarter kids than I was. There were gifted classes as well, and I never made it into those.

So it depends - one can get a decent education in Florida's public school system, but it depends on the parents and the student.

Our children are home schooled, all four of them. They do extremely well in national rankings. In our school, we have one teacher (my wife) to 4 students. Our 2 older kids will dual enroll into college in 11th and 12th grades, at no cost to us (if they dual enroll at the local community college). The tuition will be at 10% (90% discount - basically free) of regular tuition at the Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Can't beat that.

You can get the best education in the world in Florida, but you have to work for it.

100% correct. My kids are in the gifted program. We had them privately tested and they got in. We call it "Advanced FCAT" but the teachers are great, the students are all driven at home to learn and so are driven in school the same way. They are 100% nerd and I love what those programs have done for my kids. I wouldn't trad it for the best schools where I moved here from.

Now my neices and nephews moved here from up north too, and none have qualified for gifted (I married smart). They find the schools much, much worse.