Graduated from Ohio public schools in the early 2000s.
The thing that stuck out to me was how different the tracks were. I was in the AP / honors track and learned a lot, I was friends with plenty of people in the standard track and it seemed like their curriculum was pretty awful.
I don’t recall students switching between the tracks either, I was with the same cohort of ~90 people and the other couple hundred students were left in the standard track. Pretty wild to use “how well did you understand prealgebra in 7th grade” to determine what quality of education you would get for the next half decade.
Overall though I think I was lucky, it was a poor public school where I never saw a levy pass (school levies are special taxes Ohio uses to fund their schools) but I had the good fortune of having dedicated and passionate teachers. From my chemistry teacher that taught us the value of the Socratic method to the retired semi-pro bowler turned calculus teacher whose infectious enthusiasm for calculus made me pursue a degree in mathematics.
I graduated though before one of the worst policy changes in recent history, the no child left behind policy (ironically my first job out of university was working on NCLB grant management software for the Ohio Department of Education). Possibly a well meaning policy, but it exacerbated teaching to the test and no child left behind just became “every child gets passed to the next grade no matter how poorly they are doing.” Replacing holding children back so they could develop and hopefully function at the appropriate grade level even if it took another year to shoving them through and leaving them constantly struggling with class work they can’t comprehend has been a massive, self-inflicted loss for the education system.
I had literally the same experience. My brother is a bona-fide genius, and he did amazing in a normal public school, and went on to get his bachelors and masters in 4 years from a couple of extremely prestigious schools, on full scholarships. All from a regular public school.
I was in music, and got a good music foundation, before getting a college degree in music. No scholarships, I wasn’t a genius like him.
Point is, you could get the education you wanted in public school, if you curated your classes and teachers carefully. That was a long time ago, my brother just retired last week, after 44 years with the same company.
BTW, he took the generous retirement buyout they were offering, and after 44 years of working for that company, they didn’t acknowledge his service or retirement in any way. Just sign here, transfer your duties, and clear out your office. Not even an email.
I moved from NY to Ohio as a kid, and was at least a year ahead. I was a genius for one year, and then just ahead of the pack for the rest of school.
Graduated from Ohio public schools in the early 2000s.
The thing that stuck out to me was how different the tracks were. I was in the AP / honors track and learned a lot, I was friends with plenty of people in the standard track and it seemed like their curriculum was pretty awful.
I don’t recall students switching between the tracks either, I was with the same cohort of ~90 people and the other couple hundred students were left in the standard track. Pretty wild to use “how well did you understand prealgebra in 7th grade” to determine what quality of education you would get for the next half decade.
Overall though I think I was lucky, it was a poor public school where I never saw a levy pass (school levies are special taxes Ohio uses to fund their schools) but I had the good fortune of having dedicated and passionate teachers. From my chemistry teacher that taught us the value of the Socratic method to the retired semi-pro bowler turned calculus teacher whose infectious enthusiasm for calculus made me pursue a degree in mathematics.
I graduated though before one of the worst policy changes in recent history, the no child left behind policy (ironically my first job out of university was working on NCLB grant management software for the Ohio Department of Education). Possibly a well meaning policy, but it exacerbated teaching to the test and no child left behind just became “every child gets passed to the next grade no matter how poorly they are doing.” Replacing holding children back so they could develop and hopefully function at the appropriate grade level even if it took another year to shoving them through and leaving them constantly struggling with class work they can’t comprehend has been a massive, self-inflicted loss for the education system.
I had literally the same experience. My brother is a bona-fide genius, and he did amazing in a normal public school, and went on to get his bachelors and masters in 4 years from a couple of extremely prestigious schools, on full scholarships. All from a regular public school.
I was in music, and got a good music foundation, before getting a college degree in music. No scholarships, I wasn’t a genius like him.
Point is, you could get the education you wanted in public school, if you curated your classes and teachers carefully. That was a long time ago, my brother just retired last week, after 44 years with the same company.
BTW, he took the generous retirement buyout they were offering, and after 44 years of working for that company, they didn’t acknowledge his service or retirement in any way. Just sign here, transfer your duties, and clear out your office. Not even an email.
MAGAmerica.