You went to public school, you can (it seems like it) afford to send your kids to private school. So wouldn't you say that you were/are successful? Private schools aren't cheap. I went to private elem/ middle school and the quality of education is good, but not that much better than the good public schools.
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Humans are naturally competitive though and it is hard to push yourself when you are already in the top 5% at your school. You may get pushed out of the top 10% in a sugarland or bellaire HS, but will be better prepared for college with a better work ethic and competitive drive.
Yeah I have no problem with what you are saying here. If a parent wants to send their kids to a private school then good for them; just keep in mind some people can't afford it... its not a matter of want. Then there are the people who just want to abolish the public school system entirely... for what gain? It just baffles me.
I think too many people overvalue quality of resources that schools offer. At the end of the day there are two types of people, the go-getters and the lazy. No amount of money can change that. No amount of private tutors, fancy school equipment, or elite teachers.
Morton Ranch High School. Not a good school relatively in the district, but far better than HISD schools. Katy ISD is one of the top districts in the state (again relatively compared to the state of Texas... lol).
Is the principal still McRibs? Back in my days people would say that he'd take a student up to his office and eat em. Hence the Texas sized belly. Also I heard his office was waaaay too nice for a principal's office. The reason why I said in the first page that Lamar get's a certain amount of compensation for every kid they take in not zoned there was because people say McRibs took most of the $$$. He couldn't care less about the quality of the school plummeting. Oh and I've had a couple classes with the principal's son. He openly tried to sell my drugs outside the class before the bell rang. Just whipped it out (that's what she said) and said "hey you wanna buy some?" and he didn't even know me. Is it true that you have to go through metal detectors everyday? Security must be really tight. I can't imagine how hard it must be to skip 4/8 periods.
Yeah there are only around 3 good schools in hisd (mentioned before). There still are those three though and the education is not that far off from private schools. If kids put in the effort, they SHOULD be able to get into a good school. In the end, that is what it comes down to.
Haha, yeah it is still McSwine and yeah his office was super nice. You'd never see him out and about. All my four years there I can count on one or two hands the number of times I saw him. One of his children committed suicide within the last few years, not sure if that was your classmate. Kind of a sad story. Oh and no we didn't have any of that. But the number of HISD cops around increased dramatically from my freshman year to my senior year. It wasn't that bad though since many of the teachers just plain didn't care. Many people still skip.
Very funny. Try actually reading rather than skimming. Aspiration does start at home but fact is that your kid will end up spending more time at school and with their friends than at home. As I stated before, nothing is guaranteed but it's about giving your kid the best possible foundation. And sometimes that extends beyond education. e.g. School reputation, alumni, environment, etc. I personally just want to send my kid to the best possible school and don't want to gamble on the public school system. I have no problem with schools like Bellaire, HSPVA, even Stratford and Memorial HS but my problem growing up was I never learned how to study properly and really apply myself. I think this starts at home and early education. i have my kid at a montessori school in tokyo presently. I dont know if it will really make a difference but I think it might benefit my kid more than sending her to a school where there is less focus on her and she goes to school with kids whose families are influential and if she maintains those friendships it may help her land a good job in the future. Kinda jumping the gun there but once again trying to give my kid the best possible foundation.
Oh snap. It probably was the kid that was my classmate. He had some serious problems, both in and out of school. The whole school knew and just kind of left him be to do his dealings. He actually came from a troubled past and McRibs adopted him to take care of the kid, probably the only nice thing I've ever heard about that guy. Were you part of the IB or Magnet program? I remember the difference in demographic between IB and regular was night and day. I took some IB classes and totally sucked. Most of my friends were in IB classes and went on to some Ivy schools. I went to UH.
This. Successful people derive their motivation from within. As a parent, I want to instill confidence. Teachers normally don't really do that. It either comes from within or perhaps I can help.
I didn't have a car when I went to U of H and rode Metro for four years. Senior year, I had an internship with a Merrill Lynch broker at the Galleria Financial tower and I had to take the 42 Holman to Westheimer and Montrose, then the 82 to the Galleria: 2 1/2 hours either way any day of the week. That entire second leg may have had nice houses on either side, but you got caught on that bus after 2:00 on a weekday it was Cooley damn High.
Thank god there was no social media when I was in school. Twitter feeds and text chains create a lot of social interactions that weirdos would otherwise retreat from if physical proximity and conversational time constraints were part of the mix. I switched schools middle of junior year, couldn't find a niche and ended up skipping graduation out of sheer spite; but if a 24-hour pocket chat-room told me jumping in a trash can or "play" fighting in a hallway would put me a little closer to the cool kids table I would have done it every time. Nice to see my people using modern technology to dispel old stereotypes. "Wouldn't it be funny if they all thought we were violent and lazy.."
I think a little more precisely academic achievement is about how much a kid balances respect for authority with affinity for his peers, and the extent to which those two groups value studying and schoolwork. Unfortunately that third factor can be pretty well correlated with income, education-level and that one other thing.
