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How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

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Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#231

Post by toast0 »

tonysdg wrote: post #143
wiremine wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a longer school year helps students stay focused My kids (4th and 7th) attend a school with a year-round schedule, and we (kids and parents) love it: * They are less stressed because there is more breaks throughout the year. Teachers seem less stressed, too, because they don't have to pack so much in. * They retain more in the summer. * Outside of academics: it's really nice to have the option to take longer vacati…

Growing up in Upstate NY, I always assumed part of it was also due to the fact that breaks during the winter basically translate to hours spent cooped-up inside, watching TV or playing on the computer. I know that the 3-month summer break stems from historical harvest/planting schedules... but when there's 20 inches of snow outside and the wind chill is -10 F, I'll take 3 months of summer vacay over 6 weeks of summer…

The summer break is also often when the weather is the hottest. Many schools don't have air conditioning, but would need it to provide a conducive learning environment in the heat of the summer. A schedule change combined with a few degrees of climate change turns a few rather hot days a school year into weeks of being too hot to learn.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#232

Post by btkramer9 »

staunch wrote: post #214
e40 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others fall asleep immediately at school since they live with 5+ siblings and there are literally no available beds at home. I am not trying to blame the parents in all the cases either At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. Having 5+ children when you have no resources... this is the true elephant in the room. It seems talking about it gets labels thrown around. I guess it's a conversa…

> At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. It actually doesn't. Everyone is a responsible as they're capable of being, given their genetics and their environment. If you're a very responsible person it's because you were fortunate to have your particular genetics and/or environment. Some people are born into terrible environments but have the genetic luck to be highly responsible. Some pe…

> No one chooses to be responsible or irresponsible.

Really? Everyone's level of responsibility is purely based on a genetic lottery and have nothing to do with one's own willpower?

edit: I can understand environment having an effect

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#233

Post by darepublic »

JamesBarney wrote: post #199
e40 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Others fall asleep immediately at school since they live with 5+ siblings and there are literally no available beds at home. I am not trying to blame the parents in all the cases either At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. Having 5+ children when you have no resources... this is the true elephant in the room. It seems talking about it gets labels thrown around. I guess it's a conversa…

Are you arguing for better access to birth control? Or that the children should be punished for the sins of their mother?

Well like it or not, children do pay for the sins of their parents. It's not something to be argued for its simply the truth

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#234

Post by redisman »

neuland wrote: post #194
naravara wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The middle one is absolutely true, the other two I really doubt e.g. in Finland or Germany, schoolday starts around 9AM and ends around 2PM, yielding 3h30 to 4h studies a day accounting for breaks, 5 days/week, with little homework (maybe 5h/week total). Afternoon is usually dedicated to clubs. In the context of at-risk kids, I think the idea is to maximize the amount of time the kids get to spend away from their to…

If the problem is toxic home environments though, why aren't people suggesting that we cut out the middle man and focus on building a better foster / adoption system and encouraging people to use it? It seems that everyone is recognizing this is the problem, but the solutions all revolve around school, when it really doesn't have anything to do with schools. Edit: Or boarding schools.

There are a lot of people working extremely hard in that field. It's just not very flashy or politically salient since it's so personal so it's very hard to rally people around it to get some more funding to these programs. Taking kids away from their parents always goes through the courts and is not in any way as simple as you make it out to be. Giving away your kids, even if you've fucked your life up is not something most people want to do voluntarily.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#235

Post by gedy »

elsherbini wrote: post #6
mkirklions wrote: post #2

Open question that wasnt really discussed in the article- Why are charter schools demonized? My local area HATES them, and I'm not sure if its politics or worthwhile. EDIT: Why did I get 5 downvotes?

I worked for 2 years as an AmeriCorps volunteer in Atlanta Public Schools. I'll preface this by saying I don't know if I believe charter schools are bad or good, but here are some arguments against them: - Charter schools take money away from neighborhood public schools. Most schools are funded per-capita, so fewer students means less money. But many costs are fixed/discrete (e.g. school nurse costs N thousand dollar…

> Charter schools take money away from neighborhood public schools

Such a lie/distortion

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#236

Post by jdavis703 »

e40 wrote: post #96
roland35 wrote: post #50

I am excited about this approach and I think LeBron's organization has put a lot of though and work with experts on this project. - This school is a true public school and not a charter school. In Ohio a lot of charter schools can have some degree of selection in their students and kick out families which don't meet the requirements which leads to more at-risk students left to the public schools. This school is makin…

Others fall asleep immediately at school since they live with 5+ siblings and there are literally no available beds at home. I am not trying to blame the parents in all the cases either At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. Having 5+ children when you have no resources... this is the true elephant in the room. It seems talking about it gets labels thrown around. I guess it's a conversa…

Along with "out-of-wedlock" births people also get divorced and/or die. I know two families where death is what caused a parent to become single. Life changes quickly (I grew up with a single mom, she got divorced because my dad developed a severe mental illness). Judging families by personal responsibility should really only be done on a case-by-case basis.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#237

Post by staunch »

btkramer9 wrote: post #232
staunch wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> At some point, though, personal responsibility has to come into play. It actually doesn't. Everyone is a responsible as they're capable of being, given their genetics and their environment. If you're a very responsible person it's because you were fortunate to have your particular genetics and/or environment. Some people are born into terrible environments but have the genetic luck to be highly responsible. Some pe…

> No one chooses to be responsible or irresponsible. Really? Everyone's level of responsibility is purely based on a genetic lottery and have nothing to do with one's own willpower? edit: I can understand environment having an effect

Not just genetics. Your willpower is entirely dependent on your genetics and your environment. There are no other factors possible. No one chooses how much willpower they have, just like no one chooses how intelligent they are.

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#238

Post by mythrwy »

naravara wrote: post #130
wiremine wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a longer school year helps students stay focused My kids (4th and 7th) attend a school with a year-round schedule, and we (kids and parents) love it: * They are less stressed because there is more breaks throughout the year. Teachers seem less stressed, too, because they don't have to pack so much in. * They retain more in the summer. * Outside of academics: it's really nice to have the option to take longer vacati…

>I'd love to see more schools move to it... 3 months off in summer seems very antiquated in hindsight. But what about those of us who need the extra hands to help with the harvest!?

Robots will soon replace the forced child labor. Oh won't somebody think of the poor displaced children?

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#239

Post by redisman »

soperj wrote: post #227
house9-2 wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> ...and focus on building a better foster / adoption system and encouraging people to use it who is going to fund that? wouldn't it be better to support the families as they are? help improve peoples lives instead of ripping families apart

Same people funding these insane school programs?

Lebron James has to fix all the ills in American society? Hmm I wonder why this country can't get anything productive done...

Re: How LeBron James' new public school is the first of its kind

#240

Post by [deleted] »

pbreit wrote: post #142
rory096 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No doubt! I definitely don't mean to denigrate the project at all, it's an incredibly philanthropic move by LeBron and he deserves every ounce of the praise he's been getting. I just see a lot of people using the "public school" line as a cudgel to bash charter schools, but charter schools are exactly the mechanism to accomplish something like this for people who aren't revered/rich enough to exercise the kind of inf…

What prevents non-charter/magnet schools from doing such things?

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