Messages By: manda7

I graduated last year from public school.  I had excellent grades and am now doing well in college where I am studying to be a nurse. I think that people are making excuses by blaming public school when students don't do well.  With any type of school, you get what you take out of it.  Most kids today are lazy.  Why don't we call it what it is!  I do not think it is the school's fault.  I was raised by a single, disabled mother, and I was able to take advanced classes while working and doing internships.  So when I hear public schools being blamed for students not passing even the most basic classes, I think maybe we should look at how much effort the student is putting in.  I went to school, payed attention, studied, and passed the classes.  There were also students who cut school, did not pay attention, did not study, and (surprise surprise) did not pass.  It seems very simple to me, each person is responsible for their own success.  We just don't like to take responsibility for our own actions (laziness), so we blame the school (laziness).  Life is not like private school or home school.  You get what you are given in life and you choose to either work hard for success, or be lazy and blame something else for your failure.

As for the people who are choosing not to educate their children at all, I hope they feel good about crippling them for life.  Regardless of their opinion about education, it is necessary in our society.  The best job you can get without some kind of higher education is at McDonald's.  They are sentencing their children to a life of almost certain poverty.  They should be ashamed of themselves.

I never said I was better than anyone, I said that I studied and worked hard, but thank you for putting those words in my mouth.  I would like to point out how you use phrases like "those of us paying for our children's education" and ask which of us really has the better than thou attitude you accused me of.    It is wonderful that you can afford to send your daughter to public school, I was not so fortunate.  Children can get an excellent education in private school, but does it prepare them for real life where they will have to make the best of what the get and deal with all kinds of people.  You seem to be one of the growing trend today that is not comfortable when someone says something which holds people responsible for their own actions.

I realize that some people try hard and still have trouble. However, I am referring to the vast numbers of students who are failing or dropping out.  Many of them decide they just don't want to do their work or even don't want to go to school any more, and that is their fault not the public education system.  You can get a good education in public school, but you have to reach out and grab it, whether you do so is up to you. As for learning disabilities, the public school system has special education programs for those students.  I don't think that public education is a wonderful, flawless thing, It definitely has it's faults, but that is not an excuse to do poorly.

I hear people expressing concern about the message it sends if a teacher used to be a porn star. I think that the fact that she went from a homeless porn star to an educated successful woman is a message that if you work hard you can overcome anything.  I believe the school is sending a bad message by firing her because they are saying to the kids that if your in a bad situation like that there is no way you can better yourself, that no matter how hard you work to get your education and have a good career you can never overcome that.  As for the boys who posted the my space page I don't think they should be charged with a felony, but I definitely think that they should be punished in court.  What they did was unacceptable and the fact that they are teenagers is not an excuse, and it irritates me that anyone would say that it is.  Teenagers are perfectly capable of understanding how wrong that was.

I think you are giving a teachers impression on their students way more power than it actually has.  Girls are not going to jump in front of a camera and rip their clothes off because they found out that their teacher did a porn movie over ten years ago. It is not like she is doing porn now, this woman decided to work hard to get her education and become a successful career woman and that sounds like a good role model to me.

Enza in a bit over the top.  I can become very opinionated about things myself, but I have learned that you have to present yourself in an intelligent and rational manor when you are expressing how you feel about an issue.  Otherwise people will dismiss you as a ranting crazy person as it seems many have with Enza, and you will not be able to get your point across.  My advise to Enza as person who gets very passionate about things is to tone it down a little so that people can focus on what you are saying instead of how you are saying it.

As for Alex I truly hope that she is able to get the help she needs and turn her life around.  She is so young it is just painful to think about the things she has gotten involved in.  I would die of shame if I ever thought about stealing from my Grandmother.   It seems that she has hit rock bottom, so fortunately I think the only place for her to go is up.  I wish her all the luck in the world, I hope she can learn to love and respect herself.