I don't think smart kids suffer too much from mediocre schools. I think they'll excel anyway, and they'll get happy teacher attention.

I think that REALLY depends on the kid. And the teacher. I had some mediocre teachers, including one who told my parents how happy she was to have me in class, since she didn't have to pay any attention to me.

Yup. I'd say most of the teachers I encountered paid me very little attention, because I was able to get perfect scores on all their little worksheets and fill-in-the-blank tests without any help. There were exceptions along the way, of course. I have enduring fond memories of my band director, the math teacher I had for four years running because he taught everything above Algebra I, my junior and senior year history teachers, and my AP English teacher. You'll note that all of those came fairly late in the process, though.

I do like to remember that in a lot of places, the racial integration of public schools was followed immediately by the placing of white children into private schools. Which always struck me as a bitter, defeated thing to do, and the kids have to have come out the other end of that with some kind of screwed-up ideas about what's normal in today's world.

Aww, Nutty, White Flight is still the guiding reality of many public schools. It pretty much defines the urban schoolscape.

They dropped it for like a year. Basically, the conservatives (that means far right wing Republicans in Kansas) got in power and removed the requirement. Then the conservatives all got voted out and replaced with moderates (that means regular Republicans in Kansas) who put the requirement back in. Since then the School Board has been trended more conservative, so they will probably come out again. I don't think evolution really ever stopped being taught during all of this though.

Does it?

Does it argue against homeschooling? If I have to actually cover material that my kid is getting wrong in school, I've started homeschooling, but not taken it all the way. There's a breaking point somewhere along that continuum, and one that depends on the parents' ability and desire.

As I said -- the informed parent in that situation can choose to keep the kid in school too. It doesn't dictate homeschooling.

They've pretty much given up on integration here in Kansas City, the flight to the suburbs and/or moving kids to the Catholic school system has made it impossible to do.

Have we seen this yet: [link] Judge Rules that California Same Sex Marriage Ban is Unconstitutional

Gud, most of the people I know here (Massachusetts--Toto, we've never been in Kansas) who object to the teaching of evolution in our public schools, don't object to teaching of the theory of evolution itself. They object to what they call the teaching of the underlying philosophy of naturalism. Is that true in Kansas too, do you think, or is it to the whole shebang?

If I have to actually cover material that my kid is getting wrong in school, I've started homeschooling, but not taken it all the way. There's a breaking point somewhere along that continuum, and one that depends on the parents' ability and desire.

Well, my experience (which yours may contradict) is that you're fairly involved with your child's education anyway. God knows, I don't just stick to Emmett's school's curriculum when he's doing his Daily Edit, or working on a writing assignment. So the breaking point along the continuum might be some misguided notions about evolution. But that's distinct from saying you've started homeschooling because you're adding to/or amending what your kid gets from school.

Have we seen this yet: [link] Judge Rules that California Same Sex Marriage Ban is Unconstitutional

We likey.

Thanks for the clarification, Gud. Still, bet it's not fun to be a bio major from small-town Kansas, this past decade.

Aww, Nutty, White Flight is still the guiding reality of many public schools. It pretty much defines the urban schoolscape.

But, like, white flight from schools, or white flight from whole neighborhoods and cities? Pulling your kids out of a school is denying your everyday neighborhood reality; zipping yourself into the white/affluent suburban cocoon is making a new reality. While I don't approve of either, the former is a sillier position to take.