School Bus Program Reaches St. Charles County

[Quillback]

I'm all for having safe, modern schools with concerned, dedicated teachers. And I also believe that having concerned, involved parents like Justin is very important for kids to have success in school. But what do you do with kids that walk out of the school at the end of the day and head out to a bad home? And if 50-70% of the students in some communities are in a bad home life situation, how can the schools fix that? Or to put it differently, how will spending more money on schools fix a bad home? Or a bad community? I think too much of the focus is on the schools somehow fixing societal issues. What we need, in some cases, are better communities. Easier said than done of course.

[rps]

Quill,

You get the point. We work on jobs, culture, and community as the solution to bad schools. Not vice versa.

[Smalliebigs]

This is a bandaid handed down by the Missouri Supreme court and is a joke. It will put the un-accredited districts further into decline and do nothing for the districts the students transfer to. Communities need to take pride in the education of their kids and thats the bottom line.....if you don't give a piss about your kids education, you get a shity school.

How anyone can say the parents not taking more of a hands on approach to their kids education won't help is full of shiot. I feel sorry for the few kids in those districts that have parents who care and are doing their best but, you just have to do what you can.

Our daughter will be in private school for sure even though we pay taxes in Kirkwood.....I wouldn't send her to that hell hole for any amount.

[Guest Brian B.]

You know what, never mind.......too much none fishing crap. I'm sticking to smallies and trout and the rest of ya'll can have these types of discussions.....

Why chime in- don't comment at all, we can discuss both, thanks

[Guest Brian B.]

You don't want her pallin' round with Cookie's "offspring"? Hmm, wonder why... Ahh well, to each unto his own..

[Feathers and Fins]

To this day my best friends are still my mom and dad. They molded me to who I am teaching me morals ethics and hard work. The best lesson they taught me was nothing given means as much as something earned!

When I was young it was not just my parents but family and neighbors that all played a part in raising the kids. My best friend im 44 now as is he have been friends for 40 years we grew up getting our behinds attended to by each others parents and on occasion a neighbor especially during pomegranate or cumquat season

Sunday meant family dinner and grandmas house and every other night was grace at home with my family. I really think family values have fallen away and I just don't understand why? But in my heart I believe this is what's wrong with todays society.

Life is family, friends and the good lord to me. Teachers were extended family when I was growing up and cared about the kids and community, I suppose times evolve but sometimes not for the better.

[Mitch f]

I completely agree with you F&F, but there are some inner city kids who don't have a chance at the upbringing you and I had. With 80% of black mothers being unwed, they simply are screwed from day one. No role models to teach them. They grow up listening to stupid rap songs about killing cops and thug life, a mother that's a crack addict. They simply have virtually no chance. What to do about the problem? I just don't know.

[Smalliebigs]

LOL!!!!! I stood next to Cookie several times in city hall during the citizens rant sessions before the city council meetings would start.....and he blew the head off of one of my dear friends Connie Karr and another good friend of mine Officer Biggs....the night of the shooting, I was late for the show and was hot to trot about a stupid street being opened up in my nieghborhood......thank god for that because I'm pretty sure if I would have been in the room I would have been trying to stop him some how and taking lead more than likely......that night will be burned into my memory for many reasons...mostly because my friend had her head blown off execution style at point blank range by a piece of garbage for no reason, I heard from Art McDonnell another friend of mine who was in the room, Connie was one of the only people to stand up to that piece of shiot, most coward under the table waiting for the bullets or ran out of the room ....God rest your sole Connie.

The main reason I won't be sending my daughter to Kirkwood is because of the indoctination that goes on there, my nephews both attend and tell me off all the different wars and pieces of history they take out of the lesson plans and they also sell communist countries to be a nice haven for you to move to in the future. Franklin McCaulie started the slow path to socialism there and now if you aren't gay on campus there you won't get laid.

Our daughter will be attending Westminster if we are still in scumbag County by then...... but, the way North county is expanding it's criminal empire and ethics we should be out in the sticks before she's in highschool.

You don't want her pallin' round with Cookie's "offspring"? Hmm, wonder why... Ahh well, to each unto his own..

[Al Agnew]

Look, I agree that parental involvement is MUCH more important to a kid's education than just about anything else, and throwing money at the schools won't solve the parental involvement problem. BUT, exactly what WILL solve it? The unpalatable truth is that the schools have to work with what they get, not what they wish they'd get. So, let's say you're a student who has two caring parents who value an education. Which school do you have a better chance of really doing well? The FH's where there are good facilities, good teachers who get paid a decent salary, and all the modern bells and whistles...or the Normandy's where the facilities are falling down around your ears, the teachers are continually turning over or aren't good enough to get a better job, and the the classrooms are stuck in the 1940s? Even if you don't have the best home life, you'd have a better chance of succeeding at FH. And the reason why the Normandy's don't have the kind of schools and teachers that the FH's do is simply because the tax base isn't there. In reality, it takes exceptional teachers and administrators to make an inner city school succeed, while it only takes good teachers and administrators to make a suburban school, or even a rural school, succeed. The inner city school, because of the kind of students it has with that lack of good home life and parental involvement, is a MUCH tougher job for a teacher. And yet, the teachers there are making less money. Anybody see how that's kinda backwards?

So while everything stems from the problems in society manifesting themselves in the school situation, the funding system (and yes, stuff like No Child Left Behind) not only perpetuates the problems in the schools but multiplies them.

It only makes me shake my head when people say that they succeeded because they had good parenting, and that's all it takes. Sure it is, but you're dealing with fantasy, not reality. Reality is that a whole lot of kids don't have good parenting, or parenting at all, and no amount of magic will change that. The schools have to work around it.

[Guest Brian B.]

Al- I'm sorry not on you, on me... I just worked anothe double...

(Took one for the baby birds, as hitting "double time" really feeds the "blackbirds".. )

It all goes back to they illustration of the new home owner that grew up in north county, moved his new family -the hell out of Normandy-, to St.Charles, so his kids had a dang chance, was fine with the frustration and the expense...

And... , well.... And this crazy BS, this crazy politically correct BS,

I fought an inner city de-seg "boo" in high school because he overheard me say "doghnut" which is apparently a gang slang for crips??? God help us... WTF? (He won, having the advantage of attacking me unawares, seeing as I unknowingly had "disrespected" his... Gang- or, whatever, WTF?)

Keep the animals in their district- WHERE THEY BELONG... Much much cheaper on the graffitti repars and misc vandalism bills..

(Another "kid" in 9th grade "clothes lined" me- for no reason what so ever- but in the opposite way, he was running, I was waking, at the last minute he puts his arm out full strength and knocked me out, I was a late bloomer, it just about knocked me unconsious- my fellow legit County students just looked. At me as I woke up like.. "Why did you not flikch away vs letting him run right past you so close"...

Those kids will be in for a real surprise, they are in for a real treat...

Yep- I have prejudices, based on experience..

Should I go on?

My Junior year we had a near race. Fight that was covered by the news in the commons at lunch break, BECAUSE THEY HAD NO BUSINESS BEING THERE... And everyone was fed up..