American Public Schools

I don't attend school. I decided to quit because American public schools are nothing but Godless places of ignorance, rudeness, Satan worship, sexual promiscuity, and drug use. I also disliked grades being based on social-economic status and race instead of knowledge and effort. Instead of wasting my time in a public school I decided to take a series of five General Educational Development (GED) Tests and I passed them all with above average scores. I was awarded a High School Equivalency Diploma which certifies that I satisfactorily completed comprehensive tests selected by the Commissioner of Education for determining general educational achievement equivalent to high school graduation. Studies have shown that most high school graduates when tested have failed the GED Tests. Ironically some of its critics who likely have never seen the test refer to it as, "too easy".

The GED test _is_ too easy. I only missed a single question, and that was because it was a question that required me to read like a three page story beforehand, and I was just too lazy to read it.

But yes, the public education system needs some sort of overhaul.

>Godless
As opposed to the 2/3 of home schooled students being brainwashed into mindless ultraconservative Christians unable to apply critical reasoning and rational thought to their lives?

>places of ignorance
That's the point. Ignorant people go to school, they come out educated. If you weren't ignorant, you wouldn't need school. Duh. What are you trying to say? Are you trying to imply that the public school systems encourage a culture of willful ignorance? Most home schooled kids (the 2/3 I mentioned earlier) are taught to be willfully ignorant and are taught outright LIES, if anything, about Science. How are public schools worse?

>rudeness
Oh, poor little guy got his feelings hurt? Did you not have any friends? BAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWW. So your problem is that you were unable to cope with a typical social setting? Kids are jerks. Adults are worse. That's life. Running away without learning how to establish and leverage constructive interpersonal relationships is only going to hurt you in the long run.

>Satan worship
Nobody worships Satan. Period. In order to worship Satan, you have to believe in Satan. In order to believe in Satan, you have to be Christian. Satan worship does not exist, it never existed, it never will exist.

The "devil worship" accusatory slur has been in use since ancient Greeks were worshiping Pan. In fact, the whole mythos of Satan worship draws directly from the mythos and traditions of Pan followers, including the horns and cloven-hoofs that Satan is described as having. Since then, it's grown into a general baiting tactic used for rallying support against pretty much anything that certain intolerant asshole Christians don't like.

The only "Satanist" group with any real following is what is known as "Modern Satanism" AKA "Symbolic Satanism". They do not believe in Satan. Modern Satanism is usually atheistic Anti-theism mixed with a 1960's hippie sort of culture, but some people approach it with a more World Peace/Universal and Religious Tolerance kind of vibe.

Nobody seriously worships the Satan from the Christian Bible. Some kids ("goths") pretend they do in order to piss people like you off, but none of them really do. None. Such a belief is even more irrational than regular Christianity.

Also, Deuteronomy 5:20 (Commandment 8/9),
"Neither shalt thou bear false witness against thy neighbour."

>sexual promiscuity
Nobody is forcing you to have sex.

>and drug use
Nobody is forcing you to do drugs.

>the rest of your post
Pride is a sin, remember?

>>3
Me again. Forgot:

>Studies have shown that most high school graduates when tested have failed the GED Tests.

[citation needed] Prove it. Cite at least one actual peer reviewed study that makes this claim.

>Ironically some of its critics who likely have never seen the test refer to it as, "too easy".

Deuteronomy 5:20 again. [citation needed] again. Cite me some critics who say it is too easy who also admit to never even looking at it.

My bet is on either you pulling these claims out of your ass or you blindly believing your fundie parents.

>>4
I am not >>1 but it's logical enough.

"Social promotion," "outcome-based education," and "affirmative action" mean that high school diplomas are handed out to any booger-eating moron who shows up, as actually expecting any of them to demonstrate any actual knowledge or effort would be bad for the poor sensitive little misunderstood yardbirds' "self-esteem."  No actual effort is asked of them, and even testing for ability has been made illegal in California.

The GED on the other hand requires the one taking it to answer its questions, simpleminded though they may be, correctly, and is actually graded.

I would therefore expect a great many high-skool stoonts to be utterly incapable of passing the GED.  Given how many high-skool graduates are functionally illiterate, this can hardly surprise anyone who isn't desperate to apologize for a failed system and minimize its failures.

>>3
The sad fact is that too many Christians are some sort of American Taliban, hence they believe that unless YOU also believe in their Big Jew In The Sky, you're only serving the purposes of the Great Adversary.  THAT is why those fucking LOONS use "Satan worship" so freely when referring to unbelievers.

In other words, you're either with 'em, or you're against 'em.  Fucking extremists.

>>5

3 and 4 here.

>social promotion
It is to my understanding that such an action is relatively rare and is always handled on a case-by-case basis. The goal is NOT to give credit to anyone that shows up, despite demonstrating that they were unable or unwilling to do the work. The goal is to forgive a students who have demonstrated that they ARE able and willing to do the work and who have demonstrated adequate knowledge of the year's material, but who failed due to circumstances outside of their control. For example, a child who had to move repeatedly or was in the hospital for a significant period.

In the US, social promotion is limited to grades K-8. 9-12 have no need for it because appropriate courses are selected for each student. In many school systems now, it is limited to K-6 because 7 and 8 also employ custom course schedules.

I do realize that the mechanism is being exploited by lazy kids and stupid parents, but the system itself is not flawed. Certain school systems just need to crack down on such behavior.

>outcome-based education
The outcome-based education model DIRECTLY opposes the notion that "any booger-eating moron who shows up" can graduate. The whole premise is that seat-time is irrelevant and that only a demonstrated understanding of the material matters.

>affirmative action
I myself am a critic of affirmative action, but I fail to see how it really has any major impact on the public school systems. Could you clarify this one for me?

>even testing for ability has been made illegal in California
[citation needed]
I assume you are actually referring to the controversy surrounding the CAHSEE exams. The students and parents were challenging the specific exams as too large a change in too little time, not testing in general. Besides, all of the legal challenges have failed.

If anything, California should be praised for attempting to improve their historically poor standards of education. Right now in California, the exams are required for graduation and are considered to be more challenging than the GED, but it can likewise be attempted repeatedly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_High_School_Exit_Exam

>The GED on the other hand requires the one taking it to answer its questions, simpleminded though they may be, correctly, and is actually graded.

I can't speak for every public school system, but in every single one that I am familiar with, there is a standardized test that is a requirement for graduation (No Child Left Behind Act, etc). For example, in Virginia, it's the Standards of Learning tests. The higher-level SOLs are considered far more demanding than the GED (and since I actually HAVE taken both, I can attest to this).

>I would therefore expect a great many high-skool stoonts to be utterly incapable of passing the GED.

You haven't given any convincing argument for this, though.

>Given how many high-skool graduates are functionally illiterate
[citation needed]
I haven't been able to find any statistics or studies involving literacy rates of teenage GED or public high school graduates.

>this can hardly surprise anyone who isn't desperate to apologize for a failed system and minimize its failures.

It seems more like YOU are desperate to justify your failure to complete a public high school education. The GED is meant as a second chance, not a replacement. That said, though, I have to admit that I too ended up getting my GED, but not due to any failing on my part. Perhaps I'll post about my experience tomorrow. For now, I need some sleep.

>>3

People come out of school especially high school with less knowledge than they had going in.

America seems to stress school attendance more than anything. They could care less about what kinds of grades the students are getting or if they are actually learning anything, other than how to stand and say the pledge of allegiance of course.

>>3

The only prideful one is you. You're posting long hate-filled comebacks in an attempt to make yourself feel better about how you "earned" your high school diploma and how you "worked your tail off" to get into a university where you spend all day doing drugs, sleeping during class, and adulterating with professors.

This week let's blame all of our health problems on random additives found in many of our food and drinks. Food additives with no proven health risks. This week it's high fructose corn syrup, last week it was monosodium glutamate (MSG), the week before it was aspartame, and three weeks ago it was sodium benzoate.

>>7 "I haven't been able to find any statistics or studies involving literacy rates of teenage GED or public high school graduates."

Are you blind? Look outside how stupid most Americans are. Go to any mall or go to websites like MySpace and Youtube and see how ignorant the educated people are.

>>3
You're not really countering his point given -how- you respond. Your entire rebuttal is unorganized, needlessly long, and spread out amongst multiple posts. You should -seriously- reconsider how to debate, because if you cannot do it in a concise and blunt manner, you probably shouldn't be doing it at all. This is especially true if you need "quotation guides" to remember what you're even responding to.

>>13
Idiot. The quotes aren't for him, but for everyone else to know specifically what he's responding to.

>>14
Who does he expect to read it? Small children who lack proper reading comprehension? No, he's using a guide since he's a lazy fuck and forgets what he's talking about.

>>15
You're the one that doesn't seem to realize how debate works. You take your opponents points and respond directly to them while presenting your own argument, if you have anything to propose at all. Or if you're on a shit BBS like this and people are too fucking retarded to clearly define their arguments, you extract them first. 3 was merely doing this and stating them succinctly for clarity.

Little children in poor backwater villages in Central America know more about every academic subject than average American high schoolers.

>>1

All true.