Richter, Please Fasten Your Seatbelt and Observe the No-Smoking Signs.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That is unbelievably retarded.  What is the rationale for it?

Well, chances are good it's not for educational reasons...

That's what I'm thinking.

Because, god forbid kids get a college education EARLY or anything! I bet it has to do with public school funding. As soon as a kid realizes that college is more fun, more interesting, and more flexible, they'd do that, which is one less warm body and so many dollars less funding for that high school.

[Nast]

That is unbelievably retarded.  What is the rationale for it?

Well, chances are good it's not for educational reasons...

That's what I'm thinking.

Because, god forbid kids get a college education EARLY or anything! I bet it has to do with public school funding. As soon as a kid realizes that college is more fun, more interesting, and more flexible, they'd do that, which is one less warm body and so many dollars less funding for that high school.

That's what I did. 

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Rule in my county in Florida was in order to go to SPJC (Now St. Petersburg College) you had to have had at least a GED, or be over the age of 16 and in a district-approved dual enrollment course. You couldn't skip high school to go or come from a homeschool background unless it was an approved course. It makes sense to me. Homeschooling is too risky. How do you know the parent isn't just sending in A's so their kid can pass? It's happened before. Some 13 year old girl was doing graduate school from home and was supposedly some sort of genius thanks to the magic of homeschooling and it turned out that the parents were just sending in the tests with the right answers.

That's really just shortchanging the kid.

As far as I know, PCC has always accepted students of any age as long as they meet the prereqs or test in. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems. If someone gets into a class they aren't ready for, they do what unprepared students everywhere have been doing for centuries; they drop it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That is unbelievably retarded.  What is the rationale for it?

Well, chances are good it's not for educational reasons...

That's what I'm thinking.

Because, god forbid kids get a college education EARLY or anything! I bet it has to do with public school funding. As soon as a kid realizes that college is more fun, more interesting, and more flexible, they'd do that, which is one less warm body and so many dollars less funding for that high school.

That's what I did. 

That's what my FBF did too, when she was a kid in Santa Monica. EFO is already talking about doing it. It just makes good sense.

[Juana]

I'm gonna homeschool.

I totally agree.  Ive got a pretty good idea how well public schooling works, and I think I (and maybe tutors here and there) can do better.  Not only can I do better than most algebra teachers (partly due to their split attention), but homeschooling would be a good way to bond with my kid (in theory; no existing contingencies exist).

I don't know how well I'd be able to teach upper level math, but I can do reading and writing skills like nobody's business.

When your kid gets to that point, send him to community college.

*IF* your state allows for that. Mine doesn't. You have to 18 or have graduated to go.

WTF?

I've never heard of something that stupid. I know that in Oregon, Washington and California, you can take college courses and simultaneously earn college and high school credits. It's common for AP and homeschooled kids.

Dual enrollment is allowed, in either CC or a four-year university. But dropping out of regular high school to attend a community college is not. Here in California, anyway.

And you're probably right on the community funding being the reason it's not done.

[Suu]

Rule in my county in Florida was in order to go to SPJC (Now St. Petersburg College) you had to have had at least a GED, or be over the age of 16 and in a district-approved dual enrollment course. You couldn't skip high school to go or come from a homeschool background unless it was an approved course. It makes sense to me. Homeschooling is too risky. How do you know the parent isn't just sending in A's so their kid can pass? It's happened before. Some 13 year old girl was doing graduate school from home and was supposedly some sort of genius thanks to the magic of homeschooling and it turned out that the parents were just sending in the tests with the right answers.

That's really just shortchanging the kid.

As far as I know, PCC has always accepted students of any age as long as they meet the prereqs or test in. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems. If someone gets into a class they aren't ready for, they do what unprepared students everywhere have been doing for centuries; they drop it.

My high school had plenty of options including AP and DE courses, which were available on the taxpayer's dime as long as you still attended school. Why PAY for the credits by sending your teen to CC instead of high school when they should be able to earn them there?

Pulling kids out of high school to get an early start on college isn't going to help things in the long run, it's going to hurt them. High schools need money, regardless if your kid is going there or not, you're allowing other kids who are equally as deserving of a good education yet who aren't as fortunate to have funding to attend community college to get the short end of the stick by removing your child and therefore removing valuable tax dollars from the school.

Education won't get better if we run away from it.

[Doktor Howl]

This is the correct answer.  Fix it, don't flee from it.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Rule in my county in Florida was in order to go to SPJC (Now St. Petersburg College) you had to have had at least a GED, or be over the age of 16 and in a district-approved dual enrollment course. You couldn't skip high school to go or come from a homeschool background unless it was an approved course. It makes sense to me. Homeschooling is too risky. How do you know the parent isn't just sending in A's so their kid can pass? It's happened before. Some 13 year old girl was doing graduate school from home and was supposedly some sort of genius thanks to the magic of homeschooling and it turned out that the parents were just sending in the tests with the right answers.

That's really just shortchanging the kid.

As far as I know, PCC has always accepted students of any age as long as they meet the prereqs or test in. It doesn't seem to be causing any problems. If someone gets into a class they aren't ready for, they do what unprepared students everywhere have been doing for centuries; they drop it.

My high school had plenty of options including AP and DE courses, which were available on the taxpayer's dime as long as you still attended school. Why PAY for the credits by sending your teen to CC instead of high school when they should be able to earn them there?

Pulling kids out of high school to get an early start on college isn't going to help things in the long run, it's going to hurt them. High schools need money, regardless if your kid is going there or not, you're allowing other kids who are equally as deserving of a good education yet who aren't as fortunate to have funding to attend community college to get the short end of the stick by removing your child and therefore removing valuable tax dollars from the school.

Education won't get better if we run away from it.

I'm not THAT much of a communist. If my kid is academically ready and wants to, I am not going to make them suffer on the principle that it might benefit some other kids. For that matter, I pay my property taxes; the money is still in the pool regardless of what school she goes to, it just gets distributed differently. If she's NOT in that high school using its resources, they don't need funding for that warm body, do they?

In fact, letting my kid attend community college means that the education system in my area is benefitting twice.

Call me selfish, but as long as it doesn't directly harm anyone else I'm going to do what's best for MY kid's education. Because I am a good mother.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If the school in your neighborhood is shit and people get stabbed on the playground, do you send your kid there anyway or do you transfer out? Because, if you send your kid there, they get more funding and it might help improve conditions for all the other kids... besides, if your kid is doing OK academically it will bring up the school's scores, and then they'll get even more funding.

You should do the right thing for the hive, even at the expense of your child.

[Doktor Howl]

If the school in your neighborhood is shit and people get stabbed on the playground, do you send your kid there anyway or do you transfer out? Because, if you send your kid there, they get more funding and it might help improve conditions for all the other kids... besides, if your kid is doing OK academically it will bring up the school's scores, and then they'll get even more funding.

You should do the right thing for the hive, even at the expense of your child.

Not gonna lie to you...I live where I do because it's the best school system in this part of the country.   

However, when the Calvinist spags decide to try to change the curriculum, I get involved, rather than withdrawing my kids from the school.  If they outright win and change it, then I will probably cut my losses and send my kids to a private school.

[Jenne]

I'm gonna homeschool.

I totally agree.  Ive got a pretty good idea how well public schooling works, and I think I (and maybe tutors here and there) can do better.  Not only can I do better than most algebra teachers (partly due to their split attention), but homeschooling would be a good way to bond with my kid (in theory; no existing contingencies exist).

I don't know how well I'd be able to teach upper level math, but I can do reading and writing skills like nobody's business.

When your kid gets to that point, send him to community college.

*IF* your state allows for that. Mine doesn't. You have to 18 or have graduated to go.

WTF?

I've never heard of something that stupid. I know that in Oregon, Washington and California, you can take college courses and simultaneously earn college and high school credits. It's common for AP and homeschooled kids.

Dual enrollment is allowed, in either CC or a four-year university. But dropping out of regular high school to attend a community college is not. Here in California, anyway.

And you're probably right on the community funding being the reason it's not done.

NOT true for CA.  CC's will take you, GED or not.  ETA: but you may be right about the 18 years old thing, I haven't checked.  I just know you don't HAVE to be 18 nor do you need a GED, as for the either/or, not sure.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

If the school in your neighborhood is shit and people get stabbed on the playground, do you send your kid there anyway or do you transfer out? Because, if you send your kid there, they get more funding and it might help improve conditions for all the other kids... besides, if your kid is doing OK academically it will bring up the school's scores, and then they'll get even more funding.

You should do the right thing for the hive, even at the expense of your child.

Not gonna lie to you...I live where I do because it's the best school system in this part of the country.   

However, when the Calvinist spags decide to try to change the curriculum, I get involved, rather than withdrawing my kids from the school.  If they outright win and change it, then I will probably cut my losses and send my kids to a private school.

Being involved is key for kids to do well, regardless. But my point is, if your kid WANTS to attend CC, and is capable, are you seriously going to tell them no just because then their public school funding gets put back in the public school pool instead of specifically going to your kid's high school?

"Sorry Junior, I know you wanted to study hard and fast-track your college career, but that would take your warm-body funding out of the local high school, so I'm afraid you're going to have to be bored and unhappy for two more years. Get used to it; life is tedium punctuated by a series of disappointments, and we can't have you expecting any better. Stick it out, Tiger!"

[Doktor Howl]

If the school in your neighborhood is shit and people get stabbed on the playground, do you send your kid there anyway or do you transfer out? Because, if you send your kid there, they get more funding and it might help improve conditions for all the other kids... besides, if your kid is doing OK academically it will bring up the school's scores, and then they'll get even more funding.

You should do the right thing for the hive, even at the expense of your child.

Not gonna lie to you...I live where I do because it's the best school system in this part of the country.  

However, when the Calvinist spags decide to try to change the curriculum, I get involved, rather than withdrawing my kids from the school.  If they outright win and change it, then I will probably cut my losses and send my kids to a private school.

Being involved is key for kids to do well, regardless. But my point is, if your kid WANTS to attend CC, and is capable, are you seriously going to tell them no just because then their public school funding gets put back in the public school pool instead of specifically going to your kid's high school?

"Sorry Junior, I know you wanted to study hard and fast-track your college career, but that would take your warm-body funding out of the local high school, so I'm afraid you're going to have to be bored and unhappy for two more years. Get used to it; life is tedium punctuated by a series of disappointments, and we can't have you expecting any better. Stick it out, Tiger!"

No, of course not.

I'm saving that kind of horrible shit for later.

[Suu]

If the school in your neighborhood is shit and people get stabbed on the playground, do you send your kid there anyway or do you transfer out? Because, if you send your kid there, they get more funding and it might help improve conditions for all the other kids... besides, if your kid is doing OK academically it will bring up the school's scores, and then they'll get even more funding.

You should do the right thing for the hive, even at the expense of your child.

I went to an urban high school. There were stabbings, rapes, etc. I did FINE. I also had the benefit of art and music education, which high schools are losing left and right because of that lack of funding, because of those parents that are putting their children in private institutions and the schools can't afford it anymore. But you're mixing apples and oranges here, you're talking about pulling your child out of public school because she's smart, not transferring her from a different school because it's dangerous.

If I have children, they're going all the way through public high school, I won't bother with the hometeaching bullshit and I sure as hell won't put them in a private school where teachers don't need to be certified. As much as anyone now in our age bracket (late 20s/early 30s) hated high school or at least claim to have hated it, there's a lot of social development that happens there that a student doesn't find in college. What did I do in college? I sat in my room and studied, sure I had the flexibility to do what I wanted, but I was also old enough to vote and drive a car. There are reasons why we have age limits on things and schooling is one of them. I want my kids to see fights, I want my kids to go to prom, I want them to take sex ed and see pregnant students and deal with the same stresses that we all did. I don't want to shelter them or coddle them. The high school experience is more important IMO to the development teens and a necessary evil before attending college, no matter how smart they are.

I know a girl that quit high school when she was 16 to go to URI, she is a totally annoying pedantic little bitch who still thrives on high school-like drama and acts no different than she did when she was 16 because she never actually had the rest of her high school career to mature and grow with her peers. We don't need more people like that. We need mature adults who experienced what they needed to in order to develop into who they are today.

I know you're kids are smart Nigel, and of course it would be only natural for you to want what's best for them, that's not selfish at all, but at the same time, what will happen to the relationships your child has with their friends in school before they transfer to college? Will her friends shun them because she's smarter or will she blow them off because she thinks she's better? Will you allow her to date a guy in her college class that could have 5 or more years on her? That 16 year old I mentioned? Her first college boyfriend was 32. THIRTY TWO AND SHE WAS 16! She became defiant to her parents because she was in college, and wanted to do what she felt she was old enough to do...How would you feel about that?

High school sucks, but kids need it to grow.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

If the school in your neighborhood is shit and people get stabbed on the playground, do you send your kid there anyway or do you transfer out? Because, if you send your kid there, they get more funding and it might help improve conditions for all the other kids... besides, if your kid is doing OK academically it will bring up the school's scores, and then they'll get even more funding.

You should do the right thing for the hive, even at the expense of your child.

You aren't serious right?