I am so sick of hearing about how bad schools are getting today. Between the violence, the over population, under-qualified teachers.

It's crazy. What do you think is the biggest problem in schools today?

I say over-crowded. I think that leads to everything else.  

OK Personally, taking prayer, Gods Name used in Honour and Respect, and the 10 commandments BIGGEST problem as after that whats left that teaches morality and truism? We can teach Evolution, and celebrate Halloween , but Ive personally seen  the  kids be punished or assignments returned if contained  anything of Biblical nature, yet seen my kids asked to participate in  many things I was taught was just wrong. I have also seen good people  fired for pointing students to a loving but firm God .Our  countrys laws were written on those commandments, Prayer and the Pledge was Drilled into us as kids and a reverance for God and country was deeply ingrained. Now, its not politically correct to   honor the Commandments, and yet its a surprize that our kids feel more lost and alone and confused than ever. sigh It saddens me greatly  . As All the rest of the problems  we are seeing are a direct result   . I know many will not agree with this post. but thats ok . I know whom butters my Bread

i would say overcrowding to many students not enough teachers. when classroom are packed to the brim its hard for any teacher to give the kids any one on one attention and what makes it even worse is when the kids dont get any attention at home either. another problem is so many parents want the school to raise their kids and teach them right from wrong sorry thats the parents job.

and no i do not think relegion should be in schools of you want that you send your kids to private schools or teach them yourself at home. i do not like organized relegion and do not want my son to ever be forced to be around it.

I am going with other, because it touches some of what the poll said, but other options also.

1) parental support - there is no guidance at home, so the kids go to school to learn, manners, character, and then education.  If their child gets in trouble, it was someone else's fault and not their child's - how dare the school say it was their's.

2) low pay for teachers - we ask these wonderful people to teach our children, offer little support, and then can not believe when they bring home not perfect grades.

3) drugs - the more kids grow, the more drugs that are out there.

4) overcrowding - this will always be a problem - 30 kids in a class is TOO many.

I could go on, but these are my views on some issues.  I honestly believe this will never get any better until our governemtn really begins to care for our children and our elderly for that matter!  When they offer more money to teachers - to get a better class - caring class - then maybe we will have a better support, also more money into the schools, so they can hire more teachers to reduce the class sizes.

**EDIT**  I DID FORGET TO MENTION THE FACT WITH PRAYER IN SCHOOL, TAKING GOD OUT OF A PLACE WHERE CHILDREN LEARN AND GROW, IS NOT A GOOD THING.  IF MY CHILD GETS CAUGHT TALKING ABOUT GOD, OR PRAYING TO GOD BEFORE LUNCH, THEY CAN GET IN TROUBLE????  MAYBE IF THEY HAD A MORE CHRISTIANLY ENVIROMENT, THE WHOLE WORLD WOULD BE A BETTER PLACE AND FILL UP OUR CHURCHES MORE!

I say Violence is a really big issue. Not just physical violence but emotional and mental violence. I mean how many times have you heard about students who commited suicide because there so called friends were egging them on. Or people they wanted to be there friends. It is a big problem i see.

I also believe that taking the name God out of the pledge and other things like that is another big issue. I agree with what was said above. The teach all these other things but when do they teach morals and values and all the good things like that. I know unfortunatly a lot of kids aren't getting taught this at home. SO who is left to teach it to them.

i'm with antygamma!!!!

than onto other things like lack of parental support and lowpay.....

I remeber in grade school we had maybe 100 kids in our whole school. my graduating class in 8th grade was 11. todays graduating class in 8th grade is over 100. it's crazy.

I think that the schools are so over-crowded that the teachers fell so over-welmed that the teacher has a hard time teaching so many children.

there is too much division between children that are different from eachother both educationally and physically and mentally ...

 

i personally think there is WAY TOO MUCH religious influence in our childrens schools.. public schools... if you want religion in your childs school send them to a christian whatever school. i dont want a moment for prayer or meet at the flag or anythying like that inside my child's school. i want her to take all of the time she has ther eto LEARN about things that shools were supposed to TEACH them... not PREACH to them..... i want her to learn about evolution and the scientific proof of things Also your children wont get into trouble for talking about god in school... that is a silly thing to say.. i was in shcool not too long ago keep in mind, and they never got in trouble for preaching to me or trying to force it up on me or telling me i'm going to hell but i did get into trouble for wearing my symbol of religion a pentacle and no it wasnt upside down so it wasnt satanist but they told me it was a gang sign and i would be suspended if i did not take it off and out of the school even though its my right to wear it under the constitution and even said this and they said no and then i said what about your necklace and they said no even though they were wearing a cross...

 

i would also like to say that i am a pagan and my husband is an atheist and i do not and would not appreciate someone forcing my daughter to pray or her having to take a "bible class" i dont appreciate religious views when they are forced upon another and think that it is very close minded of someone to assume that they should be..

Also our country was founded under the principles of "freedom of religious beliefs" hi that i do believe is one of our rights. our country does not have a central religion. the country was not founded on the ten commandments but on morality and i would also like to point out that doesnt it say somewhere not to go against the rules well the people who founded our country did and if they had lost their whole familys would have been slaughtered. i'm not saying i dont like the fact that they did but they didnt do it for GOD they did it for themselves... i think our children should be taught the facts of things what htey have put in front of them ...

 

i also think we should have year round school it works like this six weeks on two or three weeks off.. it'd be great for them. dont u rmemeber having summer break and going back to school and having to do the same thing you did last year because you dont remember?

Summer break was originally here because farmers needed to harvest the crop... thats great for farming towns but cities dont need that?!

 

I also think that the school system is messd up because it says that it is here to "prepare you for life" when really its just a big daycare anymore ... do you learn really how to deal with situations in life? or just equations and grammer?

 

last thing i'd like to say is just becuase you r a christian and think it is right doesnt mean me or my child is? think about that next time you want prayer in school

I would like to point out that yes you can get into trouble in school if you wear crosses or if you bring your bible i only graduated 5 years ago. i have friends who just now graduated and i have older friends who have kids in school who are not allowed to bring things that says there is a GOD. My bad for having morals and wanting GOD in school. Yet the school can push sex, violence , cheating , getting ahead by using and so on. I actually had teachers tell me that my GOD was stupid. They were told they were allowed to say that. So mary before you say that schools do not keep GOD out , heres some thing for you to realize thay did it to me. They did it to my friends, so who are you to say they don't, maybe not in your case but they did do it. Whats wrong nowadays is that its ok to be all things we were raised against but if you have morals and values your old fashioned and pushed around in school. i personally think that if they brought GOD back into school , put teenagers back in there place , and gave them a nice beating once in awhile schools would be better. I saw a kid 14 years old push a teacher down the stairs. When did teenagers think that there opinion is better then the adults. where did the respect for teachers and parents go away? when did mtv become the new bible. I guess i'm a rare breed because at 23 i think our kids and our society is aiming us in the direction of hell. so i'm sure that i pressed all the wrong buttons, but for the older, wiser crowd, i'm sure you agree alittle more then the younger parents.

Sammie i agree with you to a point. When did teenagers think that it was okay to disrespect others and especially adults. My mother or father would have just taken it to me if i ever disrespected me elders. Not beat me or anyrthing like that. But i would have been punished for not being respectful.

Mary i am not saying that they need to bring prayer back into schools. But i remember that when i was in Junior High we used to have a moment of silence. That was a time when everyone needed to be quite and coule do whatever they wanted as long as it is quite. They could pray, read a book or whatever they wanted. By the time i had reached High School they had done away with that. I graduated 7 years ago and it was gone by then. Also it does upset me when they talk about changing the pledge of alligence. That was written long ago by our four fathers and i think that is something that needs to stay as is. They built this country founded on God and that is what they believed. Because the pledge is something that came from them i think it needs to be kept and oreserved as is. I do believe in God. But i also don't agree with forcing anybody to believe. But there is also that fine line of feeling like you are being forced not to believe and not being able to be yourself because you are at risk of offending somebody. I don't think that anybody shoule give up what they are and what they believe in.

i graduated two years ago and they made us have a moment for prayer and everyone wore crosses.... even the teachers. i had teachers tell me i was going to hell etc.

Also they added the "god" part into the pledge in the fifties look it up?

I honeslty did not think that schools still did that. Where do you live? I live in the phoenix area (mesa, gilbert, tempe, all the cities around phoenix) they don't pray in schools anymore i know that because that is where i went to school.

i went to carl hayden for hs there was no issue with ppl wearing crosses or bringing a bible to school and if they wanted to pray they could pray on their own time there was not a set prayer time. which is as it should be since not everyone prays and no one should be forced to, but i did get preached to by other students i just ignored it, but the adults that would stand outside the school and preach to us sure got an earful.

i graduated in texas b ut when i was little they did it in maryland too... texas is really awful about it