Valhalla Legends Archive

The general ignorance of the difference between criminal law, civil law, and just plain abusiveness is sad.

When did public schools stop teaching government, civics, and replace it with ten semesters of sex education, violence and confrontation avoidance training, and so on?

Quote from: Grok on November 04, 2003, 10:11 AM
The general ignorance of the difference between criminal law, civil law, and just plain abusiveness is sad.

When did public schools stop teaching government, civics, and replace it with ten semesters of sex education, violence and confrontation avoidance training, and so on?

California public schools have to teach a semester of government and economics, and each student is tested on that material.

People are more worried about their children getting pregnant at 13 than they are about their kids knowing their rights.  It's a natural progression.

As a Californian student myself, I wish we had more time to study Goverment, Civics, and Economics

I take Government.

I had an american government class requirement to satisfy for my highschool graduation.

Quote from: Skywing on November 04, 2003, 12:44 PM
I had an american government class requirement to satisfy for my highschool graduation.

I had one of those in middle school, then three in high school.  But that was 1980.

Quote from: Trance on November 04, 2003, 10:46 AM
As a Californian student myself, I wish we had more time to study Goverment, Civics, and Economics

That is what college is for  At my school, one could take about 2 years of Gov/Econ.  Many courses aren't offered partly because of college expectations.

im taking civics now, im in 10th grade

Quote from: Probe on November 04, 2003, 01:53 PM
im taking civics now, im in 10th grade

Isn't civics an 8th grade course?

We have 1 year (12th grade) of civics. However, civics class here is completely different from civics class in the USA. Here it's all about whether to define Israel as a democratic or a Jewish country and other crap like that. (I tried to listen in the lessons but found it extremely difficult and gave up after 2-3 lessons)

The fact is that the public school system appears to be breeding ignorance these days. They'd rather teach you how to get out of trouble than how to avoid trouble in the first place.

Hazard you are SO right.  Case in point:

When my daughter was in the 1st grade, I saw this flag flying below the U.S. flag out in front of the school.  Asked her what it was for, she said it was for whenever there was no violence at the school.

Thus, the expectation set for the students was that they could barely avoid violence.  Most kids will always teeter around their expectation level, so to me this made violence inevitable.

Had the school instead flown a flag for every grading period where the average grade was B- or higher, I think this sets a goal for the kids and they will achieve it most of the time.

Quote from: Hazard on November 04, 2003, 04:55 PM
The fact is that the public school system appears to be breeding ignorance these days. They'd rather teach you how to get out of trouble than how to avoid trouble in the first place.

I'd like to think preganancy prevention, drug/alcohol prevention, anger management, etc.  are programs that teach avoidance of trouble.  They are real problems that the public school system is trying to address.  Knowing the difference between civil and criminal law is not going to solve these problems.

I disagree somewhat kamakazie. Obviously, the school cannot stop young people from engaging in sexual activities so it is best they preach safety, but they don't preach the idea of abstinence nearly enough. I believe drug and alcohol education is wise too. The fact of the matter is that teachers shouldn't be the ones teaching their kids to make ethical and righteous decisions! This is the job of the PARENTS. Teachers should be there to make us wiser, not to address concerns that are best handled from parents in the first place. Obviously sexual education should be addressed in a biology-type setting where it is appropriate for a mature teenager to learn how their bodies work. A teacher in an institution of learning should not have to spend 3 weeks teaching children how to have safe sex. They should be teaching academics instead.