Where's the funny stuff?

There are always exceptions to the rule, that doesn't mean the rules don't need to exist.

To your point, there are people that can excel and learn on their own but that is not the norm. There are many people that need to be motivated/helped in the learning process. I include myself in that group and I have a Mechanical Engineering degree from a top 20 school and was in the top 10% of my class. Self driven learning is not the most effective way to learn if you want lift up the whole society. There will always be successful exceptions, good for them. In general, being taught is a better/faster/more efficient way to learn than picking up a book and figuring it out on your own. If that wasn't the case we wouldn't need teachers. Teachers are the foundation of learning, a poor foundation can ruin the whole house, the same is true in education. As a result, teachers need to be qualified, certified and monitored. I'm against the tenure bs. In addition, schools should be certified and monitored to see that they are providing value. This is squarely the governments jurisdiction, not the populaces. When this doesn't happen the populace suffers as described in previous posts. I find it interesting that even in republics the rich minority always seem to be able to control the poor majority. Having poor education systems helps with that.

 

I agree with the principal of the comments but but here the reality is MUCH different.
1. The schools in this area not only need to "teach" and are reviewed on the student performance but because we are in an agricultural area each grade level is also responsible for a garden and crop growing area beginning with 1st grade. School may begin at 7:30 but then the first 45 min or more is spent hand pumping water to bottles to water the vegetables (dry season). If a student is not on water duty then they sweep the leaves or fill the buckets in the bathrooms. If they do well on the garden evaluations then the school gets additional funding.

2. Also, Siaton nor Bayawan have a public library. Access to worthwhile reading materials are in Duma (I looked for anything closer).

3. In addition, wi-fi service just became available in May of this year via Filproduct. The minority of people here have smartphones. (women mor than the men but still not all). Perhaps 1 per family. And then they use prepaid data on a weak signal. For 3 years we used only my wife's phone and could get decent signal on the beach before 8 am or between 3 and 6 pm. The rest of the day was just keep trying ao if I needed to be online I drove 45 min to a cafe in Bayawan.
I say this because we lived on the hiway, I imagine the farmers on the other side of the rice field or the side of the mountains had even less signal.

4. Regarding the comments on no class, yes, way to many days off and added out here due to rain and when the rivers flood 10-15% of students are unable to walk from their homes to the school because the walking path is flooded.

While I agree that parents need to encourage and even force their kids to learn and have a better living than the previous generation I cannot, in good conscience, blame the students or teachers.
Some parents do push and try to get their kids off to collage but when asked what they want for their children it is to get a job in Cebu or Manilla (with no other plan). Sad

 

GBT, I assume you are talking about some schools in the boondocks here or in Texas. Dumaguete and Bacong schools do not have that agenda, thankfully.

 

Schools here - in the porooks outside a city.
The boondock schools in Texas we converted to chuches and the farmboys can play football without running into cows

 

When I was in the military, I met a young Asian lady. One day she invited me to her parent's house where she lived, for dinner. Her family was traveling. After dinner, while she was doing the dishes, I decided to impress her. So I turned my pants pockets inside out and pulled out my schlong. then called her, "look, there is an elephant in the room". She came out and saw what was going on and started laughing and said, "I don't see an elephant, only a mouse". I thanked her for the dinner, left, and went to Suzy's Massage.

 

In the shoe store...

 

A 103 year old comic....

 

All the lines are straight....

 

I knew I should of gone to Specsavers

 

History Lesson