From the 08 May 2006 Lockport Union Sun and Journal (Lockport, NY) |
FAILING OUR STUDENTS It’s been said that knowledge is power. Most definitely, knowledge and the use thereof has been the key to America’s economic success of the past two centuries as well as our astounding impact on the rest of the world. Calling upon our mental acumen and hands-on skill sets, we have been innovative and industrious, defining progress and bringing to the world innumerable gifts in technology, transportation, consumer goods, and the Sciences. But, the times, they are a changing. Our educational system, the driver of this ingenuity and the very creator of our society and our workforce, has slipped rather significantly in recent years. No longer do we rank highly in academic performance. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a global think tank that focuses on socioeconomic issues, places the performance of United States high school students in bad company. Our students’ skill sets rank poorly in the important areas of reading (12th overall), science (20th) and mathematics (25th), trailing China, Japan, and a great many European nations. These statistics speak volumes about the inadequacies of our educational system. We have lost sight of real teaching. This is best exemplified by our constant focus on the competitive mindset of standardized testing that forces teachers to teach to an exam and not to the mastery of subject matter. Accordingly, schooling is not sufficiently challenging to young minds at key development stages, as it becomes a boring system of rote activities following defined parameters of repetition that lacks the true thrill of education. We are not allowing our teachers to teach. Conversely, we are not holding many teachers to the true requirements of their roles. More appropriately said, we cannot do so. The ills of tenure create a lack of accountability where bad teachers have just as much clout as highly effective teachers. No school can ever perform at the highest level possible because teachers that are going through the motions are allowed to remain in employment, guaranteeing kids don’t meet the standards of the grade level they are in and are then unprepared for future grades, thus bringing down their classmates and placing a burden on teachers in subsequent grades. This pathway down the slippery slope of failure is not the doing of just the school system. Schools do have the greatest impact upon the cultivation of a child’s mind, but America as a whole has failed our pupils. The business sector is guilty of not working in unison with educational institutions to define needs and standards, instead taking what has been given to them rather than assisting with the development of human assets. Our politicians are guilty of not recognizing the gradual growth of our flaws until now when we find ourselves in a mode of distress. The media, too, is guilty of making matters worse by harping upon trivial school board issues while ignoring performance. In perhaps the most frightening situation of all, a great many parents have failed their children. Many students are no longer held to high standards or intensive monitoring by their parents. These same parents choose instead to remain hands-off in education, denying their responsibilities as the ultimate director of where their children are going and who they will become. This all comes to a head when the going gets rough and bad grades and failed exams become the norm. These laissez-faire parents then blame schools and teachers for their kids’ lack of preparedness. It is a deflection of blame as these parents have failed in directing the destiny of their children, taking only a passing interest in it, looking at final performance and not the day-to-day activities that truly make a great student. The performance of our kids and their ultimate preparation for the Real World may have become suspect at best, but it’s not too late. A concerted effort by all facets of our society is necessary to improve our pupils and our future. With appropriate direction from educational and political leaders it can occur. Like the catchphrase says, it really does take a village to raise a child. Working together, we can ensure we remain the driver - and not a passenger - of the world economy.
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