Our nation's youth is our nation future. Our current education system has been failing our children. Who is at fault for your child? by J.Wright
(libertarian)
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
What do parents say they want for their children? A decent education is at the top of the list for most parents. It only seems natural that one would want their child to do well in life and, as most do, that comes through education. How can one help what kind of education their child receives? After all the parents are not in the classroom. Plus, there are so many factors that are involved in the quality of education our children receive. Parents play a huge role in our nation’s youth and their development but, teachers, administrators, school boards, and even politicians play a role in our children’s future. That is a lot of people who have their hand in our children’s education. So before we go writing the youth off as being “lazy” and “stupid”, allow us to remember one thing…stupid is, as stupid does.
As parents many of us have become a custom to allowing the DOE (Dept. of Education) to raise our children. Who better to guide our nation’s youth, correct? Plus, who could not use a free babysitter during the day? Well, as it turns out, the daytime babysitter has a much higher cost then most of us are aware. For starters, the babysitter is not free by any means. School and property taxes pay for that babysitter and most people have no idea what they pay for these services. I know times are harder now, than almost any other time, in most of our lives. Part of being a parent is to make sure our children are secure and develop into responsible adults. We accomplish much of this through the child’s education so, why would we not put forth an effort to secure their education? There are many factors that go into the public school systems and plenty of faults to go around but, parents are the foundation of which our youth builds from. The first thing anyone can do to be proactive in their child’s educational development is stop expecting the schools to parent or raise your children. Although, many resort to calling teachers, babysitters, they are not. They are supposed to be getting paid (by you through tax dollars) to teach and educate your children. You could do our school teachers a favor by teaching your children manners, respect, and, at least, basic social skills. You are the parent and your children are your responsibility so, please be proactive in your child’s development. Our children have a natural desire to follow the path of someone…who will that someone be? It should be you…the parent. I think it goes without saying, what the other options they could follow are. It is time for American mommy and daddy’s to be parents and get involved with their children and do their part in the educational development.
As everyone expected, the teacher has their hand in the fault jar of cookies too. I deem it to be obvious teachers have an impact, if not the largest of all, on our children’s education. This is the first place many parents place the blame. I do not know that “blaming” the teacher first is fair but, certainly an investigation into your child’s education, starts with the one’s in charge of delivering the education. If you think there is an issue with your child’s teachers do not, attack them in the blame game. You should give teachers benefit of doubt (after all, they are the adult in the situation) and then if there becomes a pattern, research this teacher. You may find that this teacher is doing nothing incorrect at all and your time to be a parent is calling again. You might also look into to this teacher's test scores and find that they have not been getting results out of the students. Now before I get a bunch of emails saying the test scores do not mean anything from teachers; allow me to touch on that for a moment. I will be the first to say we must change, reform, or get rid of the current system in which we evaluate teachers but, almost every time I mention test score results, I hear, “those test scores do not mean anything, you do not understand how tough teachers have it”. To that I ask, what about the teachers with average or even above average scores? Perhaps there are some (as we have seen in the news) that “fudge” the numbers in their favor but, are all of them liars and cheats? I doubt it, just as I doubt every teacher with poor test scores, is a bad teacher. There are however, many teachers who do view themselves as babysitters and come to work just to collect a check (perhaps their parents forgot to teach them about integrity). These teachers we need to weed out of our education systems (public and private). Most of these kinds of teachers tend to, not take a personal interest in educating our youth but, use the system as a secure income once they have been tenured. This is a disgrace to our nation. We want our nation to prosper but, we need people to make it prosper, and we have teachers not helping our children develop a prosperous education. So now our children may have a solid foundation starting with the parents but, the first floor is not stable and cannot with stand the pressures from the floors above. We need the people to understand just how important these teachers are to our children and our nation’s future. We must separate federal government from our public school systems because, aimlessly throwing money around, will not fix a problem they created and they cannot find. This also means changing the evaluation system for teachers. The first thing we should do is honor those who have and continue to excel in educating our youth by, recognizing them for their excellence. Now, if we pay attention to the good teacher’s we have to take notice to the bad teachers. I know this argument differs with school district to district but, pay teachers what they deserve like any other profession. Effective teachers are worth more to those who pay their salaries than ineffective teachers. Those who are just working in the profession to collect a paycheck will be replaced with teachers that truly are passionate about educating our youth. The evaluation of teachers would have to be accurate and precise so, administrators would be required to be more proactive with the teachers not, just a school spokesperson. This would work toward building a more productive school environment for our children and our nation’s future.
Our next involvement in the education of our children, the administration, tends to control the educational climate of your school district in more than just one way. As one can imagine the evaluation process of administrators must be adjusted, as the teacher would be. Principals need to be more concerned about the integrity and level of education being provided to the students of their school and less concerned about making “friends” with the superintendent. Morale has a trickle down affect on people. If the principal has a negative attitude about school dealings it will in return be passed on to the staff and then, you guessed it, to the children. If the children and teachers, generally, have a negative attitude, just how many positive results can one school produce in that atmosphere? Well, let us not forget, it is a trickle down system. Superintendents have much to do with the actions of the school principals (most bosses do). As the saying goes… the cycle continues. Morale and pressures from the school board transcends on the superintendent. Perhaps the superintendent accepted their position and holds it with integrity and accepts nothing less from their administration. Now imagine if the superintendent either was personal friends with board members or sought out interest of board members and not the best interest of the children. This could be dangerous, if the superintendent felt overly safe in their position, due to a relationship, they may not put forth the extra effort to create the best possible learning atmosphere. Likewise, if the superintendents felt their job was in jeopardy with the board perhaps, they would lean more towards sufficing a board members interest over the best interest of the students. Administrations are like little governments, some of them will abuse the system if we allow them the opportunity. Administrators too, play a part in building on the infrastructure of our children.
School board and politicians I will address together as they are one in the same anyway. In order for one to be able to detect if your local board members are doing the best possible job in the best interest of the students, is to go to board meetings. Different boards will have different kinds of members, some great, some corrupt, some with their own motives, some because they have kids and care. It normally does not take long, once sitting in a board meeting, to figure out whose vote other board members will follow. It is even easier when they have relatives on the board with them. Not only do we need people who care about the children we need people who are competent enough to put plans into action and continue to be responsible for and with the finances and personnel duties. If the board is reckless or does not care, so will the administration, as will the teachers, and result in the children representing that exact kind of learning environment. Trickle…trickles…
Now this is where you as a parent, have the opportunity to help, mold a better learning environment for your children. School board members are elected by the people of the school district (that would be you) and therefore have to listen to you. They do not always truly listen or follow through with what they tell you but, in return you and the people of your community can vote them out of these positions when their seats become available. It may be a trickle down system but, inside a circle sometimes the trickle comes all the way back around to land on you. Anyone on any level of this system who is not being productive has the opportunity to be struck down by there own doing. The education system should be one area where we exhibit integrity, and now is the time to see to it. So with that in mind keep a watch on what is taking place with your local school boards. Watch the money they spend, salaries they approve, furloughs they hand out, curriculums they adopt or create, and most of all, make sure they have the interest of the children first and foremost. We all play a part in educating our future.
So, who is involved in your child’s education?
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The views expressed
in this article are those of J.Wright only and
do not represent the views of Nolan Chart, LLC or its affiliates.
J.Wright is solely responsible for the contents
of this article and is not an employee or otherwise affiliated
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