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Hello. I have decided to start writing blogs about the dire need for reform in our nation's public schools that serve urban populations. I live in Baltimore and have personally experienced and witnessed firsthand the failures of today's public schools. I worked at Woodlawn High as an English teacher. Those familiar with Baltimore may be aware that this school has a record of very poor achievement and the population is 90% African American. There are so many things that are wrong with this school.
Some people like to say that this urban population does not have the capability to achieve success. These kids cannot be successful because their parents didn't read to them when they were little, their parents didn't speak correct English around the house, their parents didn't have an advanced vocabulary, and their parents didn't teach them appropriate social skills. I disagree with this argument, and instead believe that it is the schools that are failing the kids. I understand that the kids face adversities that are beyond their control, but I also believe that schools can do much more to provide a more effective learning environment.
It is time for parents and community members to address this urgent issue. We cannot rely on school officials, board members, and scholars to adequately fix the horrible mess that our educational system has become. If citizens step it up and begin voicing their opinions and offering solutions, we will begin to see change.
In my future blogs, I plan to address the shortcomings of public school systems and offer my solutions. I invite readers to critique my ideas and express their own original ideas. I am convinced that the reason our educational system is in such bad shape is because the people in charge of our country are not really interested in fixing it. Our middle-class and upper-class students are receiving a half-way decent education. It is our lower-class, poverty stricken students who are being disadvantaged by receiving a very poor education.
Students are graduating high school without being able to read and write. I teach remedial college reading and have a student in my class who cannot pronounce the word absorbed. He says abser-bed. When he reads it like that, he has no clue what the word means. The scary part is that he has a high school diploma. He is a high school graduate. Now let me explain the other scary part. The Baltimore City Public School System is graduating 34.6% of its students on time. That means that the remaining 65.4% are taking longer than 4 years to graduate or are not graduating at all. Those statistics alone make the city schools appear to be in terrible shape. We haven't even taken into account all of the students with diplomas who can't even read well enough to be able to digest a newspaper article. How will these students function in society when they need to do essential tasks such as signing a leasing or purchasing contract?
Something must be done to help these students. The school systems need a major overhaul and I have many ideas that I believe can be successfully implemented. I look forward to sharing my ideas and opinions, and also look forward to receiving readers ideas and suggestions. I am hoping to hear from people across the country, as this is a national issue. Thanks for taking the time to read this. Everyone who contributes will be doing a great service to our country's youth.
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Just a thought--If there is no support outside of school--if many students' role models are family members in the "illegal" businesses of drugs, prostitution, and robbery, the real question is HOW DOES ANY SYSTEM BEGIN TO BRING ABOUT CHANGE? Can a community be changed by outside influence such as schools and "caring" teachers when the student has to survive in a world that knows nothing of ethics, morality, or power beyond the barrel of a gun?
ReplyDeleteI too have taught inner city--DETROIT--and the plague is not within the schools--IT IS WITHIN THE CITY ITSELF...where does change start and who will be the ONES to bring it?
zthatzmanz28
Just another thought---How 6the hell do YOU propose to change public education when you are removed from the environment and sitting in some kiddie college?
ReplyDeleteChange comes from the inside--YOU need to be inside the schools and the COMMUNITY to see change--
Just MHO...
zthatzmanz28 DETROIT
Bob,
ReplyDeleteYou definitely have a solid point. Students from poverty-stricken households have parents who didn't read to them, parents with limited vocabulary, parents with little ambition, and parents who model poor social skills. Many of the kids are enveloped in a world of corruption and just having teachers who really "care" isn't going to do the trick. I agree with you there. Fixing things would take a major overhaul, but I think it can be done.
The only possible way to improve a community is by educating its youth and preparing them to be self-sufficient members of society. We can try to increase parent involvement, but I honestly don't think we can reach too many of the parents. The ones who don't care are already too far gone to be influenced. It's sad, and it puts the kids at a disadvantage, but it is what it is.
And in response to your second comment, I have spent a lot of time in public schools. I worked as a substitute teacher for almost a year, and have been to many middle and high schools (not that you get to see the entire picture as a sub). I also taught 11th grade English at one of the worst schools in the county. I now teach at a community college, but I teach only remedial reading and writing. I am basically teaching students who the high schools have failed. Some of my students cannot read or write a basic sentence. The sad part is that they actually have high school diplomas. Throughout the jobs I have held, I have constantly come into contact with students who are not being properly educated by the public school system. That is why I am interested in coming up with a change.
ReplyDeleteFor reference sake, I’m a white male, mid forties with a suburban public high school education. I did receive a full college football scholarship to a division 1 school but due to injuries and no desire to stay in college, I only attended my freshman year. My high school grades were also just above average at best.
ReplyDeleteI own a successful business for the last 22 years, I have about 50 employees, seen thousands of resumes and have interviewed hundreds of potential candidate’s. I have no teaching experience unless you consider coaching youth sports which I have done for the past decade.
In my position running a business, I have had a unique view to see the by-product of our education system. With that experience, I see your poll comment “Without parental support, there is no chance for student success” is missing the real question. (Should that word be chance or change???) Yes these parents are 100% culpable but due to decades of America’s poor inner city education, these parents are educating their own children in the same fashion they were educated, which is dysfunctional.
The first part of the poll should have been “With parental support, do students have a chance for success?” Which we all know this answer would be true. It was true for me because my mother instilled the values and entrepreneurial spirit that made me successful. Unfortunately, many of these current inner city parents will never take responsibility for their children’s success. My mother was a single parent by the way due to my father’s death when I was very young.
The second poll option was “Students can rise above their dysfunctional home-life if a proper education system is implemented” is also true. I have seen many young inner city athletes receive financial assistance to attend private high schools. Even though many of these talented athletes come from a dysfunctional home, they usually break the cycle and go on to a successful life and get away from that poor inner city environment.
Proper parental support is an important ingredient to a student’s success but a proper education under a system of discipline can also insure that success. Think of this as which came first, the chicken or the egg? A poor education system is the egg and what hatched was these dysfunctional parents. With a dysfunctional education system and dysfunctional parents, these kids are doomed. Fixing our education system will eventually fix the parental problem.
Now what made our public education system so dysfunctional? I’ll follow up with that later in another comment.
Yes, the poll should have said "chance" and not "change." I couldn't figure out how to get back in there and change it. In regard to the points you have made, I completely agree with you. I especially agree with this statement:
ReplyDelete"Fixing our education system will eventually fix the parental problem."
A lot of people think that it is impossible for students to succeed when they come from broken homes. People say that parental support/involvement/intelligence is necessary and that until we get that, our students are doomed to fail no matter what we do with the education system.
The problem I see with this is that I don't think changing the parents is a possibility. Sure we could motivate a handful of them if we really put forth the effort. An adult mind is a lot harder to shape than that of a youth. This is why I really agree with the statement of yours that I quoted above. We have to educate the current student body so that they can become decent parents, otherwise the cycle will never end.
What your fighting is the culture. What you need are standards. Kids like rules. Get rid of the problem kids, they just drag down the others. With each generation, it gets worse, and the trouble you deal with today, will be worse tomorrow. Set standards and tell kids they are expected to stick to them. And stop telling kids everything is "relative", thats most of the problem. Thanks-
ReplyDeleteI agree that kids definitely need rules and a lot of structure. I disagree with getting rid of the problem kids. When we get rid of them, where exactly do they go? They don't just miraculously vanish. Pushing kids out of school for misbehaving only gives them way too much idle time to get in trouble in the community. I am hoping that it is possible to restructure the school system to make it more conducive to learning for all students. We are failing a lot of students and they are acting out because they don't know what else to do. That is my approach.
ReplyDelete