Picture from the Discovery Education website
Everybody seems to agree that there are major elements of our Public Schools that are largely broken. Many learned and experienced people have put forth their plans for repairing the system. With the hustle and bustle of the holidays behind us, and with time hanging heavily on my hands, I thought I’d chime in.
Time: When I look at research regarding unlawful behavior of children and adolescents, including drug abuse, the most common reason given for those self-destructive behaviors is boredom. Most public schools in the U.S. dismiss between 2:20 and 3:30 in the afternoon, a time driven historically by the need to have those kids available for farm chores. However,the time when children were required to toil on the farm or the family business after school are just about gone. The Census for Agriculture undertaken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture every five years has demonstrated a steady decline in the number of Americans who identify farming as their primary or secondary occupation. The 2002 report, the latest data available, reported that only 1.7% of the U.S. population was so engaged. Since most juvenile offenses occur between the end of school hours and bedtime, it would seem that American kids find themselves with empty hours and no constructive activities to fill them. In light of this, it would seem useful to extend the school hours to perhaps 5 p.m. and using that time for elective classes that kids would find fun, or at least interesting. Students who are struggling would probably benefit from extra tutoring during this time. Or, since childhood obesity has become such a hot-button issue, perhaps those extra hours would be better used in physical activity, such as intramural sports or classes in dance, anything to get them off the couch and away from the junk food. After sitting in class all day, they'd probably enjoy the exercise.
Classes with a point: Humans are individually unique. Everyone has their own strengths and interests which, if healthy, should be encouraged. In our society, we have people who want and need college, and others who can function just fine without it. Computer scientists and brain surgeons need university degrees. Automotive technicians and carpenters don’t. Yet all four professions are absolutely crucial to keep our economy functioning. People with mechanical skills who love working on mechanical things, shouldn’t be forced into a college-bound track if they don’t want it. What used to be called vocational education needs rejuvenation. It’s relevant and honorable, and needs to be taught in that spirit.
In the 12 years of my public school education, never once did we have successful people from the community come in to teach us the tools of successfully running a small business. Small businesses provide the lion’s share of jobs in our national economy and are the backbone and lifeblood of communities. That hard-won knowledge and expertise should be passed along with the hope of awakening the entreprenurial spirit, and also encouraging them to seek their own solutions. Make it fun, make it hands-on, make it relevant, and students will come in droves.
There should be far more classes teaching life skills. One of the issues confronting us is the minimum wage. This is an income level that was never intended to support a family. It was entry-level pay for non-skilled labor, or for new workers who were expected to grow in capability over time. Unfortnately, our schools seem to have fallen into the practice of shoving kids out the school doors and into the world with only subsistance-level skills. This has to be improved, so that an 18-year-old graduate is equipped with skills and knowledge that enables them to reach beyond the burger-flipper shelf-stocker jobs to the level of skilled jobs which pay a good wage, have good benefits, and most importantly, have a good future.
I remember in the prehistoric days of my high school education, administrators were concerned that no boys were signing up for the life skill class called “home economics.” In a stroke of pure genius, they repackaged the course under the title “Bachelor Living,” and suddenly found they had to beat the boys off with a stick. It wasn’t just learning how to cook, but also how to look for an apartment, interview for a job, craft and live by a budget, the dangers of credit, how to negotiate for the purchase of a car, how to wash clothes, how to clean house, all the survival skills that a young person needed to know in embarking on their independent lives. I see far too many young adults who lack those basic tools.
Human Relationships: At some point, boys and girls need to be taught to understand the basic elements of healthy human interaction. There is a difference between someone who loves and someone who only wants to control. Girls, especially need to be educated on how to recognize potential abusers before they become involved, and more importantly, how to get out of abusive relationships. They need to know that they can stand on their own two feet and don’t need a male in their lives to feel important and valued. (NOW should be hip-deep in this effort, but I digress…) Boys, especially, need to learn the value of respect and the recognition that girls are human and deserve to be treated with honor. I know that these things used to be taught in the home by committed parents, but from what I hear in the lyrics of popular music, apparently no one’s teaching these lessons anywhere.
Bullying has expanded beyond the bathrooms and hallways with the help of technology. IM, cellphone texting, email, and social websites have all been used as platforms for cruelty. Having been at one time the fat, pimply-faced kid with the thick glasses, I know how important it was to find sanctuary in my home. Now, the cruelty reaches within the sanctuary, giving the child a feeling that there is no safe place to go. In October, we saw how the pervasive nature of this activity led to a young girl’s suicide. We have seen that mass killings in schools have often been rooted in the perceived polarization and isolation of the killer by his classmates. This issue needs to be aggressively addressed. Every human, regardless of appearance or station in life is deserving of dignity and respect. We are universally horrified by violence; we should be equally horrified by the day to day verbal and physical abuse that has become a part of so many kids’ daily lives.
Uniforms: “Clothes make the person,” the saying goes and nowhere is this more apparent than among students. Clothes tend to separate kids into economic and social classes, and also, in the context of gangs, serve to define criminal activity as well. A uniform could be as elaborate as a coat and tie for boys and dresses for girls, or simply coveralls decorated with school patches, such as the comfortable, affordable, durable, and functional clothing worn by the Navy. The armed forces have known for centuries that uniformity in appearance helps to promote unity in the ranks. I think schools should overcome their institutional enmity towards the military and look seriously at this.
Parental involvement: As a culture, we have somehow slipped into the attitude that kids can function on auto-pilot and raise themselves. As a culture, we are in denial. Raising a child is a pro-active, hands-on, full-time task. In recent years, researchers have amply demonstrated that the adolescent brain is underdeveloped in those areas of behavior control and risk assessment. Therefore, parents need to hover over them constantly. A child is a minor, and therefore has no reasonable expectation of privacy in the home. Don't be afraid to snoop. Don't hesitate to ask pointed questions. Insist on meeting their friends. Check on them to make sure they've gone where they told you they went. Far too many parents have suffered through their children's funerals because they didn't do these things. Will they get mad? Sure. Will they hate you? Oh, yeah. But get them through this time successfully, and they will thank you for that effort, if not in words, certainly in their achievements.
For many, these ideas would seem to be drastic in nature. But the reality of life in America’s public schools demonstrates that these are dangerous times. Deluding ourselves into ignoring these signs has only exacerbated things. We’re on the verge of losing our kids. We should, therefore, lose our fear of drastic change.
Their future is, after all, our future as well.
0 comments:
Post a Comment