Thursday, March 5, 2009
More of the same...
As if railing about spelling were not enough ranting for one day, I find out that one particular high school is basically promising kids that they can "do anything" no matter what it is. No basis in reality, no going over the students' records and being honest about what might be a good career pathway, none of that. Just "you are college material"...So what is college material exactly? Is it being able to escape fights in the hallway, is it holding your waste products until you are home because the bathrooms are so disgusting and unsightly and the custodians are too overworked to actually handle these issues HOURLY? Is it making an "Outstanding" on your Senior Project just because you basically showed up to do it and spent a good solid 20 hours or so putting it together, despite the fact that you had an entire year of class to do it? Is it taking an "Intensified" class and having to do crossword puzzles in that class for actual grade credit? When will school administrations realize that they do no employers or the American work force or the American economy favors when they just pass students who cannot read, write, or function in a system that has rules? But surely the answer will be to have more focus groups and committees to address this.
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The school systems that are most successful are those in which discipline is best enforced. Most people would be surprised to find that if the schools would assume control over students (and get rid of the few remaining diehard trouble makers), many of the problems schools now face would be drastically reduced or eliminated. Children function best in an environment in which they know the rules and that they will be enforced. The problem is that the longer such control remains lost, them more difficult it exponentially becomes to reestablish. Hence, to most administrators, their "profession" is just a job - 8 (or fewer) hours to get through each day without offending anyone - rather than a venue for positive and effective change. There's no visible light at the end of the tunnel other than that emanating from the impending train wreck.
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