When I am in the community talking to people outside of education I hear on a regular basis how we are teaching too many things that are not our responsibility. We should only teach the ABC's and 123's.
If we lived in Utopia that would be true. But we don’t live in an ideal world and according to our constitution we have to educate EVERY child with a “free and appropriate education”.
That’s why I become agitated when people compare our education system to other countries. We are not like other countries who view education the way private schools do, picking and choosing which students are deserving of an education based on aptitude or class. We take every child who comes to us, regardless of any of the circumstances life has handed that child.
I believe we need to raise our children to be good citizens. Whether they are doctors, lawyers, auto mechanics, plumbers, or any career they choose. A wise man once said that being a garbage collector was one of the most important jobs on the planet. When asked why he believed this he responded by saying “have you ever gone several weeks without your garbage being picked up?”…I say “touché”.
How can we raise our children to be good citizens? Teaching them to read and write is vitally important, but what about teaching them how to think critically, or communicate effectively. Or teaching them to resolve conflict using effective communication skills. In other words, how to ‘fight fair’. Life is wrought with conflict and many of our students come to us without appropriate tools to resolve even the most minor conflict.
Then there is the student who comes from a family of addicts. How can we expect a child with no coping skills, or worse; coping skills learned from and addict, to leave all their baggage at the door of the school house and be a successful student?
Schools should be a link to services available in the community. We don’t need to re-invent the wheel, but why can’t we direct families to services already available in the community?
Working at PACE Center for Girls I saw how they referred families to existing services and employed social workers who worked diligently to get to the core of why these young women were acting out. Going above and beyond the ABC’s and 123’s helped them become good students, and above all good people.
Critical thinking skills, effective communication skills, community activism, and civic engagement are all keys to creating at great community. If the families are not providing these skills then it is our responsibility. That is just the reality of today’s world.
READ A VERY INTERESTING WASHINGTON POST STORY HERE.
4 comments:
All we have to do to solve tomorrow's problems is to properly educate the children today!!
Because!! You could never know!
Which one of them could save us all.
Ok. I work in a Title I high school charter in Hillsborough County and I see the disservice to children who are classified at-risk and not provided the appropriate services to help them function in a classroom. Teaching now requires so much more than "teaching". You have to be a mother, a mentor, a therapists, sometimes even a friend before you can get some kids in the right frame of mind to concentrate and learn. No at-risk program should be without a team of therapists and support personnel to help these kids deal with whatever physiological and/or emotional needs that are not being met at home.
I often get very frustrated with the level of performance from my students but I know that there is so much working against them and me in this American system of education that measures success in the blackest and whitest and terms and can't acknowledge the massive grey areas. We did the best we could together but at the end of the day, I know we are failing kids in droves in more ways than just academics.
I could write a book.
John D,
I tried to respond to your question and your email bounced back. I have left a post on the website you referenced. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
At your service, April Griffin
Since it is the lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer, and the chances are few will read this, I thought I would throw the following thought out.
From my perspective, it is the "administration" that is quick to point out on a regular basis that the school system is burdened with teaching too many things that should not be their responsibility.
Here is an example of my sense of what the perception of the education system at large is. If you don't think the perception is the same locally, then I submit we can disagree on that point.
When it comes to defense of the system, the system has to accept "wilted lettuce and rotten tomatoes" as read here:
"If I were running a business, I'd try to control the product coming in," she said. For instance, she said, a chef wouldn't prepare a gourmet salad with wilted lettuce or rotten tomatoes.
In a public school, she said, "I can't control who walks in that door. I take kids with learning disabilities, I take everyone. They come in at different levels and with different ways of learning."
http://specialedmotel.blogspot.com/2007/07/after-wilted-lettuce-and-rotten.html
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