When I started writing these weekly blogs, columns (?) or whatever you want to call them. I told you I would stay away from political discussions.
I lied.
Several years ago, we saw a fad in this country with people having wrist bracelets bearing the letters “WWJD?”
This symbolized the phrase …”What would Jesus do?”
I am going to ask you the same.
I am going to discuss some topics and situations in this country that should be of concern to all of us, no matter what political party you happen to be in favor of.
So, I am going to write about a matter of concern to me (and hopefully to you) and ask that if you have any thoughts or opinions, you post them to me in the comment section. Be honest and let us know from your heart what you think could or should be done to alleviate this problem.
A week or so ago, it was reported that a student in Baltimore was expecting to graduate from high school. Instead, he and his mother were told that he only passed 3 courses over the past 4 years and was to be sent back to the 9th grade. His GPA average was a 0.13. He failed 22 classes and was absent for 272 days.
Even worse is the fact that this student ranked 62 out of a class of 120. So, he was actually in the top 50% of his class. What does that tell us about the ones in the bottom half of his class?
So here is my question for you.
Who is at fault here?
The parent? The student? The teachers? The school?
All three?
How did he keep getting promoted from one grade to the next, year after year without someone seeing how poorly he was doing?
Who is at fault?
During his 3 years in high school, only one teacher asked to meet with this young man’s parents.
The mother, in her defense, states that she is working 3 jobs to make ends meet.
The school says they have protocols to help, but these did not seem to be employed in this situation.
I have no reason to doubt the mother working 3 jobs to make ends meet. She is probably doing the best she can in this situation.
What I am asking is what happened to the system that should have been in place to safeguard this from happening in the first place.
We can all spend our time talking about raising minimum wages, training for new careers etc.
But where did the problem actually start?
Don’t we have laws and institutions filled with highly paid administrators to assist those in need right now? What were those people doing?
Where is the father of this young man? Why isn’t he paying child support? If not, why not?
What happened to the policy of checking on failing students or finding out when kids are absent over long periods of time?
Why are administrators getting paid if they are not administrating?
Did the school district offer support and that support was refused by the mother or their concerns went unheeded?
We are living in a very strange time in this country. We all seem to be so afraid of having an opinion or hurting someone’s feelings or saying something that might offend someone.
Someone needs to be found and held responsible for this disaster.
If the mother is unable to help or not fully qualified to do so (lack of education on her part) the school district should have taken action to flesh out other possibilities not only for this student but for those in worse shape than he was.
Our children of this nation deserve to be educated. They are the foundation of our economic base in the years to come. If they cannot get an education, how can we hope for them to become productive members of our society? How can we educate them properly if they are not tested often and fairly or allowed to make up their own answers?
Are we not obligated to spend more money on methods of motivation and supervision of our student base in this country as opposed to our continual building school district offices of museum quality and hiring more staff of non-teaching administration support?
One room school houses with teachers and administrators did the job quite well in days gone by.
Perhaps we need to get back to the basics and teach what is important for our children to succeed and learn in order to compete in a global economy.
After all 2+2 = 4 in China and India….It should be the same as well here, we should NOT let the student decide what the answer could be.
Don’t we have a moral obligation to make certain he/she understands the importance of this?
What do you think?
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