The Mis-Education Of America

We have all seen the headlines.  "U.S. Students Slide In Global Ranking On Math, Reading & Science"....."1 0ut Of Every 3 First year Teachers Do Not Return To Classroom"..."Budget Cuts For Local Schools".   The list goes on and on.  And yet for some reason, we as a people, as the worlds greatest superpower continue to allow American children to not only struggle but flat out fail.  This posting will look at our system for teaching our children.  We will see what people are doing on the grassroots level to fix the problem or in some cases what people are doing to build a whole new system. 
I have a good friend named Carrie.  We spent a summer running around Chicago together waiting tables, staying out to late & driving everyone around us totally crazy.  The whole time Carrie was very clear that she was going to take her new diploma and teach the youth of America.  Carrie was going to teach "the child".  Not just ABC's & 123's but to tailor each kid's workload as to where they were in their lives as a whole.  At the end of the summer Carrie packed up & moved to Kansas City.  She was living her dream. By the end of her first day the dream was shattered. The children arrived without basic supplies, pens, paper, erasers. The administration was disconnected between what had to happen to satisfy the school board and the need of its student body.  And in her first day our fearless Carrie was called, by a child...well it's not printable.  But clearly this was not what she had signed up for.  That was 16 years ago and Carrie is still teaching.  Her passion has grown over the years and she has managed to create a place where learning is not only important but fun.  She has an open door policy that allows her students to express themselves and ask questions without fear of being rebuked. That sounds like learning to me.  But for every Carrie there is a new teacher that says NO THANKS.
Many people are unwilling to battle unsafe environments, school boards without a clue & parents that are either to busy to care or just plain can't.  It's said that for every 3 new teachers that enter the classroom one will not return the following year.  That is 33 percent!  AND after that another 25 percent leave within the next 5 years.  So why do we make it so hard on the people we trust our kids with?  Why is it a battle every year for these keepers of our future to ask for a bit more cash?  Can you blame them for giving up and going into the private sector?

That is just what my friend Mandy did.  After teaching for a few years on the grade school level she left to teach English to kids in Asia. When she was teaching American kids in America she made $39,000.  In her first year overseas she made $72,000 PLUS all expense where paid.  She finds the experience both rewarding & frustrating.  The amount of respect she receives as a teacher while out of the country is shown not only in the amount she is paid but in the way she is treated by society.  She has never felt disrespect by any of her students.  As she told me, that would not be tolerated.  But why can she not find the same rewards in her own country?
On a flight I was on not to long ago I was seated next to a well put together woman.  Across the aisle was seated her 3 children.  They all sat quietly typing away on their own ipads. Not once did anyone have to ask them to quiet down.  In talking with Mom, please you know I had to talk to someone, I was to learn that each of them was working on a project for the lessons.  They were home schooled & although they had been traveling they were still expected to learn. Oh my.  It turns out that this family lives right down the street from where Boy About Town grew up.  And in her experience the cookie cutter system of teaching was doing a huge disservice to her children.  Remember this is Littleton, Co.  The place that gave us both Columbine & Arapahoe high schools.  She found that her oldest daughter shut down in groups. When she finished her work well ahead of the other students she was told to sit and wait until all the other were done.  This led to

wasted time and feelings of isolation. While once an outgoing, smart kid she was starting to fall behind in lesson.  Since home schooling began all of her children are reading above their grade level.  They have blossomed into fun loving kids with their own area of interest.  Showing a natural love of music they placed their child in front of a piano.  She can play classical pieces after hearing them just once.  Now this is a gift that very few in any public schools could nurture.  I asked a question that, for me, is very important.  What about the social aspect of school?  Learning how to deal with your peers and how they deal with you is key to growing into the person that will one day enter the world as a working adult.  There have sprung up groups in every city that allows home schooled kids to interact with each other in a setting that fosters learning.  I visited one such group in here the LA area.  The day I joined the group we went to a local museum.  In my time spent with the kids it was clear this was no random outing.  As we walked the galleries any of these home schooled kids took time to help me understand what it was I was looking at.  They all had studied, at home, the pieces where were gazing at.  They all knew, to different degrees, the name of the artists as well as a bit about the time in which they lived.  As an Art History major I was humble to have an 11 year old break down the influence that an artiste's mother had over their work....Thank you very much Hannah!
When I asked the families what could be done to improve the classrooms of America the general feeling was that it is far to gone to be fixed.  These families were focused on doing what they could to help their child.  They simply did not have the time to fight a system that seems dead set on keeping the status quo.
A quarter......25 percent of American High School students drop out.  If we lose those kids in their teens how can we expect to compete on a global level.  The kids in Kazakhstan are out performing our Yankee Doodle Munchies in areas such as Math.  We have thrown money at the problem. President Obama picked Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and gave him $100 billion to spend in an attempt to turn the decline around.  With the belief that a good teacher is the most important tool one can have in the classroom there has been a push to rid the schools of bad teachers.  But how can we be sure we are not throwing the baby out with the bath water? Mr Duncan's steps were fought tooth & nail by many.  And while some improvement has been seen we are dealing with a

crisis and half measures avail is nothing!  I have seen the difference that an enlightened, excited & informed teacher can make both in the schools & outside of it.  But are we doing all we can to encourage them, the teachers?
Teachers are overwhelmed with a large number of students, the funding that does go to schools while never large, does not get put to effective use and there is not always a home environment that encourages hard work at school.  So problem seems to be multi leveled.  And so the solution should be as well.  And that clearly will not be easy.  But what is crystal clear is that if we don't do something soon America will go on turning out a nation of people fully unprepared to meet the demands of the world we live.....
A quick side note.  While in middle school in State College, PA I started to have a very hard time in school.  I knew I was different, my peers knew I was different and things got bad fast.  There was one, just one person that made me feel safe & understood, Mrs Patricia Ann Kelly. She made sure I knew I was going to be ok.  She is the only reason I was able to stumble through French class and then run, truly run, to her office until the coast was clear.  That teacher saved my life.
Stay Fabulous
Boy About Town