Bad Schools - Failing Students.

Bad Schools and Failing Students

By Bill Jones

There was the time that I thought that teachers were the cause of our schools producing such poor students.  This was before I did tutoring at my old high school. I tutored at the elementary school, middle school and high school.  I enjoyed it but found the most enjoyment at the elementary school.  I know why.  Most of the elementary school younger children do not need to be disciplined. It is also easy to work with young children. You tell them what to do and they generally do it. The children pay attention to the teacher and look forward to the tutor.  

Middle school is not so bad, but here the children are beginning to need help with reading and math. Of course, it depends on where the school is, but I tutored in the poor areas of town. In high school the students learn that they have rights not to be disciplined and will come close to the line where discipline is required. When students do approach the line, they may be looked up to instead of being thought of as disruptive.

High school is most difficult, and the graduating students need the most help. Some of the seniors may read at the fifth grade level or below.  Again, please note that I am speaking of the poor schools where the parents are more likely to be under the pressure of keeping food on the table, and these parents are often under great stress.

So it is possible to notice the degradation of the student from grade school to high school. They are easy to teach at the elementary school lever because their discipline is better, it is much easier to hold their attention, and they like to learn. The students still fall behind in middle school, and it gets worse as they reach the higher levels.  It is only possible to learn at the higher school levels because these higher levels depend on knowledge that you gained at the lower levels.  Reading depends on progression from easy to more difficult. Math, of course, is the same. You cannot take advanced algebra until you have had been introduced to beginning algebra. So why do children fall behind?

Good school districts may very well have such problems, but to a much lesser degree – why?  Charter schools do not have such problems – why?

I know the reason – it is not the teacher. It is not the student. It is the parent! It is not the student that needs to be tested – it is the parent that needs to be tested.

Charter schools have parents that are interested in their children. Good school districts have parents that are interested in their children. I do not mean to say that the poor school districts have parents that are not interested in their children. I do mean to say that these parents are often single parents that do not have the time to spend with their children because they are too busy trying to put food on the table, and the parents themselves are often uneducated and may not understand the importance of education – or discipline.

Even a few well-to-do parents lack the knowledge of how to care for their children. It happens. The result is that we have police at the doors of some schools. Some parents may not know that the child has a gun.  It is not the teachers’ fault or the school’s fault, it’s the parents fault. A child with discipline will know better than to bring a dangerous object to school.  It’s the parents not the school; how could a guardian not know the child has a gun? But, we know it happens.

We know, for example, that some cultures have a better record of bringing their children to a higher level of learning than other cultures.  This is because of their inherent interest in the children. Having a child thrust upon you is a job, and some people enjoy and look forward to the effort involved, but some do not.  If you are a minimum wage single parent with little education, then it often becomes extremely difficult to have time to care for your child. There is no time to enjoy life a little.  Then being told that your child that is having a problem at school can be too much to handle.

Ask any teacher – this type of parent will not appear at a parent- teacher meeting. The parent has other problems - they may need some rest. I do not mean that a single parent is a bad parent, because it depends on many factors. For example, it depends on their level of education, their job demands, their level of pay, and their desire to see their child excel. There are many really good single parents interested in their children, but it is not the norm. A selfish married couple can be just as bad, and even worse.  I once tutored a beautiful little girl who was living with her grandparents because of divorced parents.  For some reason the child said to me “my parents do not want me.”  How horrible it must be to reach such a conclusion. It might even have been true.

Reading and math are a real problem. For most seniors in these “third world schools,” it is necessary for them to refer to a written multiplication table before they could multiply two numbers.  I have seen seniors that could not read at the fifth grade level. This is unconscionable and should not be tolerated in any American school. However, it is happening now and continues to happen.

How could this not be the teachers’ fault? To begin with you need to consider how you would discipline a high school student. It is almost impossible.  If you discipline the student you may be sued. The easy way is to send them home.  Most of these problem youth delight in being sent home. You must remember that I speak of the poor schools.  In the better parts of town there may also be similar problems, but to a lesser degree. The charter school will generally not have the problem because it is not tolerated.  These schools only take students that are known to accept discipline, and have a parent or parents that are interested in the child’s education.

There must be a careful choice of words when race or ethnicity is considered in education. It would appear that the Asian community may come out on top in school, but according to an Associated Press release the Asian community is somewhat discriminated against in those colleges that require that you check the box where race is indicated. Those colleges that do not require checking of a race box have a much higher Asian student component compared to those that require this check.

I believe that the Asian students receive a better education because of their parents. According to a “Current Population Report,” the Asian group would have parents that generally have fewer single parents because they marry at a younger age and marry in greater numbers compared to other racial or ethnic groups. I suspect other factors are involved. It is difficult to pin this down because of the concern that the various groups have with the issue, and it is difficult to get the data because of this deep concern. I personally believe that there is little interest in such studies because of this concern. Even if the studies were done, they would receive little attention because of the importance given to diversity.

For the purpose of this paper, race is not of importance.  I will attempt to answer to the question of why students underachieve in poor schools.  The lack of achievement is the concern of this paper.

To get the answer to this question, it is necessary to approach the parent or parents. The teacher will of course be central in finding the parents of the child who need help.   Again, it is the purpose of this paper to point out that the parent is the one that needs help, and the child needs help now because of the parents.  An improvement in the child’s performance can only happen if the parents are shown how to discipline the child and how to explain the importance of education to the child. The child should not be watching TV until twelve o’clock.  The child must be encouraged to do homework.  Video games must be limited until the work is completed. The child may need tutoring. This can be done through the school.

The answer then is to provide a “Course” for the parents that will show them how to change the behavior of their child. This will indicate to the parents how they must change their own behavior in order to help the child. In any event, it will be a part of the course. There will be a number of important areas in the course, such as the outcome for those that have a high school education compared to those who do not. Some thoughts of colleges could even be introduced.

It is noted that all children cannot achieve in school because of various factors, and the most important may be their intelligence.  This is very difficult to measure. The word achieve may have a meaning different to that which we might normally consider.  A few children may know what they want to do with their life. This is important but may be difficult to find out. Testing then becomes a most important factor because of the different areas of intelligence.  The testing would be for both the child and the parents.

The problem of course is how to get the parents to accept such a course. It is difficult to imagine that you might need any help with your child – that’s the school’s problem. What are teachers for? After all, are teachers not paid to take care of educating the children?  It could be quite difficult to convince any parent that they should come to school in order to improve their own skills for their child’s development. The real secret is then on how to approach the parents.

The most successful approach would likely be to provide an incentive by way of monetary inducement- tax free. The children that need help are those that are failing or making D grades. Those children are likely to have parents that would be interested in extra income. These would be the parents that are finding a difficult time paying for cable and the cell phone.  In addition, they are more likely to take advantage of such an offer. We always come to the conclusion that we must spend more money on the school in order to improve education. Here is a way to spend that money, and will actually improve the school. You must improve the parent to improve the school.

The children would of course accompany the parents, but they would be separated into different classes.  The children would be taught by college students that had at least one year of college. This would reduce the cost of the course and give the college students experience in teaching.  The parents would be taught by interested teachers that might desire some extra income. Of course there are some accredited retired individuals who would be more than willing to teach the course – if extra income is involved.

The actual course material would be a major consideration, and the material would likely be found at some university or could be provided by a grant to a university.  I would suggest that the course be taught twice a week at the school. It would be taught in the evening and would last for a period of about two hours. The length of the course would depend on the improvement of the child. I would imagine that the course would probably last at least one semester.  

Babysitting for other children in the family and a free dinner for all involved may need to be provided. Transportation and parking may also be an issue. In some cities, free bus tickets for the family may be helpful if the central meeting place is not within walking distance.

Improvement in education would be well worth the cost to society over the long term.

Questions or Comments? Please e-mail me at whnj@att.net  Thanks, Bill.

Current Population Reports by

Rose M. Kreider and Renee Ellis