Our Future Is Quitting School!
Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, Shame of America on Apr 01 2008
Welcome back!
A news story came out today about the stats on high school dropouts. The statistics are staggering. For the first time in I-have-no-idea-how-long, I was shocked at the numbers. For instance, 1.2 million students drop out of high school EACH YEAR!!! That is an unbelievable number of students who simply do not feel the need to finish school or are forced to leave school for whatever reason. This is certainly an epidemic, an epidemic that this country is not really addressing.
More stats show that the inner city kids are quitting far more than the suburban kids are. The graduation rate in the cities works out to anywhere from 30% to about 49%. Most not over 50%. That is staggering and terrible. On the other hand, the graduation rate in the burbs is much higher, approximately 80-82% graduate there. What’s the difference? Funding, for one thing. Parental involvement is part of it too. But it’s really much more involved than that.
The educators are saying that we are actually creating two distinct classes of student. And that is awful. From this point of view, the inner city kids do not have a shot or at least they don’t think they do which amounts to the same thing. With a graduation rate less than 50%, too many kids are going to the streets to find what they need. This has got to stop. The correlation between those who do not graduate from high school and those who are now in prison for doing the crime is also interesting. The stats are similar.
So, are we getting a clue here? Inner city kids need to be in school learning things just like the suburban counterparts. They need good teachers, great curriculum that won’t put someone to sleep just talking about it and people do have to care. That would probably be the biggest share of the problem right there.
Does the No Child Left Behind Act have anything to do with this? Possibly. The states are now so interested in getting their funding from the federal government that they do not care about the children involved. Now it’s all about the numbers. If a kid who does not understand the material and has lousy grades leaves the school, the stats change. That failing student is no longer failing. It’s all about the numbers and the federal funding. Isn’t it about time we question the whole education thing here? It ISN’T WORKING, PEOPLE!!! IT IS NOT WORKING.
We need to find a way to bring the kids back into the schools and get them educated before the rest of the world comes along and takes what we still have because the kids who grew up can’t even make change at the cashier in the store. Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Our education system needs some serious revamping. In fact, it might be better to almost completely scrap the works and start new. Sure could not be worse than what we have now.
This is another SHAME OF AMERICA award to the education system in the United States of America, supposedly the most powerful country in the world. BET ME! Our people can’t even FIND the rest of the world on a map!!! Shame on you, America!!! Shame!
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8 Comments
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I believe the biggest problem has been the war on poverty. the drop out rate is not only bad in urban areas. it is bad in rural areas. The places you have the most welfare you have the worst schools. almost all kids are born smart and only become dumb through low expectations and lack of a family support system. money is less of and indicator of achievement as expectations and work on the student part and parents participation.
I read an article a while back about a school system in your state that has one of the lowest per child allotment and a really high achievement. Don’t blame America blame Americans, Parents that do not demand better from schools and kids.
Yes, we have charter schools in this state, especially one called ASMSA (Arkansas School for Math, Science and the Arts) It is an awesome school, one my niece currently attends. Only the top 1% in the state can even apply there.
However, most of the schools are not like that one. There are some elementary charter schools beginning to make a difference and more on the way but is it in time??
Not for my other nieces. They needed good education from the beginning. What they got was a system that rewards the child with candy (although that got removed by Gov. Huckabee when he wanted to lose weight). Still, they get rewarded for doing what they were supposed to do in the first place. I remember earning a gold star. That was so important to me.
Stars aren’t good enough now. They need toys and other rewards. As they grow older, they expect to be rewarded for simply doing what the teacher has told them to do.
Then, as they enter other grades, the teachers, because of the “no child left behind” fiasco, tell the kids a date to get in homework isn’t the end. The teacher gives them more time, sometimes weeks later. Instead of instilling a time limit, they teach the kid that anytime you feel like it is good enough for me. Unbelievable.
I have more to say but…..thanks for commenting! Please come back again.
I agree with a lot of what you say. We have a 10 year old. He does well in school, but we monitor his home work and stay in contact with his teacher. We trust the school but verify what he is learning. I like reading your stuff.
That’s great. We did that also when the girls were in elementary school. That was possible then. As they went into middle school, it was a bit different. They didn’t always bring their homework home. We were in touch with teachers as much as possible but that isn’t as easy in that school.
Then, I had two nieces in high school where they pretty much told the kids that whatever they want to do, they can. Homework was not really happening that much. It was not good at all. The teachers are sometimes too busy to talk to the parents and guardians. It’s a mess.
Then too, the teachers are caught in a catch 22 themselves. They cannot afford to have kids that are not working up to their potential. The kids flunk a test or a quarter. This is not an option for them. They have to produce better grades. So, sometimes they have a redo of the tests. If one kid does badly, not a big deal. If two or more do, they take the tests and homework over again.
This is all about the no kid left behind thing. The states are so scared of losing the federal funding that the school systems teach the kids how to take the benchmark tests that determine the level of funding. The schools teach the kids that cheating is cool that way.
Thanks for the comment!!!
this helped me because i just did a report on this
Glad I could help, Joe! Thanks for visiting.
I used to teach at an awful middle school. Why awful? Parents were uninterested and unsupportive. Students were generally uncooperative. I left after a couple of frustrating years. Most of the highly-motivated teachers I knew there left, too.
I now happily teach at a pretty good high school. It is a good school because parents are generally supportive of our mission. Students are mostly cooperative. I have been here over twenty years and am not going anywhere. I love it.
Many students are just like me. They prefer not to waste their time. They prefer not to be unhappy. They leave crappy schools.
Wouldn’t you?
We definitely understand about the awful school. I believe that we have one of those here too. The teachers can only do what the school allows or the board of education here will allow.
Students are bored. That’s first. The teachers have lost heart. I am not totally sure why but a lot of it has to do with the fact that they cannot teach what is needed. For instance, we have a relative in our local high school. They are so bored that they do not care about the school work at all.
One of the classes consists of a teacher who shows movies that do not pertain to the subject matter. Then she also likes to have them write out every detail of their lives. This is geared specifically to “catch” bad home situations. I can smell the human services call coming to someone’s home already.
She is supposedly teaching science but she had them making kites. The high school student did not notice any type of relationship to the course at all. The teacher said she was teaching about angles and so on. Uh nope. Not happening. This person is from Florida not Arkansas.
Many of the other teachers are disgusted with the fact that they have to teach the Benchmark tests instead of their own subjects.
As to your question, would I quit instead of wasting my time? You bet I would. The problem is that what we do need are good schools whether in the urban areas, the suburbs or the rural areas. We all need good schools.
But lack of funding is what kills the acquiring of good teachers and better curriculum quite often. And what is Arkansas going to do about it? Vote on a lottery which will NOT fund the schools but fund the roads. And what is our gas tax money going for then?????
Thank you for your comments. I am glad you gave your opinion as a teacher. I wanted to hear about that too.