The recent forays into public education reform from the No Child Left Behind Act, the Core Curriculum mandate, and standardized tests have all placed public education on notice that, once again, our policy decision-makers have continued their assault on education. All they have done has resulted in an educational system failing our youth. The mainstream Republican stance of what they have done in issuing these mandates shoved misguided attempts at education reform down the public’s throats. This is nothing more than political expediency. All these mandates have continued to gloss over the real underlying problems facing education in this country. If education were run like a business, today’s public schools would have far more accountability and structure. But, like everything else, our most stupendous governmental officials have done is thrown tax dollars down the toilet. Meanwhile, our youth are far worse off today in educational standards than the rest of the world.
Someone recently said that teachers alone cannot change conditions in our schools. The only way to regain our supremacy in educational standards that prevailed in the 1950s and early 1960s will be a revolution. When we take a good, hard look at the landscape of America today, we find that the US is indeed fractured. On the one hand, we have the wealthiest few who control the all-too-powerful politicians. Those self-serving bureaucrats continue to overlook the obvious distress that most of America is wallowing in. Then there is the majority of the population, those multitudes wallowing in desperation, hoping that things will improve. Meanwhile, our youth, the future generations of Americans, continue to suffer the consequences of failed educational mandates and initiatives by a political system that, by its nature, fails to grasp what is needed to reverse the effects of years of meddling in educational policies that worked for decades before the late 1960s.
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Our illustrious bureaucrats overlook the one key component in education reform: students in all grade levels can succeed. When we look into America today, we find so many children like Bob and Jane Smith. Brother and sister are both sixth graders at Roosevelt Elementary. Typical children, but their teachers didn’t know until later that their parents lost their home when Mr. Smith got laid off and the bank foreclosed. The Smiths have lived in a two-bedroom apartment in a not-so-nice area for over a year. And, with only one income, a minimum wage job at Walmart many a night, Bob and Jane don’t get enough to eat, let alone the proper vitamins and nutrition they both need during the day. When we stop to think about what is occurring all across the country today, it is unconscionable to think that over one-third of the country’s school-age children are starving. The fact is that nutrition does play the most vital role in a child’s growth and development. But, what is so disturbing is that those policymakers fail to consider that food, nutrition, vitamins, and minerals are essential for physical development ,mental growth, and health in every human being.
When schools today are judged solely on test scores, the prevailing contention that poverty should never be an excuse for poor academic achievement remains the stance of policymakers. And, as long as test scores are at par, our policymakers continue to be unconcerned if the pantries are bare, the parents jobless or, worse yet, in jail, and the gap between the rich and poor is more appalling than it’s been since 1929. We now have a whole society of mounting inequality, where the wealthiest few ignore, are too blind to see, and just plain oblivious to the harsh reality facing countless millions of children every day.
Food insecurity among youth continues undermining this nation’s ability to compete in an ever-increasing global economy. But it is not the only factor diminishing this nation’s prominence in education. When the Common Core Curriculum was implemented in many states, it dismantled many founding building blocks in elementary and secondary education that stood the standard for over 100 years. Regardless of all the new technology integrated into school systems, this will still hurt generations of our youth. Take, for example, cursive writing. It is now obsolete in the minds of so many school boards. Their rationale is to spend time learning penmanship, whereas today, you only need a computer keyboard. The time spent on writing can now be used for more useful subjects that are more relevant today. As many of us remember, it was a right of passage for generations to learn how to write. Signing your name is just one of the most useful tools we use today as adults.
This is only the tip of the iceberg in education reform, which is already taking its toll on our nation’s youth. When one walks into any public school in Anytown, USA, many a baby boomer is shocked to see what is happening in our schools. All one has to do is read the latest paper to find that another school-age student was bullied to death. Never before has this country been inundated with so many social crises that allow public schools to be a haven for so much bullying. A moral problem has taken over in so many parts of the country. It underscores that our public education reforms for the past twenty years and counting have only systematically rendered our public school system at the bottom of the heap regarding other developed countries worldwide.
Physical education must be as important as math or science in education, especially for elementary and secondary-age youth. A prime example is a private school in New York that mandates rigorous physical activity for the first 3 hours of every day. In doing so, these students have excelled exceptionally in core curriculum studies such as science and math. Whether it is competitive sports or not, the benefits of physical exercise clearly show a vast improvement in academics. To have school systems retard or eliminate together physical education puts our nation’s youth not only at health risk but undermines our nation’s future stability and security. Many times, budgetary constraints are an external factor in eliminating Physical Ed. But, the reality is the hard-cold fact that our nation’s youth obesity rates are among the highest in the world. Consequently, all the health risks related to our obesity rates do cost a hell of a lot more than if we mandated Physical Ed. to begin with.
The advent of so much technology, especially the handheld personal computer, has taken its toll on our youth today. Gone in so many elementary schools across the country are the days when students were required to stand at the old chalkboard and work out math or other subject problems. Where the interaction of fellow students and teachers was encouraged. What we are witnessing today is the only interaction occurring at a very interpersonal level. One can understand the importance of self-confidence when students first overcome the fear of standing in front of their contemporaries by solving a problem on the chalkboard. That is not the case any longer.
Today, too many youths are being classified with ADT, otherwise known a Attention Deficit Disorder. Probable cause, diet, genetics, and many consider their environment also contributes to its cause. Whatever the reason, too many of our youth are all lumped into this category, and too many are prescribed prescription drugs like Ritalin. These drugs do nothing to cure or direct that hyperactivity into positive, constructive endeavors. From a personal point of view, it took place over fifty-five years ago when my father took control and put me on a path that transformed my life. Back in the Fifties, ADT wasn’t a known diagnosis. All my father knew was I was hyperactive and always getting into trouble. Sometimes, I got caught, and that was when corporal punishment came with a hard spank on the bottom.
But, most time, I managed to escape unscathed. My parents knew I was the fastest kid on the block. Nobody could catch me. It was one afternoon thought that changed all that when my father came home from work. That one afternoon while watching cartoons on our small TV was when my father pulled me aside and said, “I have a present for us.” He then proceeded to hand me a small wrapped box. After tearing open the box, to my dismay, was a small stopwatch. It was from that moment on I knew my life was going in a new direction. From that afternoon on, my father took me to the old high school track field where I was coached, running 440’s, half miles, and the mile. At first, I wouldn’t say I liked going, but with the gradual success at track and cross-country, I not only succeeded in school but got into a major university.
A lifelong pursuit of fitness and a desire to succeed resulted because of my fathers’ influence, help, and encouragement. Today, most of our youth aren’t as fortunate as I was. It is a sad commentary for our times that too many elementary age children come from single-parent homes. A whole spectrum of factors is involved now that weren’t back in the 1950s. What is happening today there really is a sense of foreboding tension, a silent force that is ripping across our moral fiber, a sagging truth of unprecedented demise of morality, liberty, and justice. The world we once knew in our youth is no more. We now are faced with the consequences of our actions and of our inactions of what we have done in the name of social liberalization in public education all across the country.
There is another factor in what has happened in our school systems over the years. On a recent visit to one of Tampa Bay’s public schools, I saw firsthand what it is like to be a student today. First impressions, they say, are worth a thousand words. Well, in this case, that first impression, I was unprepared for what my eyes were seeing. Gaining entry was no small task. Nowadays, one has to press a buzzer and state the name and reason for your visit. It would help to call beforehand to make things go a lot smoother. Fortunately, this visit, upon entering, there were no metal detectors that, from my understanding, are the norm in so many other schools throughout the country.
Now, as I approach the main hallway, being escorted by a teacher or teacher’s aid through the maze of scantly clad young girls and droopy baggy-panted boys’ cell phones buzzing, I couldn’t tell the difference between the students or my escort. They all dressed very sloppily. It is a known fact that today, over 40% of students do themselves a huge disservice by cheating on their exams when they have access to personal cell phones in class. If they do it in secondary or even elementary levels, think of the percentage of students who cheat in college. An alarming fact has a very disastrous effect on business, and our whole economy suffers because of it.
Finally, I made it to the main office, were on a small table in the corner was a stack of papers outlining necessary items each student was supposed to have in their possession. Stuffed into everybody’s backpack were things such as a calculator. Oh, that amazes me. So much for the arithmetic tables one is supposed to memorize. Next comes the hand sanitizer for our disease-conscious society. Heaven forbid we forget to use soap and water. Maybe with all the budget cuts, especially in our public school’s soap is a luxury that now is unaffordable.
With all the backpacks packed with those so-called essentials as well as the actual course books, I have a feeling that this generation is going to have an awful lot of back problems as they get older maybe, because again of all the cutbacks in the one program that will help more than any others is physical education. Now, one of the first programs to go under the ax when budgets are trimmed. As in so many instances today. One of the most disturbing trends today in our public schools there really are too many administrators. But, we got to cut physical education, arts, music appreciation, and all the other so-called no-essential programs that would otherwise contribute to an overall educational experience.
Now, when one steps into a school, it is more apparent than ever when we walk away with the realization that somehow our own society itself is to blame for the failings of this nation in public education. Silly me, to want our youth to have more respect for themselves as well as others. Two of the four principles this nation was built upon, Education and Morality, go hand in hand. The morality today, well, they’re practically, isn’t any. Sure, there are remnants where the character of generations past holds, but, for the most part, it is sadly lacking by the majority of students in practically every public school system in the country.
The decorum that is displayed by so many sets the tone for failing or not. Amoral societies too often fall where a culture that embraces and practices basic moral values rises and flourishes. Maybe, with all the political rhetoric about creating another great community, we would look at why our society’s moral values have all but disappeared. This is where and why our school systems have to reform and reestablish codes of etiquette and dress in every school. This would go a long way in bringing back moral values in our youth and the professionalism that our teachers must display.
Looking at other top-flight educational systems throughout the world like Japan and Sweden, professionalism and morality keep those countries on the cutting edge of education. Consequently, their whole economy flourishes. Just look at the period from 1952 – 1968. The United States economy reached heights never before or since attained. When morality, along with education, improves, so does any economy. That is how to rebuild our nation.
Our whole educational system has been reprogrammed to do more harm than good. Today, our youth are continually subjected to the cultural stimulus that has had profound effects not positively mind you but has encouraged more of a amoral culture. The continuing escalation of youth violence, whether it involves gangs, other issues that could stem from the lack of parental influence or just the way our society has changed in the last few decades, all have influenced a generation of youth and their interpretation of the freedom of speech. The United States Constitution guarantees Freedom of Speech. This right comes with a responsibility. What we say does have a direct effect on the actions of others. A case in point; The Federal Communications Standard for appropriate expression on TV, radio, recordings, Magazines, etc. Now studies and statistics show a direct correlation between the escalation of youth violence with the relaxing of acceptable standards by public forms of communication.
Our youth are very impressionable and are not fully capable mentally of handling the responsibility of today’s freedom of expression. A good example is noted in the book ” Lord of the Flies.” Education is the best approach, but it has to come with natural maturity through aging from infancy through young adulthood. Each phase of aging comes with its own physical, mental, and emotional progressions. Suppose we skip from adolescence to majority without going through the natural aging advances. In that case, these individuals will not be equipped in all aspects to handle the responsibilities imposed on the life cycle they are thrust into.
Today’s youth are continually exposed to ideas, situations, and material items they are not yet mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially equipped to use effectively. This causes great harm not only to themselves but to society as well. What needs to be done is to reestablish the standards of conduct and speech enforced back in the middle of the 20th century. The rebuilding of ethical standards is essential for the continuation of our society. When a society reverts to rampant disregard for themselves and others, freedom is destroyed everywhere.
When we talk of education reform, we have a responsibility to our youth to entrust in them the ideals and principles and the moral ethics that were the basis on which our whole society was founded over 200 years ago. Integrated with technology, a lifestyle that encourages a passion for the arts, athletics, and academics is essential for a balanced society to flourish and prosper. That is education reform. To accomplish this, it takes a whole conceptual approach. We come away with food security from financial security; the food security of our youth equals more economic opportunity for our future. And, the only way to achieve this is through the passage and implementation of the National Economic Reforms Ten Articles of Confederation.
