Educational Rant

August 20, 2005

Greetings one last time from the bowels of southwest Georgia…

I noticed most of the recent entries have been a bit shallow, so I thought I’d write about something of worth.

Let’s talk about the state of education in America.

The topic isn’t so random, as I have finally started packing, I was rifling under my bed and found my high school diploma. It was covered in dust. I marveled at how easy it was to get, and how some people think it’s a great accomplishment to finish high school. Is it just me, or has America placed education at the bottom of our priority list?

I was also watching PBS kids today (shut up), and a lot of the shows mentioned that they were funded by the “no child left behind” foundation.

I thought that was a bit odd as PBS usually has strong enough funding, but if the government thinks that backing an already supported program is going to help with education any more, then I think they’re mistaken.

Yes shows on PBS are beneficial to child development, but why would you give such a program millions of dollars when there are school systems that are lacking behind the “national standard” because of lack of funding? Wouldn’t money be better appreciated in an area where the books are decades old or where they don’t have access to computers or things of that sort?

Shouldn’t the fund be used to recruit and train more teachers so they may be better able to handle today’s children?

Can’t the money be used to provide computers, projectors and other electronic equipment to districts that lack the funding to buy their own?

Supposedly the program is addressing these concerns, but locally, the only thing I’ve heard about public education is that one school has been deemed unsafe for children, another’s didn’t meet the standardized testing minimum, and still another has had countless sexual abuse charges.

On the other hand, affluent public schools are getting new campuses built, state of the art equipment, and even over zealous athletic funding.

Is it just me, or is something unbalanced?

To me it sounds like a padding program that does nothing as a whole, at least not for the schools that actually need assistance.

I think a lot can be solved by revamping the educational system so that it is more effective and able to produce students that are competitive with those of other countries.

Take Japan. Their educational curriculum is rigorous, thorough, and perhaps stressful, but look at how successful the country is! Look at how much money they generate! When taking into account the population and the GNP, they produce almost as much as America does! They are so much better off economically because the people who are going into the workforce are prepared to handle the current situation and improve upon it.

I think that’s what makes me so annoyed about some bp people…everyone says they’re a rapper, or a producer or whatever but how many of those exist in the world? I know that may be your passion, but must you make it your life? Pursue something that will help everyone, get a degree! Learn a vocational trade! What are the odds that you’ll make it big and what are the odds that you can make a difference by helping others? Every little bit helps!

I think most people are never encouraged in anything other than being mediocre. How can someone graduate from an inner city, under funded school that seems to be abandoned by our “no child left behind” government, and want to be anything other than what they see?

Most students at underfunded schools don’t get encouraged in math, or science, or even English. Some graduate from high school without even knowing how to write a paper! That’s ridiculous! My mother was a product of that group, but she always had a drive to be successful. Even still though even she said didn’t have to write a paper until graduate school. GRADUATE SCHOOL?! I WAS WRITING THEM IN THE SECOND GRADE!

Let’s lift up the race, let’s lift up the country! LET’S LIFT UP THE WORLD!!! ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE!

Freeedoooooooom! *pumps fist in the air*

Let me stop…

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4 Comments

August 20, 2005 at 6:58 pm

Anonymous

I feel compelled to comment on what is undoubtedly a genuine assessment, however, in my humble opinion, the conclusions are slightly awry. Having taught in a “under-funded” inner city school I would like to elucidate my opinion from a perspective that is not speculatory. In no way is this an attempt to offend the author nor would I make any illations on her qualifications to speak on the matter. It is simply my opinion. OK so the problem isn’t funding or salaries or old books or lack of technology because in reality per capita spending in inner city schools is often comparable to suburban schools. Now funding in general is based on property taxes so areas with higher concentrations of homeowners will generally have a larger pool to pull from. Of course this information alone doesn’t tell the complete story. In especially poor communities you will often find larger school districts. Why? Well if a more affluent neighborhood lies in the same school district as the schools that serve the poor areas, these schools(poor) can have access to tax dollars that they might not otherwise see. My point is “under-funding” is somewhat of a fallacy. So before this gets too long lets get to the real issue. I will isolate my comments to the Black community since many of the issues in Hispanic areas are significantly different. The real problem: Parents. You can’t even begin to draw an analogy between the family structure of Black America with that of the Japanese culture. In our culture the family unit is so warped you have someone like Fantasia who is lauded for producing what I like to call the “hood rat anthem of the decade”. For those not familiar with the career of the third American Idol winner, a single from her debut album titled “B-a-b-y M-a-m-a” contains lyrics like “Today its like a badge of honor…to be a baby mama”. Now our music is notorious for degrading lyrics and that is really a whole different conversation but that is just a sore spot for me. Moving on, plenty of kids are encouraged to excel in areas like Math and Science. Simply because numbers at top American institutions don’t reflect a representative proportion of Blacks doesn’t mean there is insufficient support in schools. It is not a cause and effect situation. OK I was getting ready to stop but now reading that last “Grad School” bit I’m forced to continue. So if the first half of this wasn’t inflammatory enough, let’s really get it crackin now. Having gone to public school my entire life I’m ready to take aim at the private institutions here in the city I now call home. Where is the academic rigor in the most respected institutions in our community? Waiting in line to sign up for classes. What? Where is the organization? Where is the leadership? What about admissions standards? I love capitalism but there are areas where it really shouldn’t be, and higher education is one of them. Look at the tuition of these schools, a high price tag should buy more than second tier education. Ooooh…..yeah I said it. I swear if I meet another pompous graduate from the “best school in the country” that looks down on my education I’m going to lose it. Now don’t get me wrong some of the most talented and successful people in our community are proud alumni of these schools but a school should be judged by the average Grad, not the exceptional. Let’s look at it another way. How many companies would hire the average 3.5 from “insert school name here” over the average 3.3 from GaTech/MIT/Stanford. OK I think my point is clear.
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August 21, 2005 at 3:03 am

KaNisa

A little confused by some of your points…(about grad school) but I agree with you on the parents not taking responsibility. Most of them are products of the same kind of institution though. They never saw anything different so how will their children be any different? It’s an unending cycle.

But it’s also more than just them…some teachers aren’t teaching because they like it, they do it because it’s a job. My mother works as a substitute teacher and she is called every day because a teacher had something more important to do then work.

A local school just started classes, she subbed for a teacher that couldn’t didn’t even come to school for the first week because they were on vacation! VACATION?!

Maybe 30% of the teachers in the district are absent from their jobs every day! That’s ridiculous! And that’s the “affluent” school too!

I think good teachers can do a lot to encourage students. I was a terrible Math student in secondary school and I struggled to get B’s, and that was tough for me to comprehend because I personally never had trouble in school (low expectations of the system…and that was private school) but her pushing and challenging curriculum helped me to gain more confidence in my abilities, and I had the skills I needed to get an A in that same class at Georgia Tech.

In general though, education in America is deficient on all levels. Low expectations, lack of professionalism, and low morale of the students are the reasons why.

No Child Left Behind? A joke.

So what’s the solution?
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August 24, 2005 at 11:37 pm

Anonymous

OK, the Grad School transition was a little abrupt. I was referring to the lack of rigor you described in your mom’s experience and how low expectations continue to plague our community even at the highest educational level. However, vilifying our universities alone is a very myopic analysis of the situation. I agree with you completely that there is a cycle in place. There certainly isn’t a plethora of highly qualified applicants that these universities can choose from. Universities need students and when students enter with study skills that are mediocre at best an arduous curriculum will certainly result in high drop-out rates. So where do you begin? Well it definitely starts at home and early in the educational process. If you think missing the first week is bad, what about the whole first semester? Yes, the highschool I taught at had multiple classes that had no permanent teacher in place until the 2nd semester. I actually started out teaching Algebra & Geom. to 9th and 10th graders in summer school who had been without a teacher for the first 3 weeks of an 8 week session. Good teachers can definitely make a huge impact but a challenging curriculum is a double edged sword, especially in urban classrooms. Imagine going through that same teacher’s class with a starting skillset that was 2 years behind the prerequisite. Better yet imagine taking a junior/senior level Eng. class as a freshman. How difficult would it be to learn about Laplace & Fourier Transforms if you didn’t understand integration. Education is deficient at most levels but that is as much a function of our culture as it is anything else. To do some real good they should rename No Child left behind to No parent left unaccountable. What’s the solution? I definitely don’t have the answer but it must start with a stable family unit.

-The next Andre Young
:)
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August 27, 2005 at 1:34 pm

Serenity23

I am thankful for that PBS though. My 3 yr old loves those shows. And I always hear him saying PBS dot ORG. And I’m smiling to myself thinking of the day that he’ll be able to actually type that out and get on the internet. And as far as the “rappers”. Nothing disgusts me more than meeting folks who want to be a rapper. I’m with you. Can you do something more productive, more sure fire. What are you going to look like at 50 as a rapper.
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