The main problem isn't legislation, funding, or political involvement in government schools. The problem is the lack of parental involvement and lack of respect for the "free" education that the student is receiving, along with a few other factors. There are far too many students that don't appreciate the education and are not trying to learn. There is also a lack of discipline in many of the students as well as nonproductive environments in which they live and operate.
It is improbable and next to impossible to educate a person if that person isn't willing to be educated or lacks the mental capacity to comprehend what is being taught. Conversely the curriculum is also too easy for the more intelligent students and results in boredom and a lack of motivation as well.
When I was a teen, the public high school was teaching the same thing over and over throughout the year, review after review, it become very boring and subsequently I lost interest and got in with the wrong crowd. To my way of thinking, there must be different schools that are tailored to the students and their abilities. Some students are intellectually incapable of learning higher mathematics, sciences, and other complex subjects. Some students may in fact be better served by sending them to a vocational school.
How many kids drop out of school and struggle in the private sector, simply because they have no real job skills and aren't going to be able to understand the more detailed aspects of higher learning? What good does it do to have a classroom of widely varying levels of aptitude, motivation, interest and genuine desire for an education? In general what happens is that the standard is lowered so as to not have as many failures in order to procure more funding the following year. When it is all said and done the more intelligent students get cheated of a proper education and therefore are not able to reach their potential until later in life. All this in the name of "fairness"? It is an oxymoron by it's very nature and is unfair to the more capable student.
At one time there were alternative schools for the unruly and disruptive students. These "bad boys" were sent away from the mainstream schools so as to provide a better learning environment for the student that wanted to learn. Why is it now that this unacceptable behavior is tolerated in the schools? I would dare say that if the alternative schools were brought back, there would be a marked increase in the scores on all these tests and there would also be more students that graduate from the schools.
Students that are mentally retarded and/or handicapped also shouldn't be forced to go to the same schools as they not likely to be able to have their particular needs met in a timely fashion. Though these retarded students may not be the brightest they can surely be taught skills to help them make it in the real world. There is a job service in my local area that employs the mentally disabled and helps them to lead and live good lives. They are as important to society as a genius is. Many of those folks have a work ethic that puts many "normal" people to shame, from what I have seen.
This one size fits all mentality, in the government schools, is leading to a decline in the overall quality of the education system and should be expected. Schools started out as private entities and then mutated into this monstrosity we call public education.
The so called middle class was far larger in the late eighteen hundreds than it is today. During that time the U.S. had the largest middle class in the world. Since the government has been growing and progressively adding more taxes to fund more and more programs for the general public it has caused an overall decline of the middle class and the ability to reach that level.
If parents had to pay for the education of their children from their own pockets, rather than have the government take from one and give to the other, there would be more parental involvement in the life of their children.
This involvement would help the children and in turn these students would value their education more. This valuing of their education would lead to a better educated populace and therefore lead to a more prosperous populace, as well as one that would be able and willing to help the next generation to become even more capable.
When we leave it up to the government to set the standards and influence the formative years of a young persons life, instead of the parent, we can be sure that the child will not become the best that they can be. Who cares more for their own flesh and blood other than the flesh and blood from whence they came? Why would a person think that someone else will take better care of the needs of their children than they themselves would?
A return to the privatization of schools is the answer. I know many would disagree, but these are only my thoughts on these matters. Many others are sure to have valid points to consider, in regards to the government education system. So let's hear them.
The one thing that we can use more of is information and consideration of the education of our population and the furtherment of our nation. HEY!!! I'm a poet and didn't know it.
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