The goal of going to college is to develop the specialized training needed to obtaining the job. This expectation creates a need to pay expensive tuitions in the expectation it will attribute to future financial gains. Sometimes costing upwards of 40 thousand dollars a year, expensive colleges with proven pedigrees don’t guarantee fiscal earning potential. What a burden to place on our youth when their college costs more than they will be earning. Families struggle with difficult decisions between the better and the costlier school. It seems these days that a degree is equivalent to opportunity. Where does it end? One degree often isn’t sufficient. As more students see the necessity for advanced levels of education, parents struggle to support their children in their pursuit of essential skills.
Starting teachers salaries are often in the 20 thousand range. Teachers have integral roles in the shaping of our communities and our culture. The values and approaches to learning that students are infused with become the ethics of the future. How can such a foundation not be seen as indicative of our society at large. What do we value in education today? What is really important to our future?
If teachers were paid more, teaching would be more competitive. Only teachers who excelled would have the privilege of shaping our future. How can this not be seen as immeasurably valuable boggles me. I’m not saying that just raising salaries would solve the problem but it would be a step in a good direction.
Educating our future should be something we do right here in the land of the free and the brave! Why isnt this sometrhing everyone can agree on? Taxpayers pay for schools shouldnt we be able to shape the type of learning experiences our children are getting? Who knows where the money goes? Dc is closing under enrolled schools citing the wastefulness of running schools that are not at full capacity.
John F. Cook Elementry is one of the schools deemed to be unnecessary. The students will be sent to other schools in the area. This is wrong. Cook is a community. The staff and students are proud of their school. Students line up early for free breakfast and eat lunch in the cafeteria which is also the gym and the auditorium. To some students this is the most stable part of their life. The principal is exemplery in his care and connection with his students. When he walks into a room, they hush and eagerly seek his approval. This man is a role model in so many ways.
I am not saying that everything is perfect at this school. It is a DC public school on North Capitol Street. These children see the capitol just down the street. The capitol that is giving up on a school they love. The students proudly write John F. Cook on murals and proclaim how proud they are of their community. Every day starts with a message to the community. I will succeed, we will suceed together, this is how we will get there, the word of the day is preparation, Go team Cook!
Cook Elementry had a pep rally friday to get ready for standardized testing. Students did cheers and raps and teachers preformed, parents showed up and sat in the last row and the custodial and security staff all participated.
Ok so, not all these kids are getting a perfect education experience. Many of them come to school disadvantaged to learn. The experiences they have outside of the classroom make it difficult and challenging for them to have success inside the classroom. Students come to class in bad moods and need ways to work through their feelings in a positive way. These kids need more one on one attention not less. The answer to a better educational experience is not consolidating and more kids, it is less!
These students desperately seek role models and one on one face time. Any positive connection or comment from an adult is met with such an immediate response it is ridiculous to think that there isn’t a better way to handle this problem. If kids respond so well to personal attention and interaction we need more of it not less. The model of having kids with behavioral and learning challenges and just one teacher isn’t working. These teachers need more support.
On friday i exerienced something a teacher hopes never happens. One of my students beat up another student. I ran to intercept but i was not quick enough to prevent a little girl from getting beat up by a boy twice her size. I am not purporting that this girl was an innocent bystander just that this kind of thing should not be happening. If i had not been on the opposite side of the room i would have seen the interaction and prevented the fight.
These kids don’t always see good models of conflict resolution and they often are mimicking adult solutions when dealing with their child views of the problems they encounter. When a situation becomes something they are hurt by they sometimes respond with anger and violence.
We need to start from the beginning. We need more teachers not less. We need more one on one time with students. Learning can’t happen when students come to class so upset by life that they have no desire to try their hand at the challenges learning creates. Part of the process of learning is developing the belief that you are on a path to success. Children need guidance to find their paths. Different strategies for diffusing the attitudes even elementary aged students are burdened with need to be developed. What might help these students to learn better and bigger and braver?
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/19/business/19money.html?_r=1&ref=education&oref=slogin
