Dear Old Golden School Days...
If you're as old as I am, you definitely recall your school days, and probably with much fondness.
You might even remember the name of your FIRST-GRADE teacher (mine was Mrs. Lydia Burnside - G.L. Horn Elementary school, Philadelphia).
Many people argue that NOW...right here, today is a lot better time than say...50 years ago.
I would argue that point.
Back then, we had a LOT less strife in our lives, whether we were adults or children.
Sure, we may have been thinking in the backs of our minds about the "nuclear threat", and where the nearest "fallout shelter" was (ours was actually in the basement OF our school).
But, by and large, things were somehow less problematic.
One thing we didn't seem to have was something like THIS story:
http://www.journalgazette.net/article/20100114/LOCAL07/301149988/1002/LOCAL Now this stabbing of a 17 year old by a 14 year old in the lunchroom invokes (in me anyway) a bit of shock and awe.
Considering the fact that we have SO many things in place to PREVENT such a thing from happening (many schools have placed METAL DETECTORS at entrances to catch anyone bringing a GUN inside the schools), that this somehow slipped through the cracks.
I didn't know we still HAD any cracks when it came to student safety...and if we did, they were certainly too small to allow this to occur.
Hell, I remember in our lunchrooms, we had REAL METAL UTENSILS (potential weapons) we grabbed from small bins alongside the trays (germ warfare), as we purchased (no free rides in those days) our lunches (cholesterol and calories...pshaw).
See, we just didn't DO such things in our day...wonder WHY that was?
Oh, may-be it was because our parents (meaning both of them, because leaving a woman when you were "done" with her wasn't considered honorable in those days, plus you had a responsibility to the children you sired as a male) instructed us in PROPER BEHAVIOR.
And even "if" you were raised by ONE parent, it was still drilled into you...
Some things you CAN do...others, you simply CANNOT.
Our folks knew what society ALLOWED as well as what it DID NOT ALLOW.
And we, as children or young adults were EXPECTED to follow suit..which we pretty much did...OR ELSE.
It may interest you to know that the school mentioned in the article is NOT a PUBLIC school, but rather a PRIVATE school.
So, you can only imagine what goes on in all those public schools these days, right?
I've always thought that as a society EVOLVES and GROWS, we are ALL held to higher standards...NOT lower ones.
We adapt with the times...we ALSO evolve, as it were.
Well, that's what's SUPPOSED to happen, anyway.
Hasn't quite turned out that way, has it?
Our kids have (overall) consistently lagged behind, we've tossed BILLIONS in taxpayer money at the educational system for damn near anything and everything under the sun and what have got to show for it, hmm?
So, in many ways, I'd have to say that compared to my day, we're more than a bit worse off when it comes to schools, as well as society itself.
And, like I always say, if we'd just get back to BASICS, instill real DISCIPLINE back in the classroom, and hold students and parents a lot more accountable than we seem to today, we might get this old yellow bus turned back around and pointed in the right direction.
I've told the missus that there are 168 hours in any given week, and you pretty much have children in school for close to FORTY of those hours...give or take after school activities, etc. That leaves 128 hours "free" to pursue whatever.
Now, how is ANY school able to overcome those other 128 hours the kids are AWAY from school, and make the mere 40 hours they have them in their charge count?
It's damn near impossible to "undo" what kids are learning outside of class to make them succeed IN class, unless the children themselves are motivated to learn while in school...simple, huh?
And every child is different when it comes to learning...that much we already know.
But there has to be some solution that will serve everyone the same.
If you have a class of 30 kids, it's a good bet that ONE THIRD of them will either fail, or drop out of school (we are talking high school here). The good students will always rise to the top, so you have to worry about them being bored, as you teach to the large middle group that at least have a CHANCE of passing or getting promoted.
How do you say to that 1/3 of any class that "you will fail"?
Well, schools aren't really in the business of FAILURE, are they?
(although most of their budgets would have us think otherwise)
There are so many people with a lot more letters after their name than I could ever have, state time and again that the PARENTS are the key to student development. Teachers say the exact same thing.
It's much like that old saying: "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink".
Same goes for students....you can lead them into school, but you can't make them learn. Or can you?
And God knows we have every item at their disposal for the process OF learning.
it's not the curriculum, or the teaching material, or the educators themselves that ultimately fails a child...
It's the CHILDREN, THEMSELVES that fail, with a fair amount of help from the parents.
When parents do nothing to help their kids, that's exactly what gets done...nothing.
A few kids might learn all on their own, but that's a rarity, and not the social norm.
Children look for guidance, in order to learn. They really WANT to learn, but if all they're shown is an "easy" way out, they're gonna go for it, instead of applying themselves and being taught that self-motivation, coupled with encouragement from parents, teachers, and others is what will honestly permit them to achieve more than they could hope for.
And that is a formula that not only serves every one of us AS children, but will also follow us for a very long time in our lives.
We never really stop learning...no matter how long we live.
Learning is, and should always be considered, life itself.
And that is today's lesson, kids (of every age)... Do well, make a difference, and as always...
Stay safe out there, America