Reforming School System?

In reading about the new educational reform for public schools, I am deeply concerned for our children. I believe the federal government gives the reform requirements a new name, but the same problems exist. You can call it “No Child Left Behind”, “American Recovery and Reinvestment”, or “Race to the Top”, but you haven’t really changed the system or the method in which we teach our children that would be a positive impact on them and the teacher at the same time. The government keeps changing the name of their requirements and solutions to our children’s lack of an education that is competitive with other countries in math, science, history, and reading with comprehension, at the same time they haven’t acknowledged the true problem and a method that would solve it in a positive way.

The problem is first they must understand what “learning” means. Learning is gaining knowledge and understanding of something. If you don’t retain something for future use then you haven’t really learned it. It was only memorized. So the beginning problem is we need teachers who can guide and encourage a student to learn (gain knowledge and understanding while retaining it for future use, hopefully for a lifetime).

The real problem is they haven’t figured out the right solution. The government (federal, state, or local) is too concerned with numbers and statistics instead of a child’s long term achievements. In turn they are placing undue stress on teachers. Stress only makes teachers make more mistakes and be less productive. However, there is a real and positive solution but it doesn’t appear that the public administration within the government or Department of Education at any level has discovered it.

Public Administration at all levels wants to blame it on the teachers, but it is not them, it is the system. Who created such a system? Why doesn’t the administration see that it is how the children and teachers are divided and placed together in a class room is the problem?

The real solution that would solve the biggest majority of the teaching problems would also eliminate low teacher statistics is to first divide the childrens ability to learn in three divisions. Placing a child in a classroom with either all fast learners, all average learners and then all slow learners would allow each class room higher productivity and accomplishment as a whole because the children would all be on the same level (speed) of learning.

Today and for many decades, children have been placed in a class room thru drawings, lotteries, or some other method but none of these methods takes inconsideration the speed at which a child learns. Most teachers teach at a speed of the fastest learners in the class, thereby leaving the average and slow learners behind. This is very frustrating to a child and can cause several/ many problems to the child and teacher. Some teachers cannot and do not have the tolerance nor patience with slower learning students. They don’t have the extra skills it takes for the slower learner. This doesn’t mean the teacher isn’t as good as the next one it just means their method of teaching is not as clear to a slower learner. Most slow learning students have a learning disability of some kind. All teachers have their own techniques, some are better for each group of learners than others. A teacher’s personality can also be a clue as to the group of children he or she can teach. Some teachers can teach all three groups while others cannot. Children learn with different types of techniques just as teachers have their own individual methods of teaching.

The Board of Education, and Principals should have enough knowledge, skill, and fore sight to know where and how to match the children with the teacher. Parents too have a great responsibility to the child and the school; all must cooperate and work together for the good of teacher and student

Let’s look at a couple of true life examples: Example 1: There were two sisters, we will call them Sally and Hope. Hope was the oldest but because of her learning disability she had difficulty keeping up with the faster and average student. The school system however put such pressure on the teachers that Hope was passed on to the next grade each year. The parents took the initiative to talk to the principal and have Hope placed back a grade after her fourth grade seem to be such a failure according to their understanding. So Hope and Sally were placed in the same grade and with the same fourth grade teacher. The principal discovered that the two girls were in the same classroom, which was not against policy, however, the principal knew that there was a teacher in the school who could teach Hope with a technique that would encourage and help her gain her own self esteem and now feel humiliated from her sister nor her other peers. Teacher A is a very good teacher but Teacher B had a better technique and personality that Hope would relate and learn. If Hope had stayed in Teacher A’s class room she would have fallen back even more, to have new frustrations and humiliations from her peers. However, because of the Principal’s insight Hope went on to learn everything required of a fourth grades and passed just as Sally did. She also learned some tools for her own use from Teacher B that help her excel in later years of school. By the time she reached junior and high school she was in the top 5% of her class and graduated as a member of the Honor Society.

If the parents and principal had not worked together, Hope would have probably failed once again and been a statistic of failure to the Teacher A, the school system and most importantly to herself.

Example 2: There was a teacher and a little boy who for no known reason did not like each other and therefore much friction was in the classroom. The teacher wanted to classify the boy as a problem child and call him a trouble maker. The problem was personality. The principal knew that the boy had never been a problem before so he set up a conference with the parents, teacher, and student, though their cooperation and working together the problem was solved. If all three adults had not had the common sense and foresight to work together this too would have been another statistic of failure for a teacher.

Example 3: When students hear “gossip” about a teacher and decide they don’t like the teacher, that also presents behavior problems; but at the same time when teachers judge a student solely by another teacher’s opinion it also causes problems in the class room and between the teacher and students: There was an 8^th grade girl who had heard nothing but bad things about a teacher. The student was fearful of getting that particular teacher for which she did. She was afraid of the teacher and afraid she was going to grade unfairly. But both of the parents and principal told the girl to give the teacher a chance and judge the teacher on how she was treated in the class room and on homework by the teacher. She was told to be fair and give the teacher the benefit of the doubt. She did. She ended up liking the teacher and learned much from her. In the same fairness, teachers should give students fairness by not prejudging them and give them the benefit of the doubt.

Yes, I agree that there are children with behavior problems, but if there are no teachers in the regular class rooms to handle this problem and the parents are not going to take their responsibility then the school system, (Board of Education, and the principal) should see that the child is sent to a special school for such children, some public school systems have these types of schools, while others don’t; but there are non-profit organizations that help children with these problems so if you look far enough and your real goal is to have each child reach his/her potential then you will find the help through special schools, tutors, or special counseling. There is always hope for every child.