We were lucky. Our two kids went to public grade
school, middle school and high school. They both got a great education.
Unfortunately that isn’t always the case with public education. Now both my
kids, one in the city and another in the suburbs, are looking at education for
their own kids, my grandchildren. But the landscape has changed considerably
since they were in school. Despite the rhetoric and hyperbole about the
importance of education, no one seems to have an answer to the problem of kids
failing in school or dropping out before graduation.
Over the generations, there have been radical
changes in my own family tree in terms of education. From a grade school
education for my parents, to college for my wife and I, advanced degrees for
our two children, and what will probably be even higher standards for our five grandchildren.
Education has played a major role in our and their development as citizens of
the world. Education has always been the key to success in any area for all of
us. Within the confines of my family, it has been an understood and
non-negotiable factor in our lives.
For many others, education seems to have lost
its priority, vision and standard of excellence. It seems that too
often parents are distracted by their own issues and forget that the most unempowered
of us all don’t have a real voice in their own future. Adults don’t always fare
much better.
Adult Americans have scored 17th as a nation in simple tasks such as
calculating mileage reimbursement, sorting emails and comparing expiration
dates on grocery store food tags.
Finland, a country that is miniscule in size and
economic power when compared to the United States, ranked second overall.
Education is paramount in that tiny country where there are no sports in school
and they use standardized textbooks paired with non-standardized teaching
techniques. Nowadays in America, sports and social events seem to take
precedence over tough academic challenges.
Subtle yet undermining events have begun to corrode
the mettle of public education.
In Minnesota, businesses (mainly resort owners up
north) complain about school starting before the state fair. Somehow it’s more
important to be hauling anchor for some millionaire resort owner or schlepping
hotdogs at the ‘Great Minnesota Get-Together’ than learning geometry. Commerce
tops education once again in Minnesota.
Now in order to save money, some school boards are
looking at a school week of only four days and justifying it as a cost-saving
measure. They’re eliminating music and the arts as extraneous to the
architecture of learning. To meet state-imposed guidelines, some schools
now ‘teach to the test’ instead of helping children understand the concepts
behind the subject matter. They’re taking away recess and then wonder why the
kids are fidgety in class and can’t sit still. One elementary school just
banned the game of ‘tag, you’re it.’ Touching, even on the asphalt, is now
suspect.
The challenges to education don’t stop after
high school. We have the ritual of Spring Break when twenty-year old children
flock to Cancun and Mazatlan looking to get drunk and get
laid. What does that have to do with education and academic achievement?
The ritual began back in 1936 by a swimming
coach from Colgate University who brought his swim team down to Fort Lauderdale
to train at the Casino Pool – the first Olympic-sized swimming pool in
Florida. Two years later, more than 300
swimmers were competing at the event and the ‘entitlement’ of Spring Break had
begun.
Hollywood jumped into the act in 1961 with its less
than realistic portrait of true love in Where the Boys Are. Fueled by the
stress of having to endure the horrors of winter and hitting books instead of
partying, college students decided en mass that a break was needed from reality.
Spring Break provided just such a distraction.
Much like the annual trek of the Wildebeest across
the savannas of Africa, college students began herding themselves south in
record numbers. The airlines, ever ready to aid the migration, quickly followed
with cheap air fares and kids who might have to do a road trip could now pile
into silver flights of fancy to begin their week of teenage debauchery.
In Minnesota, there is an annual joke called MEA
week where children and their families leave town for a well-deserved break
after having to endure a full month of education after only three months of
summer vacation.
Yet no one has yet to ask: When did Spring Break and
MEA weekend become entitlements for our children?
The entertainment factory doesn’t help with its
humorous portrayal of Jake Harper, the teen slacker from ‘Two and a Half Men.’
We laugh at his stupidity and lack of ambition because it’s funny, but in a
very sad sort of way.
One recent sports wag has even suggested that we
should get rid of the façade and pay athletes in college since they’re such a
revenue-maker for the university. In other words, let’s perpetuate the diploma
mills and focus on the real money-makers, sports.
I’m not suggesting we simply go back to the basics
of reading, writing and arithmetic. We
do need school lunch programs. We do need some social programs for those in
need. We do need activities outside of the classroom to enhance personal growth
and maturity.
I have a good friend who is a college professor who
espouses the philosophy of personal responsibility. He expects his students to
fulfill their role as learners in his classroom and to seek help if they need
it. He is tough but fair - and he is respected for that. His toughest task is
dealing with parents (in college yet) who want to shelter their children from
the harshness of final exams and heavy loads of homework.
Summer vacation is now rightfully being seen as a
vacuum for many students who will probably forget much of what they learned
during the last school year. Summer programs have sprung up to help students
remember and continue their education. Many libraries are full of students
still eager to learn outside of the classroom.
Many moms get it even if some school officials and
politicians often don’t. Those involved women, affectionately known as crunchy
granola moms, actually put their own kids' learning ahead of the political
gerrymandering and some of the popular misguided notions of education.
They’re able to cut to the quick and focus on what’s
best for their children’s nutritional needs as well as knowledge-enrichment exercises.
It might not be a far stretch to wonder if many of their parents were probably
hippies who weren’t willing to accept modern-day society’s romantic rendering
of the little red school house. But I digress…
Internships are gaining in favor over menial summer
jobs as more college students realize that serving fries at minimum wage can’t
compare to working and learning in the real world of their parents.
There will be more hope on the horizon when enough
parents demand that their kids come ahead of various political agendas. When
parents make sure there is less ‘facetime’ with electronic distractions and
more time face time spent interacting with real people. When their kids are allowed to
play outdoors unrestricted by the fear of bumping into one another or falling
off a swing or too much sunlight.
Some folks have actually questioned my wife and me
for spending a substantial amount of money on our children’s college education.
They ask why we would put our children’s academic needs ahead of our own
retirement savings, summer vacations, new cars and other material goods.
For those lost souls who truly don’t get it, I can
only answer: “My kids…my money…and that is non-negotiable.”
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