Dateline: December 10, 2005
Education
Drugs, Gangs, and Sex
It has been said that public education in America is abysmal. Some education professionals are outspoken enough to suggest that the status of elementary and secondary public school education is catastrophic.
These are powerful and unflattering descriptions. The system itself seems to be in a spiraling downward decline, broken, and coming apart as it deals with one major ethical dilemma after another. The ethics i.e. morality of the system may well be the singular, most important reason for the incredible flight of parents away from it and their growing attraction to home-schooling their own children.
This is all speculation since it appears no one in the official education mainstream will admit to keeping score on this. What we do know for certain is that most home-school bound children are from families who evidence a broad range of socio-economic backgrounds. Parents of these youngsters are both rich and poor with a lot of “in between”. Many give up two incomes and downsize their lifestyle just to carry out a home-school environment. For their efforts however, home-school parents are often rewarded with stunning and exceptional results. National attention to the academic achievements of home-schooled children is becoming commonplace. It would seem their children are both safe and being well educated.
The real dilemma therefore, that public school parents face, is whether or not public institutions can keep their youngsters as safe. Without a system-wide and enforced character code that has teeth, a child’s academic education falls behind and no longer looms as the only concern. Kids today go to school wondering how to navigate the halls and how to deal with the subcultures of peer pressure that begin as early as the 4th grade - drugs, gangs, and sex. Education is no longer their number one priority, survival is.
Concerned public school parents who otherwise can afford it and opt not to home-school, gravitate to religious schools and preppy private schools that promote the safety of their children as a given, freeing their children up to acquire the best education they can within a private institutional environment. The lack of safety and effective education in our public schools is often portrayed by the media and politicians as a systemic malady caused by the lack of a moral compass. Columbine, it has been suggested, was just the tip of the iceberg.
Should the entire system be chucked and reorganized and refocused? If indeed we truly believe it is morally bankrupt, what other choices have we? To carry on in the hope it may “someday” self correct seems not only foolhardy but most certainly, foolish. Were it not for the war in Iraq, this singular issue would be the number one item on the national table to be sliced, diced and reorganized. Hopefully, it will not languish too long under the radar. The future of our nation and indeed, the future of the world, may well depend on it.
Next up:
Media
Education
Drugs, Gangs, and Sex
It has been said that public education in America is abysmal. Some education professionals are outspoken enough to suggest that the status of elementary and secondary public school education is catastrophic.
These are powerful and unflattering descriptions. The system itself seems to be in a spiraling downward decline, broken, and coming apart as it deals with one major ethical dilemma after another. The ethics i.e. morality of the system may well be the singular, most important reason for the incredible flight of parents away from it and their growing attraction to home-schooling their own children.
This is all speculation since it appears no one in the official education mainstream will admit to keeping score on this. What we do know for certain is that most home-school bound children are from families who evidence a broad range of socio-economic backgrounds. Parents of these youngsters are both rich and poor with a lot of “in between”. Many give up two incomes and downsize their lifestyle just to carry out a home-school environment. For their efforts however, home-school parents are often rewarded with stunning and exceptional results. National attention to the academic achievements of home-schooled children is becoming commonplace. It would seem their children are both safe and being well educated.
The real dilemma therefore, that public school parents face, is whether or not public institutions can keep their youngsters as safe. Without a system-wide and enforced character code that has teeth, a child’s academic education falls behind and no longer looms as the only concern. Kids today go to school wondering how to navigate the halls and how to deal with the subcultures of peer pressure that begin as early as the 4th grade - drugs, gangs, and sex. Education is no longer their number one priority, survival is.
Concerned public school parents who otherwise can afford it and opt not to home-school, gravitate to religious schools and preppy private schools that promote the safety of their children as a given, freeing their children up to acquire the best education they can within a private institutional environment. The lack of safety and effective education in our public schools is often portrayed by the media and politicians as a systemic malady caused by the lack of a moral compass. Columbine, it has been suggested, was just the tip of the iceberg.
Should the entire system be chucked and reorganized and refocused? If indeed we truly believe it is morally bankrupt, what other choices have we? To carry on in the hope it may “someday” self correct seems not only foolhardy but most certainly, foolish. Were it not for the war in Iraq, this singular issue would be the number one item on the national table to be sliced, diced and reorganized. Hopefully, it will not languish too long under the radar. The future of our nation and indeed, the future of the world, may well depend on it.
Next up:
Media
posted by Robert Cox - Editor at 6:09 PM
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