We Are Forgetting About Our Kids

I don't need to rehash what has been going on in Washington. The moves that were made with the most recent agreements, we are told, were made to protect our children and their future. I am more worried about protecting our children of today to make sure we don't have a lost generation gliding through our school system.

Where is our country's moral standard when we read the article in the Huffington Post on August 8th "Schools Caught Cheating in Atlanta and Around the Country"? This is not our kids' fault; it is our society's fault. Where is Washington when the Wichita Kansas Eagle reports this week: "Board approves heavy budget cuts" and goes on to say they are doing away with librarians and stringed instrument classes; or when the Corsicana, Texas Daily Sun reports "Mildred cutting budget" and talks about the band not being able to go to football games?

Where is our country's ethical position when as the Chicago Sun Times reported earlier this week, "Aldermen Not Warming Up to Proposed School Property Tax Hike?"

Like any business, if you don't have enough money coming in, the services you provide will be decreased. Around the country, skills that were being taught that have made our country what it is today like music, art and physical education, are being eliminated. Teachers are being fired, increasing class size. This is not the legacy I want to leave my children today, let alone the children of tomorrow that Washington is so concerned about.

The Huffington Post back in December reported the "U.S. Falls in World Education Rankings" and that our great country is rated "average." I know my kids aren't average and I am sure your kids aren't average, either. In this horrible economy we all have to make sacrifices and any "average" American understands this. But don't sacrifice our kids in the short term, because this country will pay for this in the future. Sacrifice our retirement benefits. Have us pay more in sales tax. Have the adults in this country benefit less in social services, but don't sacrifice our kids, especially in their formative years.

At dollardays.com we are trying to help the kids a little. On our Facebook page we are giving away one free month of SAT test preparation to an entire junior class at one school. You should enter your favorite high school into this sweepstakes.

Education is what has helped the quality of the American society grow so quickly in the last couple of hundred years. This is because adults have made the right sacrifices for all of our kids. It is the honorable and decent way to treat the next generation.

 

Comments

[Sean Taylor Teacher]

11:30 PM on 08/22/2011

My father used the GI Bill to attend University, he recounted on many an occasion, usually trying to teach me a lesson, that he took "Bone Head Classes" because he had poor reading and writing skills. The state university offered returning solders basic classes in all subjects, most likely starting at the Junior High level. He never blamed his teachers or the school for his poor academic skills, just his lack of motivation and will. He Received his BS in electrical engineering after his service in Korea.

We can blame the government, public schools, and teachers, but the first teacher is, and always will be, the parent. In many ways public schools have taken on the job of primary parent and caregiver for many children. This is not a model that will ever work.

We will pay for our lack of foresight sooner than America will realize.

[Spike5]

10:51 PM on 08/23/2011

You are right, of course, but perhaps it's unrealistic for people who have been badly educated themselves to be a good role model for their children.

My children heard grammatical English from their birth. They were surrounded by books. They made weekly trips to the library before they could walk or talk. They were read to every night. They went to zoos and museums and parks and traveled out of their own neighborhood. They could read before they started school. They had a foundation they could build on if they chose.

But I tutored a couple of middle school kids in a modest (definitely not a slum) neighborhood. The boy could barely read, no one in his family had graduated high school, and there were no books in his home. The girl was from a large family, all the older girls were married with children instead of graduating, as a girl she was expected to do a great deal of housework while her brothers had no chores at all, and she assumed she would be following her sisters' lead. Neither one even know and certainly didn't care that there was a community college within two miles of their homes. Certainly neither one had been encouraged to excel in school.

If we want children like these to exceed their low expectations, we are going to have to provide the motivation in the schools and the communities. Otherwise, only the rare exceptions will avoid repeating their parents' lives.

[Jennifer Shewmaker]

11:24 PM on 08/22/2011

I just returned from spending almost a year in Germany, where my 3 children were educated in an international school. Coming back to the public school system here in the US, especially in middle school, has been a shock. I have always been a proponent of public education and have worked in public schools and had my children in them for years. But I am dismayed by the current state of our public education system. We are falling behind, and something must be done about it.

[Rationality4all]

09:12 PM on 08/22/2011

Good idea. Social Security and Medicare should be defunded to pay for nationally run schools. Education is one of the few things government should actually be doing and currently is failing miserably at.