Reform Education by Josh

The life and future of our children should not rely on a number written on a ball, they should not rely on the drawing of a name, and they should not be determined by adults who are only thinking for themselves. Changes to our education system must be made, not on the small private scale, but nationally. We live in a nation which was on the top of the world in education a mere forty years ago, and has now dropped to the bottom of the scale in every category except students' false confidence. We live in a nation that has over two thousand schools with a dropout rate of at least forty percent. We live in a nation where teachers have been videotaped reading the newspaper, and kids have been videotaped doing lines of crack, in class. And the solution is known. But for some reason, we choose not to use it. Kipp schools, as well as Jeffrey Canada's schools, have discovered ways of skyrocketing the performance of poor kids in the worst scoring parts of the country. They simply apply accountability and expected high standards to their kids, and they hire and fire the teachers that they want. I know from personal experience that these two tricks are indeed effective. Coming from a school in which every single graduating student has been accepted into a four year college, I know that these strategies work. We were expected to do our homework, we were expected to perform above average, and we did. But when we fell behind there was always help. We were never left behind, never pushed aside, and never forgotten by a teacher. And our teacher's' jobs were in jeopardy should we not perform well, or in other words, should they not teach well. Now if this system works, why is it not practiced in every part of our nation? Why has the system not been changed? If everyone knows that our schools are failing, and that our nation is on a steepening downward slope, where is the reform? This system is not being practiced in every part of our nation because it is illegal in public schools. Nothing is being changed because those who have the power to change something are not doing so. The reform is not here because we are doing nothing to call for it. We must push for change if we want it. We must force the reform. We must call for better education at the top of our lungs, because as it says in Davis Guggenheim's Waiting for Superman, "Great schools come from great people."

An interesting mini documentary about public schools: John Stossel ABC 20/20 - STUPID IN AMERICA 1/3, John Stossel ABC 20/20 - STUPID IN AMERICA 2/3, John Stossel ABC 20/20 - STUPID IN AMERICA 3/3