As Times Change
By Mitch Berg
Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:
Can you imagine a songwriter today trying to sell these lyrics:
“When some loud bragger tries to put me down and says his school is great,
I tell him “What’s the matter buddy, ain’t you heard of my school? It’s number one in the state.”
So be true to your school, just like you would to your girl . . . “
Even with thumping base loud enough to flex the car windows and rattle the bumper, there’s no way this song would sell.
Kids these days.
Joe Doakes
True, but to be fair, a lot of times these days it’s the parents that’re bailing on their kids schools.
November 14th, 2013 at 6:42 am
Speaking as a parent with two teenagers in school, I think the main problem with American schools is that neither parents nor teachers make their lazy students work hard enough. Classes move at the speed of their slowest students, and everyone seems happy with that.
Rather than standardized testing to measure how well a teacher or school is performing, standardized testing should reveal to parents how well their child is doing, vs. the rest of the school, the rest of the country, and the rest of the world. American parents, most of whom work in a very competitive environment, need to understand that their child is also in a race for success. Parents demand too little of their children and their schools. I support any reform that allows parents to more directly interact with those making decisions about their children’s education (charter schools do that, as well as vouchers for private schools), and any reform which reveals just where their children stand relative to the rest of the world, which will motivate them to act.
November 14th, 2013 at 8:33 am
“…the main problem with American schools…” I say; pour us a spot of tea and pass the biscuits old chum.
We hear about the incredible lead other countries have on us in science and technology education at the primary and secondary levels, but in my world travels, I’ve learned that many of these children are tracked at an early age and most will go/be forced into trades (not that there is anything wrong with a trade). They won’t have any choice (which if one has been paying attention to the Obamacare debacle, we Yanks like having choices) and will conform to whichever caste or class system from the 11th or 17th century their country imposes on them.
Parents have some choices – my children have taken additional courses beyond the school/district offering which I have paid for out of my own pocket (the horror!!) and I think Mitch had to go extra-curricular on his local school for his children.
Like it or not, standardized tests are used to judge how well (or would effective be a better description?) teachers and schools are doing. If you read the test data, it notes how well your child compares to the rest of his school, the other schools in the district as well as the state. Judging how well schools are doing by comparing results is no different than reading the quality scores of the auto manufacturers – you may not hold it against the line employees or management, but you are trying to get an idea of whether or not your auto is a lemon. Tying school funding to students and allowing parents to vote with that money would go a long way toward improving the quality of school ‘product’.
“…which will motivate them to act.” Hang out with my spouse when teacher-parent conference time comes. Act would require ‘effort’, which many parents have no interest in.
November 14th, 2013 at 11:17 am
My experience has led me to feel that sometimes there is too much parental input.
Those who fight to get their kids into “advanced” classes for status purposes, so much so that only substandard students are not in them. Or, high schools that offer “free” college credits to seniors who are high achievers. Obviously nothing is free and school money should stay with the school, not outside facilities or spent on kids who are already doing well in high school.
Their mission is secondary education. College prep beyond in-house academics and some in-house advice exceeds it.
Of course, extra curricular activities, including sports. These have become so intense that the fun aspect has been killed by wannba-be/ used to-be athletic parents. Again, the college prep aspect is involved. Some, like a MN high school known nationwide for it’s wrestling program, are supposedly recruiting athletes for it’s program from all over the country, blatantly stretching district rules against this beyond recognition and has little interest in hometown pride.
Of course the opposite is true, too.
I do sympathize with teachers because of this. Standardized testing is hardly standardized, and teacher evaluations cannot accurately measure ability when the true abilities of students are so obscured by over- and under-indulgent parents.
Bring back the old, sexually repressed nuns …
November 14th, 2013 at 1:32 pm
A great way to get parents to care–and schools as well–is to remind parents that the collapse of Social Security and Medicare is a question of when, not if, and that if they want to have someone to change the bedpan in their twilight years, they’d better help the kids be able to find a good profession.
And yeah, I’ve seen a certain number of parents fail their kids, just like I’ve seen a fair number of teachers in on the job retirement. ouch.
November 14th, 2013 at 5:28 pm
There was an encouraging bit on Fox News this AM. A mother was upset about her child getting on the honor roll. That’s correct, upset over the kid being ON the honor roll, not for being excluded from it.
Her/his report card showed a couple A’s along with a C and a D. None the less, by the school’s standard’s the kid was entitled to be on the honor roll.
The mom felt that this was wrong, that the kid did not deserve to be there, and by putting him/her there s/he would be given the idea that substandard work was praiseworthy.
The school agreed, took the kid off the honor roll, and is re-examining it’s grade recognition policy.
There are still good parents out there …