Education Is Everyone’s Responsibility
We know that the public education system is broken. How did it get there? There are so many factors that played significant roles in the dysfunction of public education. Rather than be overwhelmed at the premise and do nothing, there are a few things you can do. What can I do to fix it?
Start At Home...
Do you have children? Are there books in your home? Do you have a bookshelf? I know that we are living in the age of electronics and social media, but books foster a thirst for knowledge. According to www.nea.org:
My children’s first books were Children’s Bibles. Plan to read to your children on a daily or weekly basis. Make it fun. Plan it with anticipation. Children pick up cues you are not happy about doing something or that it is a chore. Whether we know it or not that sends a negative signal about education. If your child is in utero, read to your baby prior to birth. According to www.BabyCenter.com, Babies recognize their mother's voice in the womb, so why not make reading aloud a habit while you're still pregnant? And once your baby arrives, reading to your newborn is a must. Your baby won't understand your words, but hearing your voice stimulates an interest in sounds and helps him develop listening skills. I Don’t Have Children... If you have younger siblings, cousins or other relatives, buy books. Celebrate educational achievements. Attend plays and recitals. Call on a periodic basis and ask about school performance. Offer to tutor a struggling child. Offer incentives for a great performance and encouragement for children who are struggling. Partner With Your Children’s Teachers & Schools.... Your first visit and introduction to your child’s school should be you introducing yourself to the child’s teacher and administrators. Why wait for something negative to happen? After a negative incident between my oldest daughter’s teacher, I wrote a letter of introduction each year to all four of my children’s teachers the first week of school. The purpose was to introduce my child, let them know my intent was partner with them in my child’s education and provide contact information. There was a time when I saw more angry parents at a school protesting about the fact their children were sent home because they were wearing hoodies than parents attending report card conferences, especially in some high schools. One year there were seventeen parents who attended report card conferences in a school that housed more than 2400 students. Make Education Something Positive & Exciting... Knowing that school could be something stressful for children, make everything about it a celebration. Are you annoyed when you shop for school clothes and supplies? That only heightens your child’s anxiety. I worked to make school fun for my children. When my oldest struggled because she had dyslexia, I made her play school with her younger siblings to reinforce what she learned during the day. As a result, my oldest son Ivan and youngest daughter, Shelley got straight A’s. Shelley loved school so much she hated the onset of summer because it meant no school. She was tested and admitted to the mentally gift program. |
Show An Interest No Matter How Busy You Are...
I was extremely busy working in schools. My ex-husband worked hard, and his hours were late, but education was essential. Respect of school staff was imperative. We asked our children about school every day. Not just the usual, “How was school?” We asked them to talk about their day. It is a great way to check in on how they are performing, teacher interactions, friends and foes or a bully check. You’ll learn what they care about, it gives you an opportunity to weigh in on what they should care about. I loved those conversations. Listen To Your Child... Our children share their hopes and dreams and sometimes we don’t hear them or don’t listen. My son had an interest in the military, but he was a teenager during 9/11 and the Iraqi War and my husband and I were focused on all of our children continuing their education. I wanted my son to go to college. I thought that was what he wanted too. He went to college for a year. While I shredded every military recruitment card that came to my house, all I did was delay God’s design for my son and for that I apologize. I got a call four years later telling me that he was joining the Army. The amazing thing is that he is exceptionally good at what he does. Everyone Can Play A Role In Your Children’s Education... Aunties and uncles can take teenagers on tours of their colleges. If math was your forte, you should make your services available, especially, if you are retired. If history is your area of interest, take children to historic places in your city. We loved history and nature documentaries. Be creative! Take nature walks. Play seek and find in the summer. Create fun STEM activities. Send science kits and art supplies to their homes. Expose our babies to music and culture. Plan and play map activities. If Your Child Struggles... Think outside the box. Talk to your child, consult every teacher, talk to the special education staff to find additional resources. The next step is to investigate resources within your local school district. That includes the local Parent Teacher Association. You are not alone. There is always someone going through something similar. Go online and explore various education websites. Partner with your child’s teacher. Make sure your child completes all assignments. It may be an emotional time as your child struggles but make sure they feel loved and supported. If you can’t tutor them, there are after-school programs and resources in your community. We must stop complaining and take action in our homes and families. Start by training your child socialization as early as possible. Get them into Pre-school. Take action by electing officials who are about building public education for everyone. Retire those self-interested, destructive politicians, who have been collecting salaries for self-benefit. Attend community and school board meetings. Find out what your local politicians are planning to do in your community. One entity will not fix education. We all have work to do. Sources and Acknowledgments http://www.nea.org/grants/facts-about-childrens-literacy.html https://www.babycenter.com/0_reading-to-your-baby_368.bc -Shelley Thomas |
Twanda's Tidbits: It Takes A Village
When I think of education, I envision teachers in the classroom educating students on various subjects. However, true education begins at home when parents instill important values such as love, respect, manners, obedience and the like. Children are never too young to learn such things because they are vital to producing great character.
Parents shouldn't just leave it up to the school system to teach and raise their children. It starts in the home and eventually spreads abroad as the older folks like to say, but it doesn't have to end in the home. It is the responsibility of teachers, coaches, pastors, godparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to teach children not just academically but also to instill important values. Let us all work together to educate our children to instill important values because today's Children can be our future leaders of tomorrow.
-Twanda McBride
Parents shouldn't just leave it up to the school system to teach and raise their children. It starts in the home and eventually spreads abroad as the older folks like to say, but it doesn't have to end in the home. It is the responsibility of teachers, coaches, pastors, godparents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to teach children not just academically but also to instill important values. Let us all work together to educate our children to instill important values because today's Children can be our future leaders of tomorrow.
-Twanda McBride
Punitive vs. Positive Behavior Management
Do you believe every Child knows how to behave when they walk into class every day?
There are many books, trainings, and theories on how to discipline a child. Schools have scripted, discipline procedures to educate teachers about behavioral issues. These issues, both major and minor, usually result to punitive measures. This type of assertive discipline or “corrective” approach is ineffective.
One of the greatest educators of our time, Madeline Hunter, once said, “Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” The truth is educators cannot assume that their students have a supportive and nurturing home life. In fact, many of my former students would come into class and immediately go to sleep at their desks. I learned to bring extra fruit to school to provide
nourishment to my hungry students. It kept them awake and motivated. Also it helped to gain their trust to build lasting relationships.
When I worked in a state prison system for youth, I taught a creative writing course. My perceptions going in were clouded by my own judgments. I engaged my students and got to know them individually. I learned how to use humor to keep my students focused. There were moments when I broke up fights. There were also times when I dealt with students who brought drugs to school. Though students make poor choices, every child deserves a second chance--an opportunity to learn. It is our job as educators to model behaviors that are both professional and positive. Some children do not have positive role models in their lives, so they choose to mirror those negative behaviors.
It is important for schools to develop restorative justice programs for young people so they can learn values such as compassion, empathy, kindness, service to others, respect, and honesty. Creating amnesty opportunities for students is a powerful learning tool that some schools use as an alternative to punishment. Parent meetings, providing community service, creating mentoring programs, refocusing students with reflection sheets, and providing peer mediators are some other tactics in developing a values-based discipline approach. Using preventative measures to immediately address any minor misbehaviors alleviates any bigger issues. A positive behavioral incentives system where students get recognized for good traits can be very beneficial to a school’s culture.
Teaching to correct behaviors at all levels by modeling behavior procedures is a huge first step. It is a paradigm shift we need to make.
-Jarred Shaw
One of the greatest educators of our time, Madeline Hunter, once said, “Students don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” The truth is educators cannot assume that their students have a supportive and nurturing home life. In fact, many of my former students would come into class and immediately go to sleep at their desks. I learned to bring extra fruit to school to provide
nourishment to my hungry students. It kept them awake and motivated. Also it helped to gain their trust to build lasting relationships.
When I worked in a state prison system for youth, I taught a creative writing course. My perceptions going in were clouded by my own judgments. I engaged my students and got to know them individually. I learned how to use humor to keep my students focused. There were moments when I broke up fights. There were also times when I dealt with students who brought drugs to school. Though students make poor choices, every child deserves a second chance--an opportunity to learn. It is our job as educators to model behaviors that are both professional and positive. Some children do not have positive role models in their lives, so they choose to mirror those negative behaviors.
It is important for schools to develop restorative justice programs for young people so they can learn values such as compassion, empathy, kindness, service to others, respect, and honesty. Creating amnesty opportunities for students is a powerful learning tool that some schools use as an alternative to punishment. Parent meetings, providing community service, creating mentoring programs, refocusing students with reflection sheets, and providing peer mediators are some other tactics in developing a values-based discipline approach. Using preventative measures to immediately address any minor misbehaviors alleviates any bigger issues. A positive behavioral incentives system where students get recognized for good traits can be very beneficial to a school’s culture.
Teaching to correct behaviors at all levels by modeling behavior procedures is a huge first step. It is a paradigm shift we need to make.
-Jarred Shaw
School Choice - Is it the right one for every student?
"Today, I told one of Senior Students that college is a wise investment into your future. The degree he will eventually earn will pay dividends into our society’s system, which will one day gain him a salary and will eventually be worth more than the cost of his education. He was telling me about living with his father, who is a single working parent with one income and couldn’t even imagine the possibility of such an exponential notion of dividends, but he was merely focused on why he isn’t getting more financial aid. This student is deciding to go to community college in order to offset the cost of all four years of a larger university. May I also add that this one student, a kind and affable young man who wants to study business accounting, but has struggled each day to do two things - 1. Come on time everyday to school and 2. to be organized with his school work papers. I wonder and hope that one school or a profession can develop such an eager and kind mind, in what could be a harsh world where everyone is competing for a piece of the pie. "
-Jarred Shaw
-Jarred Shaw
Charter schools and private schools have increased exponentially because federal and state laws that allow them to flourish. Voucher systems in Florida and other states allow for parents to choose schools beyond their zip codes. There are both benefits for choice and some disadvantages to these policies as well. However, most parents just want a safe and rigorous learning environment for their child.
In the past twenty years or so, education has been enamored by the word accountability. What that looks like is students taking tests made by companies, such as Pearson, who have been profiting off of fairy tale educational reforms like No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top. Billionaires such as Bill Gates, the Walton Family, Eli Broad and others have also profited off of funding charter management corporations that either take over and close down or co-locate failing public schools. These billionaires are nonprofessional-educators influencing policy decisions and funding initiatives such as the Common Core Standards, an influx of charter schools, turn-around schools, and other fad-like initiatives that are made out to be silver bullets to solve all of schools’ problems according to accountability standards.
So why does a school fail? There may be bad leadership, teachers are not teaching well, or there may be violence and bullying in the school, or poor test scores. Every year, the education system reinforces teachers to achieve some astronomically inflated policy-induced results. This is where the policy fads of choice come in to save everything like “Waiting for Superman” to magically make schools what they are supposed to be.
There is no one school model that works for every student. The educational system is such a complex institution. Project-based schools, schools without walls, service learning schools, charter magnets, academies, outdoor schools, and so many other choices sometimes flourish and other times flounder. When given school choice, if a student enrolls in a neighboring public or private charter, the state allocated per pupil funding, follows the child when they go to their next school. School budgets are affected and this affects the livelihoods of individuals in the community, as well as people who work for the school. Homeowners’ property taxes are also affected and employees’ jobs can be lost.
Schools and libraries are supposed to be the fundamentals of a democratic system. They are the foundations of a system that offers opportunity in our capitalistic system. Aren’t we offering a service and not a product? As our school systems expand into different models in our urban cities, there is a fierce competition when school choice is introduced. For example, schools have the best sports facilities, offers the state of the art robotics or Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program, has the safest learning environment, offers advanced placement courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, and countless other programs that cost more money.
Some schools look beyond state and federal aid and look to other models that are often funded by self-serving philanthropists. Patrons give students options, but look to brand their schools with the same trendy educational reform. This problem of trying to re-define our educational system to a “one-size-fits-all” or a “new fad reform mode”, emblems our capitalistic society. This is an ongoing experiment that often fails our young people.
-Jarred Shaw
In the past twenty years or so, education has been enamored by the word accountability. What that looks like is students taking tests made by companies, such as Pearson, who have been profiting off of fairy tale educational reforms like No Child Left Behind and Race To The Top. Billionaires such as Bill Gates, the Walton Family, Eli Broad and others have also profited off of funding charter management corporations that either take over and close down or co-locate failing public schools. These billionaires are nonprofessional-educators influencing policy decisions and funding initiatives such as the Common Core Standards, an influx of charter schools, turn-around schools, and other fad-like initiatives that are made out to be silver bullets to solve all of schools’ problems according to accountability standards.
So why does a school fail? There may be bad leadership, teachers are not teaching well, or there may be violence and bullying in the school, or poor test scores. Every year, the education system reinforces teachers to achieve some astronomically inflated policy-induced results. This is where the policy fads of choice come in to save everything like “Waiting for Superman” to magically make schools what they are supposed to be.
There is no one school model that works for every student. The educational system is such a complex institution. Project-based schools, schools without walls, service learning schools, charter magnets, academies, outdoor schools, and so many other choices sometimes flourish and other times flounder. When given school choice, if a student enrolls in a neighboring public or private charter, the state allocated per pupil funding, follows the child when they go to their next school. School budgets are affected and this affects the livelihoods of individuals in the community, as well as people who work for the school. Homeowners’ property taxes are also affected and employees’ jobs can be lost.
Schools and libraries are supposed to be the fundamentals of a democratic system. They are the foundations of a system that offers opportunity in our capitalistic system. Aren’t we offering a service and not a product? As our school systems expand into different models in our urban cities, there is a fierce competition when school choice is introduced. For example, schools have the best sports facilities, offers the state of the art robotics or Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) program, has the safest learning environment, offers advanced placement courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum, and countless other programs that cost more money.
Some schools look beyond state and federal aid and look to other models that are often funded by self-serving philanthropists. Patrons give students options, but look to brand their schools with the same trendy educational reform. This problem of trying to re-define our educational system to a “one-size-fits-all” or a “new fad reform mode”, emblems our capitalistic society. This is an ongoing experiment that often fails our young people.
-Jarred Shaw
The benefits of Service Learning by Jarred Shaw
“Everybody can be great… because anybody can serve.”
-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘what are you doing for others?” Service-learning has become a part of many high school graduation requirements within the past two decades. You might ask why would high schools require students to do a certain amount of community service hours? Furthermore, what does this have to do with core academic subjects and preparing your son or daughter for college or a future career? As a former teacher and a current administrator, the school that I work for requires students to complete 150 hours of community service, organize a service learning project for an agency, and then present their project at a senior reception dinner at the end of their senior year. We hope that our students, who often come from low socio-economic and minority backgrounds, will gain an ethos to give back to communities in need.
At such a time when there are political battles over entitlements given to underserved populations, there is no better time to instill values of service within our young people. Unfortunately history repeats itself and policies are not reciprocal of our country’s core values. As we look back on decades of oppression and inequality within our society, especially in our public schools, ever since the 1954 landmark universal decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in which racial segregation in public schools was declared unconstitutional, there is still inequality in schools across the country. However, in many urban city schools today one can see a similar racial segregation of students and staff that populate these schools.
“White flight,” became a phenomenon of middle and upper class white families who fled urban cities for suburban areas during the 60’s and 70’s. The law remains the same, but the outlook in demographics of our schools’ makeup does not. And some may add that this homogenous culture in schools is the antithesis of what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once envisioned.
It is inevitable that our neighborhoods are representative of what our schools look like, but I question whether our families are involved members of community schools? Do we have PTOs, parent liaisons, and community board members that are diverse in our ideas, ethnicities, socio-economic status, and cultures, yet represent the students we serve? Or are our cities separated by where we can afford to live, and this in effect shapes where our children go to school and the type of school they get their education from? I will leave the issue of “school choice” and equity of school funding for another time. Though it is proven that the single most crucial factor in the academic success of a child is having an excellent teacher in front of them every single day. Attracting the best teachers to serve students in some of the neediest schools in the country should be paramount to all invested in their child’s education.