Social promotion was practiced when I taught many years ago. Since I taught in a totally different environment, it was understood that most of these kids who could never stay up with their class, would wind up working for some factory, as a farmhand, truck driver, railroad hand or something that required few basic skills so it was of no great concern to the community when these slow or “I don’t care” learners were graduated with their peers. Back then almost everyone who wanted to work could work. Back then, materialism wasn’t a student’s main goal.
Today, I believe anyone who is physically capable, can still work. However, jobs that require few skills for the most part will pay less than a living wage and are subject to outsourcing. Society and the job market has been changing ever since I was a teacher. Once a person arrives in the position of having to work to earn a living or support a family, only then do the poorly educated realize they must learn all kinds of skills including responsibility. For many, it will be too late as jobs will be going to those most prepared and capable. Often times this means immigrants that are seeking employment and will work for less money will be taking jobs that in older days went to those who where born in the community.
The secondary schools have not fully adjusted to the progress being made in technology.
Many of the kids interested in being educated to participate in this new technological age are not challenged. Many will reach college or the job market only to find that their secondary schools did not prepare them for the challenge.
Some in the classroom still think that they will get a job no matter how poorly they are prepared. When these dropouts or unqualified kids find they can’t find a living wage job in today’s world, they develop a hatred of those around them that are working and envy their successes. (Look at the uneducated in the Middle East) Many will make the smart decision to further their education in fields where there are demands for skilled labor. But much time will have been lost and they will need to catch up with not only their own countrymen but with the advancing world citizenry. Human resources always are usually guided by the law of supply and demand. And the supply outside the U.S. is growing daily. One only has to look at our outsourcing problems to realize many people will do good work for less all over the world.
Some kids do not accept the fact that no matter the surroundings or culture in which they were conceived and the environment in which they grew up, they themselves are the only ones responsible for making a contribution to society and receiving earnings equivalent to there contribution.
Figures show that the most inmates in prison in Tazewell County and in the Juvenile Detention and Peoria County jails are kids that never learned any basic skills to contribute to society. These inmates believe others have caused their inabilities to make it on their own. Many of the poor blame the system (everyone but themselves) instead of their own attitudes and their lack of acceptance of education. But our own public schools must bear some of the blame for their failures. The failure to recognize that all humans learn best when they are interested in the subject!! As a kid on the farm we knew you could “lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink.” Only when it was thirsty would it drink!
So what to do in our own community? The answers are not as difficult as we make them.
If kids feel basic knowledge is not important, they will not accept the traditional curriculums. If they know the teacher is weak, they will exploit the teacher until the teacher either gives up or ignores them. It’s the schools responsibility to hire teachers who can keep discipline in the classroom and still teach. It is the schools responsibility to promote to principal ship, those who will support their good teachers, and can calm the parents and get their cooperation. It is the principals responsibility to have teachers removed from classrooms they cannot handle the classroom environment. It is the schools responsibility to direct resources to non-traditional curriculums.
Where does the money come from to expand the curriculum? The same sources where new museums, a new zoo, a new ball park, a new recreation center and other community enhancements get their monies!! Some influential leaders in Peoria give up on community social problems and instead concentrate on community recreational activities. They say after all, it is the family, and it is not the schools responsibility to raise the family. This is what I have been hearing for 20 years or more. You are not going to change generations of failure in families by saying “it’s the family!”
What can the schools do??
Stop social promotions now!
Remove these kids from the traditional classroom as soon as there is a majority consensus of those in authority that this is the proper step.
Offer non-traditional class choices for the removed child.
If discipline is a problem, enforce it at once. If the teacher can’t handle discipline they probably should not be teaching at that school.
If the principal won’t back up the teacher, the principal shouldn’t be a principal.
Truancy should not be a problem. Enforcement of truancy laws and programs long ago instituted must be enforced by community leadership.
In Peoria, the mayor says he wants to help. Then his public safety officers should pick up truants and return these kids to schools for counseling along with those responsible for them.
Crack down, get tough!! We talk of love. Very important but what good does it do when a person if leaving for a prison term and mom says “I love you”. Don’t people understand people will take advantage of EVERYONE THEY DON’T RESPECT? You don’t earns respect by saying “Now Junior, don’t do that again” but I love you. You tell Junior, stop now, don’t do it!! Period! Be ready to back your statements up because “respect” must be earned in today’s environment. Otherwise be prepared to have respect learned in the educational or work environment. By then, it may be too late.
I’ve heard the excuse that we can’t do some of these things because “of the unions.” The unions disagree. Many private businesses succeed with the help of unions. School boards, administration, unions and community leaders had better get it all together soon or most schools across the U.S. and in District #150 will be privatized in the not too distant future.
I leave with this thought – Accepting people having varying gifts & will arrive at varying outcomes is not diminishing their humanity. How to educate a person so they can achieve a meaningful life, has been discussed, debated and experimented with since ancient times. The conclusions always come back to what I just wrote.
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