Today I heard an interesting conversation on the CBS morning show- Face the Nation. The premise was that there were authors of some of the top selling novels and they were discussing their lives and their books. All of the authors were born in the south. Kathryn Stocket- the author of "The Help" and Walter Isaacson- author of the Steve Jobs bio and Condoleeza were all discussing their childhood experiences dealing with the segregated south. Of course the soundbite that was picked up from this conversation was that Condie was speaking about racism and said the US will never be "race blind". What she meant was that slavery was a terrible start to our nation and that we are gradually overcoming the atrocities but we will never be able to completely be oblivious to race.
I agree with her point and I have no idea what it like to be hit by discrimination. But to me, the most interesting point that our former Secretary of State made was that our number one problem we have to deal with is fixing our educational system. That is definitely the long term solution to whether or not our country will continue to grow.
What can we do to fix education? First we have to make the classroom a safe learning environment. I work at a school that has tremendous diversity. Many of the classrooms are over crowded, there isn't enough parental involvement and teachers easily get burned out. On the other hand- there still are a lot of students that are successful and they learn above and beyond what is asked of them. The difference in each of these classrooms is motivation. Why will some students not listen or try? My opinion is that they aren't able to read or think analytically and therefore they can't appreciate learning. Why is it that happening? The system allows for mediocrity to reign.
If you are an athlete and you want to succeed at your sport- do you succeed by getting to redo a losing playoff game? You learn by failing and having to strive harder the next time. The big new thing in education is the redo. You should get to redo a failed test. Does this help? I my experience it does not help at all. The student will come in and retake the test and will most often get an even worse grade. I am an experienced teacher and about 15 years ago, I figured out the secret to making students learn about motivation was to never allow them to be hopeless-as long as they make they effort to try. I know of teachers that will give a zero on a homework when all the answers are wrong. The secret is- as long as they try- they should get a 50 or higher. Then, they have time to get to their senses and start studying more or learning what the correct way is to study and they have a chance. It works. I have students that range from 3rd grade reading level in 9th grade to AP and IB juniors and seniors. Some of my 12th grade AP students were surprised that they weren't will to retake a test that they had failed. Guess what- it has taken a couple of months-but they are all improving. They are going to learn how to study for a test. They are going to be ready for the college class room.
I will readily admit that I do not always have successful learning days in my ninth grade classes. They are coming from a whole different style of learning at the middle and elementary levels. Transitioning these students to the high school mentality is very challenging. The thing that teachers need most is support. Right now I realize that I can not write up a student that mouths off-because nothing will happen. I feel that if the students had a real fear of seeing the administrator and if their parents would be angry with them for misbehaving (instead of coming up with an excuse for why they were angry) would be so much better. Why can't students be taken out of a class room if they are disruptive? Why do students have to be late to a class more than 7 times before any administrative action is taken? Those are the types of problems we need to look at before we start any other type of intervention. That is my opinion and I hope Condolezza agrees because the at the heart of our problem is No Child Left Behind. This policy looks not only at test score improvement,but also at how many students are graduating on time. This has forced social promotion and tied the hands of enforcing suspensions and expulsions.
I say- start with more stringent regulations as far as attendance and behavior and the rest will fall into line.
