AJC.com > Blogs > Get Schooled > Archives > 2005 > October > 25
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
It’s About Attitude
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I was going to post about Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox, who introduced herself yesterday to schoolchildren as “the queen of testing.” But that can wait…
“Teacher Too” has some far more interesting thoughts:
“With all the news regarding test scores and the college boards, I felt it was necessary to talk about school climate. I teach middle school, and I don’t, and haven’t, seen an academic atmosphere. Students come to school with a social attitude rather than an attitude focused on learning.
A couple of weeks ago, Good Morning America did a comparison of two high school students, one in the North and one in China. The differences in attitude were alarming. The telling statements occurred at the end of the segment, when the American student said she was going to college to play a sport, and the Chinese student said she was going to college to study engineering.
Until our teachers, parents, administrators, and our society in general, begin to value education- across ALL economic fronts, nothing is going to change. Students do not study at home, homework is not valued, and if anything is too challenging, parents create a fuss. One reason we have an extremely watered-down curriculum is because students are too busy after school to actually study. Until everyone accepts that a challenging curriculum cannot be taught in 50 minute classes, and that if test scores are indeed going to rise, then students must study at home, complete meaningful assignments- in school and at home, and come to school focused on learning.
Students have more learning tools than ever before, yet they seem to be learning less. What a shameful indictment on our state of education.
Just a few observations. If I sound bitter, I guess I am. People talk and talk about reform. But for true change to occur, we must make sweeping changes- starting with the question of what is education supposed to do? And, where does a “free and public education” begin and end? And finally, should education become a privilege that can be taken away under specific circumstances? Should we continue to try to educate those students who are severely disruptive, who time and again, are suspended? who interfere with the learning processes of other students who continually fail, year after year? And, why do we only seem to value those students who may be college-bound? Why not have more focused technical programs for students who aren’t going to college?”
