Making students responsible for education

[Kacey]

Here's a thought... let's make the students responsible for their education. As a teacher, I am wholeheartedly behind this woman's position; I've seen far too many students who can't be bothered, and who spend their time disrupting those who do want to learn.

It's time we put some responsibility back on the students

I just read the following in an education e-newsletter, the ASCD SmartBrief: "Some 7,000 high-school students drop out of school every day, at a cost to society of $209,000 per student over their lifetimes. "Between 20 percent and 42 percent of graduates require some remedial coursework before moving on to college-level work, and 60 percent of manufacturers say recent entry-level hires were unprepared for the work they were hired to do.
"The question facing educators and business leaders is: What can be done to reverse this trend?"
Well, I know one thing we can do.
Let's put some responsibility back on the student.

...Even the poorest schools are full of information, and people who are ready, willing, and able--aching, actually--to teach a student who wants to learn. It makes teachers nearly weep with frustration to see bright, capable, talented children slide lazily along, refusing to partake of the bounty of knowledge that is offered to them.
...I'm fed up with the steady drumbeat from partisan groups that continuously, relentlessly, incorrectly, and nauseatingly bash the public school system in America, as if educators are solely to blame for low test scores.
We have sold the children in this country a bill of goods that says they are responsible for nothing, it is our duty to spoon feed them, if they don't like the system we'll change it, if they screw up we'll cover for them, and everything will be handed to them.
...It's about time we tell the kids in this country: get your butts to school, sit down, be quiet, do your work, quit whining, and make your parents proud.

 

[Sukerkin]

That approach gets no argument from me. It's how it should be. The last quoted sentence says it all as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Jai]

I also agree 110% with this woman's position. In my class we had 15 drop out over the four years, and all of them are still a drain on those of us that busted our butts and are trying to make it out in the world.

 

[MarkBarlow]

One of the most important things my sensei ever said to me was that the dojo was like a buffet. All the knowledge and experiences I needed were there waiting for me and if I left hungry, i.e. ignorant, I had no one but myself to blame.

It's beyond shameful that not only have the students bought into the idea that learning doesn't require effort on their part but their parents apparently think that thanks to educational advancements schools now employ osmosis, relieving the students of the need of study and skull sweat. Until students and parents accept responsibility again, I don't see much hope for improvement.

 

[terryl965]

You cannot ague about the story and student should be held responsible for themselfs.

 

[mrhnau]

Here's a thought... let's make the students responsible for their education. As a teacher, I am wholeheartedly behind this woman's position; I've seen far too many students who can't be bothered, and who spend their time disrupting those who do want to learn.

Students responsible, but parents as well. Make them actually do homework, and make sure they understand. Provide an environment and exhibit a work ethic that helps them understand that they need to work hard to get ahead. I've seen too many kids that are not motivated at school and, not so surprisingly, the problem originated at home. Bad parental examples and lack of home discipline.

 

[Sukerkin]

That's a good point too.

I well remember my first introduction to algebra and calculus when I was a youngster. I just couldn't get my head around it at all and was nearly frantic because I had a homework assignment that had to be done for the next day. My dad sat down at the table with me, having dug out a couple of very old electrical engineering maths text books he had. He worked with me for hours until I got it - he wouldn't do it for me (which I understand now but thought was mean then ) but helped me see my way to the principles of how this odd sort of maths worked.

It goes to show, you don't appreciate what you have until you hear tales of those who don't.

 

[Nolerama]

I think, at least in the US, we're stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to public schools.

Sure, we can focus on the students that come to school to learn, and leave the rest to their own devices, but that's in an ideal world, with an ideal concept of funding public schools, and an elevated set of standards.

I wish I could believe in setting higher standards in public schools immediately. But that's going to take some time, if at all.

However, I believe that change starts from the culture at home. There needs to be a cultural value on education. Many single-parent homes might not have the time to ask their kids about their homework, and that might influence the kid's perception of school in a negative way. But that doesn't mean the government-funded schools have a right to ignore the kid. We have a responsibility to improve that kid's station in life through education.

Giving up on the "lost causes" is social laziness and a selling point in privatizing everything in the US: schools are increasingly one of those privatized aspects of life that the "middle class" has to contend with.

Ever hear the phrase "No one sends their kids to public school anymore!"??

I do. All the time.

Maybe we can change that.

 

[SageGhost83]

In US, it seems that the standards have drastically fallen in education and they continue to fall to this very day. They even had to throw out the SAT's, or at least lessen its importance to the point where you don't even need it to get into school anymore. So where does the blame lie? The students are not very bright at all anymore, and they would rather learn song lyrics, check their myspace, or text message each other while playing playstation or X-box than learn in school and pass their tests so that they can move up in life. However, society and marketplace at large bombard them with so much advertisements and throw so much product at them on a daily basis that it is not surprising to see this effect on their young and highly impressionable minds. Then the parents - they don't take the time to teach their kids anymore because for most of them, that time just simply isn't there anymore due to the increasing demands of an unsustainable lifestyle...and some are just plain lazy and ignorant and make crappy parents to begin with. Don't get me started on some of the teachers who are only there for the paycheck...I think that everybody shoulders their share of the blame and that the students, the teachers, the parents, and society are all responsible in their own ways. Being old school, I tend to look first at the student because after all, they are the ones who are actually sitting down in the classroom.

 

[arnisador]

As it says, even the poorest schools are full of info. A motivated child can learn a lot from six hours in the school library. Motivation is the key...and must come from the home. They need to believe that education has an effect on their lives, be it an effect on their physical/financial welfare or even only (!) their intellectual welfare.

 

[donna]

Students responsible, but parents as well. Make them actually do homework, and make sure they understand. Provide an environment and exhibit a work ethic that helps them understand that they need to work hard to get ahead. I've seen too many kids that are not motivated at school and, not so surprisingly, the problem originated at home. Bad parental examples and lack of home discipline.

I came from a family that discoraged higher education, and it made it so hard!
my father was of the opinion that he only went to year 9 and my mother left school after year 6, and they turned out alright, so that should be good enough for me.
After all I was a female and the job of a female was to get married, have lots of kids and be a "good wife".
I used to sneak to do my homework at night, because my father didnt believe in homework.
Despite this I graduated top three in my high school year. I wanted so bad to proove them all wrong.
I have tried extra hard to encourage my own children. I help them as best I can.
It made me so proud when my son, who is now a second year engineering student at university, rang me a couple of weeks ago to ask if I could help him with one of his assignments.( He was having trouble finding information, and I was able to find some web sites that had relevant info)
If the desire is there to learn, you will find a way.

 

[Sukerkin]

Despite the story I told of how my father helped me with my school maths, when it came to going to university, I did have to fight my way to get there. He was of the opinion that I should begin 'paying my way' in the world as soon as I could rather than go swanning off learning things that would do me no good.

In a way, he was right. If I'd taken his advice and apprenticed to a trade I'd be a far richer man now than I am. That would be true in monetary terms at least.

I'd've missed out on a lot else tho' I think. The fact that I have more letters after my name than are in it {and I have a long name :lol:} is an amusing claim to fame but what all that formal education really did was to condition me into a permanent 'state of learning'.

It's that ethic that people need, in my opinion, if they are to improve their quality of life.

Thanks to our Social Services, I've never been as low as, say, Caver has but I have still sometimes pondered the wisdom of my path as I sat with no credits in the gas or electricity meter reading a treatise on ceramics conservation by the streetlight outside my bedroom window. In the end tho' that enrichment of my mind, bitter tho' it may make me at times from the things that I learn of how the world works, has made me wealthier than getting a paying job younger would have done.

Donna's closing words are vital, I think:

If the desire is there to learn, you will find a way.