Education

   I was just reading an article citing a new bill in California meant to stop schools from putting students into classes in which nothing is actually taught. Basically, the real life equivalent to what young Lauryn Hill called a "bird course" in the 1993 class, Sister Act 2. My issue is with the public's shock and awe that such classes exist. Hey! I experienced that in classes that were SUPPOSED to be curriculum-based! I had to bring my dad into my high school and "threaten" the superintendent and counselor in order to remove myself from a horrible teacher my junior year who could barely find time to teach between her bouts of sobbing as she walked to the office and screaming at students when she thought that today would finally be the day that she would teach. This isn't abnormal. In fact, if we look at the United States educational system, we'd probably find it's most normal.
   Let me preface this post with, I recognize that I am lucky to have received the education I did. I had a lot of good teachers. I also know that, because I grew up in the Midwest, I received a better education than most. I had more one-on-one time with teachers, I had a school that was (mostly) well-funded for academics, and a lot of teachers who actually cared about the students and helping them learn. I don't look at all teachers and condemn them. My father is an educator, my aunt is, my mom went to school to be a teacher, and my stepmother teaches as well. I recognize that teachers don't just work a forty-hour work week. They take work home, they invest in their own supplies, and they put up with other people's children for eight hours a day, five days a week. For that alone they should be paid better than any studio executive in Hollywood. Education cannot be blamed on teachers alone. It takes a village, and America, the village is failing.
   Let's be real, kids' behavior is different now than it was in the 1950s and 1960s. All those rebels who championed the peace movement went on to have kids and they didn't want to raise their children the way they had been raised-stifled by the patriarchy. So, those kids didn't understand rules. Then those kids had kids and they thought, "My parents were too distant, they weren't involved enough," so they raised their children trying to be friends instead of authority figures. These mistakes have led us to today. Teaching is hard, especially when you're trying to manage 20-30 (sometimes more) wiggly little balls of energy who have never had to listen at home. Couple that with parents who believe their child can do no wrong and you have an incendiary situation. Authority is intangible. It is not something one can possess until he or she gives it up. If a child is put into a classroom and their parent signals that the teacher does not know all, is not someone the child should trust or respect, the kid won't. It's doesn't have to be as blatant as saying, "Don't listen to Teacher, they don't know anything," kids are incredibly insightful. They can see and feel the vibes people give off. Education isn't just dropping your kid off at the door to the classroom and parenting is done: education starts and ends at home. Teaching, schooling, is all about teamwork. If you don't want that responsibility, don't have kids. Straight up.
   Parental involvement saved me when I was in school. I'm conceited. I know it. I think I'm smarter than everybody and, as my dad pointed out, I want everyone to know it. Thankfully, I had my parents to know some sense into me. They were always on my side, but it was never assumed I was in the right. My dad coming to school to support my choice to skip that horrible junior class was because I had outlined how horribly my sophomore one went. I tried to have one of my high school teachers fired because we were an entire semester in to school and had only done three assignments and not even talked about the election, during an election year. When my dad found out how vocal I had been, he called to speak to said teacher and wanted to know if I needed to be put in my place. It's all about balance. And this experience, the fact that I tried to have this teacher fired and not only are they still at my old high school, but they're just as ineffective, highlights to me a hugely important issue in American schooling. We complain about problem teachers, but we do very little to fix those problems. Testing is not the answer. Judging a teacher based on how their students do on a standardized test is not the way to go about it, You can walk in to a class and tell when students are engaged. You can see when a group of people are getting what's being taught. And, with a little bit of involvement, parents and administrators can really see when teachers are bad. But it takes time and commitment and that's something that very few people seem to have at the moment.
   So, no, I'm not as offended that students are being shuttled into classes that aren't meant to teach them anything. I'm more offended by what we pass off as education in some classes that are meant to teach. I'm more offended by parents who will bend any ear in the vicinity about the horrible excuses we have for teachers, but who won't make their student do his/her homework. I'm offended that our solution to making sure students learn more is to test them to death. I'm offended that parents expect teachers to teach as well as babysit (and let's be real, sometimes raise the kids) in the eight hours they have during the day. I'm offended that we as a country don't seem bothered enough to do anything about the fact that our students have fallen way behind international students. I'm offended that more people know about the Armenian genocide because of the Kardashians than because of history books. And that's not because of "this generation" that's because of culture. Our society has decided that education is a privilege, not a right, and we put our focus on celebrity instead of hard work. We don't get to choose the problems that are given to us, but we get to decide how to fix them. And so far, apathy hasn't worked.