Lend A Hand

Education is by far the most important issue facing our nation today. Not until we begin providing a high-quality education to our country’s youth will we have a chance of not only taking back our world position as a super power but of solving all of the other problems plaguing America.

Unfortunately the powers that be don’t place the importance on education that it deserves and demands. Therefore, as wise and powerful citizens, it is our job to take action and show the government and the rest of society (that don’t feel education should be a priority) that raising the standard of our public education and making high-quality teaching accessible to all is essential for our country’s future success. In order to achieve this goal, the following suggestions should help.

• Support Critical Thinking And Respect in Schools – The majority of today’s public schools are run somewhat like a military institution. Kids are expected to sit when told, speak when asked a question, copy whatever the teacher says and writes, and even get written permission to go to the bathroom (even between classes). The amount of “free time” allowed to students in public schools has been cut dramatically to avoid “misbehaving”. What ever happened to innocent until proven guilty? Why are our schools being run in such a way that the authorities assume that students will do the wrong thing without even giving them a chance to prove themselves? This is not respect and does not foster respect. Similarly, if a child is always told what to do, when to do it, what to think and remember and pay attention to, critical thinking is not being promoted. I firmly believe that unless respect and critical thinking become more of a priority in teaching our children, we will never raise the leader that we need for the future.
• Support Better Financial Management For School Funds – Even schools with more than adequate funds are failing our children. That’s because the only statistic you’re likely to hear is the “per student” spending. When you hear $2200 annual spending per student, it sounds impressive. However only with further research will you discover that the majority of that spending is faculty salaries and administrative costs. Less that 7% of the per student spending is actually spent on supplies, programs, and equipment for the student. Administrative costs could be cut and repetitive or unessential job positions could be eliminated. This would allow for money to be put into resources that would really increase the quality of education such as repairing schools that are falling about and training programs for teachers who are currently underpaid and overworked.
• Support Mandatory Preschool Programs – While I don’t necessary agree that every child needs preschool, the public school system expects children entering kindergarten to know certain facts that children would most easily learn in a preschool setting. In fact, my son’s kindergarten teacher considered him “disadvantaged” because he hadn’t had any preschool experience and didn’t know all of his letters (this was only three months into kindergarten). If a child’s school experience is expected to start at preschool and kindergarten classes and curriculum are set up as if children have basic knowledge picked up in preschool, then preschool should be mandatory and government-funded.
• Demand Higher Teacher Standards – Don’t get me wrong, there are loads of really good teachers out there willing to go above and beyond the call of duty for their students, who spend their own money to buy materials for projects, and who dedicate hours after school most days to help pupils in trouble. That said, many teachers aren’t not highly qualified, or even certified, to be teaching the subject they teach. They aren’t on top of the newest ways of teachign kids or the newest information about their subject. Teachers should have to be certified for the specific subject that they teach. They should have to take relevant continued education classes yearly, and they should have to be able to apply the knowledge they have into their curriculum through a self-designed project, experiment or theme.
• Support Free College Tuition To State Residents – Before you get up in arms about the cost to taxpayers of such a program, remember how vital highly education young people are to the future of our nation. Also remember that polititions waste far more money on far less important “programs” annually. Once we can uncover and put a stop to some of those pork barrel projects, we should have enough money to send each college-age resident to a state university without having to raise taxes. Only thing is, we are going to have to fight and fight hard for this. Start now by getting together a group of people in your state that would be willing to join a grassroots movement for free state education for every college-age resident.

We all have an obligation to fight for better education. Until our young people (and in some cases, our older people) are better educated, we have no hope of solving global warming problems, energy issues, economical difficulties, health care troubles or any other issue facing the US today.

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