Tuesday, July 07, 2009

Volunteers In School Are Great; It's The Need For Volunteers That Is Worrisome

Here's a story about volunteers in the (abysmal) DC school system. We need volunteers because too many students enter school lacking the requisite skills to make adequate progress. We need volunteers because too many students forget over the summer what they learned the previous school year. Finally, we need volunteers because too many parents (in places like DC) don't spend the time with their kids preparing them for school, teaching them the norms and expectations of society. Teachers are overwhelmed and overworked, so we need volunteers to fill in the gaps. Thank goodness they're available, but it's a shame we need them.

1 comment:

Brian said...

National priorities need to shift... the piece-meal efforts over the last few decades haven't worked.

The U.S. has to move from its focus on war, corporate greed, pop culture and the military industrial complex...to an education industrial complex.... with a focus on improving the lives of its people....the lives of average folks.

We aren't there yet... (as evidenced by lagging teacher pay, the treatment of teachers, and a culture of not holding parents accountable). And I don't think we are moving in that direction anytime soon.

There also has to be a cultural shift. Right now... BET, MTV and rappers have much more influence over youth, especially minority youth, than parents do. As long as that situation remains, the U.S. will be in trouble in terms of its public education system (especially in urban communities...where the culture is not conducive to improved educational performance. It's just not compatible with the new Black Culture that has emerged over the last 15-20 years). Blacks/minorities have to identify and wrestle with the deeper issues that are largely the cause of these conditions. Bill Cosby tried to do some of that.... but it sort of fizzled. People just didn't want to see their culture in the mirror for what it was.