|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Choice in Education: Don't Kill Public Schools in the Name of 'Choice'
| Article
# : |
20485 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
5 / 1992 |
1,619 Words |
| Author
: |
Robert Rubinstein
Robert Rubinstein is the author of the nationally acclaimed
Hints for Teaching Success, based on his thirty-two years of
teaching experience, as well as three other books. He has
made four recordings as a professional storyteller and has
published stories and numerous articles on teaching and
education. Rubinstein performs and gives workshops nationally
(E-mail: bambarer@hotmail.com ) |
Are we upset, concerned, angry at the public schools because another national report has come out enumerating how students are failing and that it must be the school's fault? We shouldn't be. America's students have been failing, in jeopardy, since 1963--for close to 30 years. Since then, we, as a society, have done any number of things to help this decline, to undermine public education, to make our youth our most endangered species.
Of all the developed nations in the world, we have the most people in prison, the most teen pregnancies, the most teen suicides, the highest incidence of teen drug and alcohol abuse, and the highest rates of teen gang violence and crime.
Our children experience all of this either as victims or perpetrators. Over 2.5 million cases of child abuse are reported each year, along with 376,000 incidents of sexual abuse of children. Every year at least 95,000 of our youth commit suicide, and another 125,000 run away from home, many to end up exploited and murdered. Add to all this the sharp rise in gang and drug deaths. In today's America, more and more students come to school with loaded guns for intimidation as well as protection. An American child of 12 had a better chance of surviving to the age of 25 in 1935 than today.
The key factor that might change their lives is not family life--that has disintegrated with divorce, single-parent families, and the necessity of both parents' working. The most important factor and hope is education. Most of our dropouts become lost between the ages of 11 and 15, the middle school years, not high school. The classroom teacher then becomes the most important person in keeping that child from leaving school and entering a world of aimless, increasingly violent peers. However, that's only if we devote the resources, have the trained teachers, the time, and the public backing to reach our young people and help them to survive and succeed in life.
Instead, President Bush's proposed voucher system symbolizes our lack of commitment to dramatically changing and improving public education, a system that is intended to provide all children with a quality-learning environment. Our president wants to create an elitist system by offering tax credits to parents if their children attend private schools. Despite federal regulations against discrimination, the private schools could easily find "reasons" for not admitting minority students or those who are poor, disabled, remedial, or emotionally disturbed. And some parents who could afford these schools would favor such
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
