Middle aged sage
Please go here firstfor the catalyst of this post.
This, just like the past few posts is not a rant. It is an inquiry, but you are most welcome to vent yourself in the comments section. Me has been most fortunate that the responses to previous queries have been most intelligent and extremely edifying. Thank you all for your participation.
After focusing on three of the topics listed on my litany of complaints, Me simply ran out of gas.
Presently Me would like to attend to the issue of today's youth.
Like every generation that has come before me and probably every one that will follow; me feels that the majority of today's young people in many countries, show a distinct inability to rise up to the responsibility of leadership and the stewardship of our world.
Although Me encounters many intelligent children and teenagers, Me just can't overcome the feeling that these young ones are severely outnumbered by others who just don't have the emotional and intellectual ability to preserve and improve upon society.
Illiteracy is constantly on the rise and seriously dubious programs such as No child left behind, (Did I get that right?) are propagating the amount of both socially and intellectually deficient youngsters. (jl4 has written much about this).
Emotionally stunted and positively ignorant (notice me did not say stupid) our youth are suffering far more problems than anyone of me generation ever did.
Their values are lower.
They lack any semblance of work ethic.
Cannot express themselves intelligently.
Suffer from bad manners, an appalling lack of etiquette and common courtesy; all of which determin the height, width and depth of a truly civilized society.
Yet, after all of these complaints, they are really not to be blamed. They are only repeating the values that they have been taught and are learning from their heros, contemporaries and the media; which gives them a truly false view of the world. Hollywood is possibly the largest source of prostitution on the planet; shoving any form of insipid "entertainment" in our faces, earning amazing amounts of money and giving back almost nothing of value. This touches on me statement about nefarious business practices.
Why don't people support the teachers of the community as fervently as they do members of the armed forces; it is in their hands that the future rests, isn't it?
We should once again elevate the status and pay of educators. How is it that a garbage man can make more money than a elementary school teacher.
The finest minds and most respectable members should be lured, coaxed, cajoled or begged to take part in the education of the young. They should have the power and freedom to actively participate in detemining the curriculum of a student body.
Students should once again feel ashamed at the inability to advance through the most basic level of learning instead of using it as a status symbol. Can you imagine that. Ignorance has become a status symbol!?!
Please, please do not lurk. Me truly wants to hear your voice on this matter.
Me no taking this lightly.
7 comments:
Teaching begins at home.
Rearing intelligent, kind, thoughtful, respectful, and obedient kids is the Opportunity and Responsibiltiy of every parent.
When children are brought up in an environment of respect, rules, boundaries, lots of hugs, lots of converstaion...and lots of listening- you end up with well rounded, honest, hard working, and useful memebers of society.
The problem is- any moron can have a kid.
Yes...teachers should be paid more- and given more authority in the class room. Teachers should be the ultimate rulers in their classrooms- not a king or queen- but definitely in a position of respect.
At the end of the day- the teacher does all he/she can, and neither the parent or the child are held responsible for their actions...but they should be.
Thanks Mrs.C. Good points all.
Me knows you are out the door, but are there any other parents out there that you know who might respond to this???
I'm not a parent, but I've got some very cute nephews. Do I get to respond?
I'm saying, teach for college program:
Government pays for you to go to college (like in the military), and afterward, you have an "X"- year teaching commitment. If you fail to complete your [2, 4, 5, whatever] years as a teacher, your college debt is not forgiven and you must repay it to the government.
Not for everybody, but what a great opportunity for many who wouldn't otherwise be able to afford college, or who, like so many of my friends, are still paying off those loans 15 years later.
As the father of 3 children that I know of, and a parent who has been lucky enough to have all 3 be successful in school both academically and socially [knock on a huge piece of timber]...
I truly believe the numbers of illiterate and socially UNconscious youth are growing for several reasons.
1) It is a function of an ever-expanding population that the sheer numbers of children not meeting academic expectations will rise exponentially with its converse growth.
2) The days of the 3 R's are gone. There is no Reading, Riting, and Rithmatic, any more. We are a technologically centered and focused society, and that is the path of the future. Lost on the parents and students though - is the quite obvious fact that the better you can do the 3 R's, the more capable you will be to handle the growing technological need.
Compounding (and conFOUNDING)the problem is the fact that the families with the highest numbers of children - you know, the old 2.19 kids per two parent household -are completely skewed when it comes to lower income/lower educational level parent(s). The average household in what is categorized as a lower income family has only 50% two-parent participation, yet they nearly DOUBLE the number of children under the age of 18 living in the home. Why this phenomenom happens is fodder for minds far more brilliant than my own, but the parochial version of the story is this:
Two parent households do almost 75% better in school than single-parent [or multiple parent] households do. Combine that with the fact that two-parent households have 50% LESS children to look after and inspire to higher acheivement, and the answer is right in front of you:
LOGISTICS
A family with more money; more adult help and guidance; and less numbers to take care of will ABSOLUTELY be more productive than it's opposite.
Now...with all that mumbo-jumbo said...
In the U.S. we now have a divorce rate screaming towards or actually at 2 out of 3. That means statistically speaking, 2 out of 3 families will fall into the single or multiple parenting categories, and begin to fill the ranks of the underachieving.
Add in that 14% of the population is still in the poverty range - yet propogating as if they were wealthy - and you have your snapshot of what the problem is.
It's numbers of people vs. numbers of dollars, vs. poorly educated parents producing poorly educated children at nearly twice the rate...and it's a terrible mess that we'll never totally climb out of. We dismiss the poor with money in the form of welfare checks, and then we cringe when we see the results of our dismissal...children who get to 8th grade without guidance, discipline, or the ability to do the simplest of academic tasks. We give up on marriage way too soon, then wonder why the child of the divorced has gone from an A average to a C. It's all here...the information is public and revealing. Political correctness has its part in the debacle as well, but mostly its simply a function of the laziness of our society on many fronts.
Sorry to monopolize your wonderful Blog Monster...but I just got typing and couldn't stop.
jl4~ Never apologise when you give someone exacty what they asked for.
Your words words made me think about the degeneration of the gene pool and the effect on those who mustcarry the burden of supporting those who cannot or do not contribute to society.
Thinking about Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged at the moment
It does seem as though the shallow end of the gene pool grows ever wider with each passing year.
There is still a deep end, but its potential is largely untapped.
A lot of this is down to education policy (in the UK). I've never been a schoolteacher, but I spent many years as a university lecturer - and the standard of the students arriving from school showed a definite decline over time.
Not in intelligence, but in simple things like the ability to spell and respect for those teaching.
I went to school before the Politically Correct decided that giving disobedient children a slap was a Bad Thing. The very idea of assaulting a teacher was shocking to us. Even the thugs shied away from that.
Now, teachers are assaulted all the time. If they retaliate in any way - even to defend themselves - they are sued.
So if anyone is considering a teaching job in the UK, bear in mind that the pay is awful, you are not permitted to defend yourself against a child with a weapon, and if you do, the parents will sue you.
Is it any wonder that those children with potential never get to use it, in an environment like this?
The morons have ruled the classroom for years, and the effects of this are beginning to show in the country as a whole.
Well said Romulus, here here. Me particularly likes the way you stated that things were untapped rather than non-existant.
The teaching profession must find a way to reclaim the honourable status it once held. And do so by insuring that the educators are all above repraoch. This will be a topic for a future post.
Post a Comment