The Future Of The Educational System
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Posted By: Lonzo Lucas II on April 22, 2010 While having a conversation with the love of my life, she pointed out a conversation that a woman was having with the press on CNN about how another country’s educational system should be implemented there in America; in an effort to kick start a woefully inefficient educational system. Her insight or lack of it inspired me to provide a more accurate analysis of the problem and possible solutions, hence the title of this article. Having the opportunity to work as a full-time English teacher here in South Korea and witnessing firsthand how the students are educated has afforded and given me a unique perspective, something others on the outside looking in should take heed of. The myth that America or any other country for that matter needs to adopt the Asian model of educating the students is wrong on so many levels. First, the Korean government is finally recognizing that it is placing too much of a burden on its children; by insisting that they attend school from basically sunup to sunset is causing their children to burnout before they even make it to high school and the often covered up suicide rates of students seems to be getting worse. Yes you heard me correctly; I will go more into detail about why this is so later on in this article. The Korean government is seriously considering giving the students Saturdays off to relax, recuperate, play, and well be a kid for once. Sounds like a reasonable way to go, once that becomes the law of the land since it is my belief that the children will be happier and much more productive. In retrospect it’s not about working harder, these days, but working smarter, a child needs a healthy balance of socializing with their fellow peers through work and play so that they can become the healthy and productive citizens that they are meant to be. Now I’m speaking not only for Korean but for other children everywhere around the globe. In my estimation I believe these are the factors that have led to and continue to add to the demise of America’s public school system; they are as follows and not necessarily in this order: lack of funding, incompetent teachers, zero accountability from the parents and the community. I will touch upon these points briefly. Unless you have been hiding under a rock lately or live in a Monastery on top of a mountain, no doubt you are aware of the recession that plagued America and at one point made it a haven for people overseas to come to its shores and plunder its goods at less than wholesale prices, well guess what folks this recession had an affect not only in the retail sector but the educational system took another brutal hit. Jobs are being cut with teachers receiving pink slips. Just think about that for a moment people, let that sink into your gray matter, teachers are given pink slips. States like California sent a message to the people that education as a priority was at the bottom of the list. This is a direct slap in the face to the one practitioner who holds the distinction of educating our future leaders from all walks of life, students that will grow up to pursue and occupy every profession that you can think of from doctors, scientists, all the way up to the President of the United States no other profession can boast such a resume. This is an awesome responsibility; now that you as the reader are armed with that bit of information doesn’t it seem feasible that education should come first regardless of the economy? Think about it, teachers also inspire students to become bankers, economists, philosophers, and even Treasury Secretaries don’t they? Solution? Unless you want to live in a country where that show America’s Dumbest Criminal becomes a stark and everyday reality in your neighborhoods, demand that those public officials, who were also beneficiaries of the educational system, do something to save it and protect the precious commodity that is the teacher, irregardless of race, color, and creed. Sorry I had to include that disclaimer, so sad in this day and age but necessary. Next… What do I mean by zero accountability from the parent’s and community? Simply this, here in South Korea I teach English at the elementary school level from Kindergarten to Sixth Grade. Some of the students could care less and have such contempt for the language, well at first it didn’t make sense why they would since the classes are free for them. Teaching in a rural area makes this possible, while their city counterparts have to pay exorbitant prices to even sit in the same class with me. This is what it boils down to; the parents of these children are working class people. Their occupations represent what the area is like, rugged mountains and miles of irrigated land there is where you find farmers, factory workers, and construction workers who work ungodly hours to support their families. Their wages are well below minimum wage hence the long hours in order to make enough money to feed, cloth and house their families. In an environment like that the teacher assumes the role of parent, role model, and confidant. English is never spoken in the home because for one, parents don’t see a need for it since they can’t speak it and secondly they don’t have the time to sit down and go over the homework assignments with their children. Is that their fault, no? They are only doing what they have to in order to survive and provide for their family. Now I am speaking directly to those parents in North America who don’t have to do that and can actually sit down with their children to make sure that they are taking full advantage of what the educational system has to provide. And please, no excuses like well I didn’t finish high school or anything like that. My grandfather, Bennie Lucas Sr, a great man had a 6th grade education, he was a sharecropper in Louisiana he and his wife raised 10 children and he made sure they went to school and did their homework everyday. Just because he didn’t get his was no excuse, he still made sure that his children got theirs and they did. Every single one of Bennie and Mary Lucas’s’ children graduated from college and went on to have distinguished careers in their fields and their children carried on those legacies. Solution? Let’s start with this, what I admire from the Korean community is that the elderly make sure that children show the proper respect, it’s based on that old African Proverb, “it takes a village to raise a child.” Well in many communities in America that is just not happening. The entire culture of fear is stifling and must be dealt with if education is to be as effective as it could be in bringing positive change to the communities that see other more nefarious means as its only path. Lastly, incompetency speaks for itself but when teachers are involved, it makes for a dangerous combination. Helping to mold the lives and careers of hundreds of students are in their hands, the potential to be a role model is overwhelming. A great teacher understands this and uses it through a variety of teaching styles to expose the talent of his/her students. As a teacher I do this on a daily basis once I discover the learning styles of each student in my class choosing lesson plans that challenge and motivate them on a daily basis is the next step. I am proud to say that I am seeing positive results daily as my students grow in their English comprehension by leaps and bounds. However, all too often there are those teachers who only got into the profession because it provided them with a steady paycheck, or they thought it was as job where they could just show up and not have to prepare for. The sad reality is that when they finally wake up they realize in order to do their job effectively it takes a lot of work, now they hate the profession but don’t want to quit because of the steady pay. The existence of this type of teacher is not fair to the students, parents, or the profession. And then there is the teacher who is really a criminal, a predator they do exist we read about them all of the time. Here is an example: The teacher who gets caught inappropriately touching the students or gets caught having sex with them or worse. An article recently came out in the Korean Times about a Korean man who fled the United States took a flight to South Korea, even though he was a known gang member back in the states. Once he arrived in South Korea he was relatively unknown and was able to successfully obtain a false college degree and secure a job teaching English at one of the private schools. Solution? I’m speaking to the parents and to the communities at large, know who is teaching your children, get involved in the process your children will thank you for it later when they grow up to be productive citizens. You never know what they will achieve in life, but if you stand by and continue to be indifferent towards their education then we all know where that path will lead, we’ve seen it before, and it plays out like a broken record. To the community make the youth respect the elderly and in turn they will respect the women and more importantly show them that life is precious and is not theirs to take. This type of reform must start on the grassroots level and ascend to the so-called public officials I fully understand that this is happening in some communities but not enough. Ok, like a person with a secret that he/she can’t hold, I am looking around and beckoning you to come closer as I tell you something that you don’t know. In Korea, the reason why children attend school day and night well into the weekends is for one reason……..Curiosity piquing yet? Here is the secret, getting accepted into a top university, that’s it; once that is a reality nothing else really matters such as what the student majors in as long as they get in. So every year high school seniors take a statewide test, a high score guarantees that they will get accepted into a university. This time of year is taken so serious by the Korean government that they insist that airports are ordered to cancel all airplane flights over Korean airspace during the time these exams are taken, cars are also not allowed to drive anywhere near the schools that administer these exams; there is a no noise ordinance in effect for the entire country. Students from the lower grade levels are excused early to cheer these students on as they take their exams and not surprisingly the suicide rate increases tenfold during this time of the year as students get back their results and find out whether they passed or failed, this my friends is Korea’s little dirty secret, still want to emulate America’s school system after Asia’s? Think again. While in the process of wrapping up English camp for the year, the Christmas holiday was rolling around and I asked my students to write down their five most requested gifts for the year. After a few minutes I collected their answers and began to read back the responses which were typical, Mp3 player, computer, video game, bicycle, but one answer struck me so hard that it still haunts me to this day it came from a girl who is now in the 6th grade her 1st answer was “A Future.” If you enjoyed this article, Join HBCU CONNECT today for similar content and opportunities via email! |
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Lonzo Lucas II
Teacher, Papyong Elementary School San Diego St Univ class of 1995 Member Since January 2008 |
Comments
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Excellent story on the 6th grade girl. Now this is what I call change we can believe in!!!
Sunday, April 25th 2010 at 6:01PM |
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