Franklin Schargel’s Blog

Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice at a women’s conference, made the statement above.  The statement is similar to the one made by Former Secretary of State Colin Powell on Meet the Press.

“It makes me terrified because… if we cannot do better in educating all of our people, then we are not going to be competitive in a global economy…the United States is not going to lead.  Kids who might be the next Nobel Prize winner are trapped in some public school that’s just basically warehousing them.”

America in the 1960’s was concerned about providing equal access to our schools.  Today our schools need to provide equal opportunity to all of our students.

Ms. Rice acknowledged that education has not been one of the more pressing issues in the current presidential campaign.

Low attendance rates, which affect school funding, can be caused by a variety of things:

1.  An unhealthy climate characterized by poor relationships between teachers and students.

2.  The lack of enforcement of truancy laws.

3.  Students who fall behind do not come to school because they are afraid they cannot catch up.

4.  Coursework may not be challenging enough and students have become bored.

5.  Students who are excluded from school because of school infractions.

6.  Illness.

7.  The need to take care of a younger sibling so that a parent can go to work.  The need to take care of a ill family member.

8.  The need for a student to go to work to help support a family.

In Virginia, it was found that “less than 18% of punitive school exclusions” were in response to serious infractions such as those involving drugs and alcohol, fighting and assault, weapons, threats and theft. In New York City, 20% or one-fifth of all elementary school students are absent more than one month of the school year.  The number in high schools is far worse; 40% of all students miss a month or more of school.  In middle schools, the number is 24% missing a month or more of school.

It is ironic that in many schools, the punishment for not coming to school – truancy – is school suspension.

Before teachers, counselors and school administrators react to student absence, they need to identify the cause and then use appropriate remedies depending on the cause.

According to a study conducted by Achieve, Inc. and the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University,  the most severe dropout problem exists, where nearly half of the schools graduate less than 50% of their freshman class, is concentrated in 35 of our nation’s largest cities.

The cities are:

• Indianapolis
• Detroit
• Cleveland
• San Antonio
• Baltimore
• Fort Worth
• Dallas
• Houston
• Chicago
• Philadelphia
• New York City
• Austin
• Columbus, OH
• Milwaukee
• Denver
• Kansas City
• Nashville
• Memphis
• El Paso
• Oklahoma City
• Portland, OR
• Los Angeles
• San Francisco
• Boston
• San Diego
• Washington, DC
• Long Beach, CA
• Phoenix
• San Jose, CA
• Seattle
• Tucson
• Virginia Beach
• New Orleans
• Jacksonville, FL
• Charlotte

Several critical questions I believe need to be asked:

What do these cities have in common other than the fact that there are many of the students living in poverty and many of these students are minorities?

Can anything be gained by studying the fact that 2 of these cities are in Ohio, 6 in Texas, 2 in Arizona, 2 in Tennessee and 5 in California?

Does the fact that many of these cities are in states which border Latin America play a part in their names being on the list?

How much does state spending on education contribute to the problem?

How much of a role does the fact that many of these states are agricultural play in their names being on the list?

Till next time,

Franklin

With the American economy, and most of the rest of the world, in free fall, people’s attention focuses on their jobs, their future and the future of their children.  Unfortuanately, politicians and policy makers focus on today and not tomorrow.

When the economy is good, politicians say that taxpayers need a break and should receive a tax rebate.  They rarely indicate that we should invest more money in our nation’s future, our children and our schools.

When the economy is on the decline, the concern (correctly) focuses on repairing the decline.  Tax monies should be used to bail out stock brokers and stock exchanges, banks, mortgage holders, insurance companies, etc.

The reality is that no one speaks for the children, or the schools except for educators.   Teacher unions speak for teachers.  Parents organizations speak for parents.  School board organizations speak for school boards.  Administrator organizations speak for administrators.

Let’s face it.  Whether times are good or times are bad it is bad for children.

Till next time.

Franklin

Educators are aware that computers, both at home and in school are subjected to viruses as well as security invasions.  There are number of “freeware” programs that can be used to protect Windows based computers.  While they may not have as many whistles and bells as those which you can spend $50 to $100; they are free.

AntiVir Personal Edition Classic 7 (www.free-av.com) is a spy-ware and ad-ware detection program.  Windows Defender (www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/defender/default.mspx) and a spam filter, SPAMfighter Standard (www.spamfighter.com) will provide decent protection.

Teachers provide an invaluable and frequently ignored, role in the world.  Progress in a global economy comes from an educated mass population. Yes, Warren Buffett, Michael Dell and Bill Gates provide the world with the where with all but if they failed to get an education, they would not have had the resources they currently have.

Go to a room, anywhere in the world, of successful economic, political, entertainment or sports leaders, and identify one consistent commonality. It would be education.

Look at the world’s problems – poverty, disease, drugs, starvation, crime. At the root cause is the lack of education. Political and business leaders claim that education is expensive.  It isn’t!  It is ignorance – the lack of education which is expensive.  In the United States, 70-80% of all incarcerated people have dropped out of school.

When I go to a barber, plumber, lawyer or doctor, they do not say “I’m only a …”

Why do educators belittle themselves and their occupation by introducing themselves with, “I’m only an educator”?  Are there low performing educators? Sure!  But there are also low-performing judges, stockbrokers, lawyers and doctors.

We need to be proud of our field and the job we do.  WE ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

We are improving the lives of children and improving the world.