The media, parents, the business community. politicians and the educational community take delight in finger pointing. “THEY” are responsible for the failure in education. The complaint goes, “if only we had better students, as if the parents are holding back their better children until the system improves. If only we had better teachers… If only we had better parents…
We need to realize that the system we have been using in this country for the past 200+ years has worked rather well for a large group of young people but has failed for another group of youngsters. The latter group is growing and the system has not kept up with the changing economy and workplace.
We have many more single parents raising or not raising children. We have two parent working families.
We have a knowledge-based economy and we are using an information based school system. We still test information which seems to double every twenty-four hours. We still use an agrarian based school calendar closing schools over the summer as if gaining knowledge is a 9-month process. Our use of technology is basically using computers as electronic books.
The system needs to be improved and it will take the effort of all stakeholders working in concert to do it. But as long as we criticize individuals we will be further at risk than we already are.