*Sometimes teachers get a bad rap:
"A common belief held [by students] is that if the teacher does not like them, they will automatically fail. This has become a common excuse for students when they do not get the grade they feel they deserve." Susan Harrison, Armwood High School, Seffner, Florida
"It happens quite often that students complain to me that they failed or did poorly on a test because the teacher does not know how to teach, or that the teacher did not give the students enough time to study or prepare for the exam. I feel that grades most usually reflect the effort that was put into them by the individual, and no one is to blame for a poor grade but oneself." Anne Purfield,Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois
*But when a teacher lives up to a student's ideal, the power for good is greater than that wielded by anyone else in society:
"How can students be responsive when they lack respect for authority? We have grown up hearing about our corrupt government so respect is lost for adults. Teachers can earn back that respect." Ashley Wilson, Crockett High, Austin, Texas
"A boy in our community died of cancer. Before he died, when he was too sick to go to school, his teacher did something exceptional. She tutored him every night and spent time with him. She gave her free time to care for a dying student." Lindsay Mannelin, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota
"Greg Manley, art teacher, truly cares about his students and makes it known that he will do anything to help them. Mr. Manley has set the example for me and many other students to follow our dreams and do all that we do to the best of our ability. He has taught us to be responsible at our work and not to be lazy." Carrie Milam, Armwood High School, Seffner, Florida
"Teachers have the biggest job of all to nurture, teach morals and values, keep order in the classroom, and make sure the children are learning the basic skills they will need as they grow older. What children learn in school is carried with them for the rest of their lives." Amy Fritsch, Iowa-Grant High School, Livingston, Wisconsin
*However it is difficult to entice good people to become good teachers. The following excerpts discuss one of the reasons:
"Even though they [teachers] get paid, they don't get paid enough for the job they do. They show great responsibility by doing their job well for very little pay." Kevin Cade, Rock Hill Senior High School, Ironton, Ohio
"[G]arbage men, and janitors make more money than teachers, [even though] teachers are the ones who influence our children's future. ...Many people, my father [included], with growth potential for excelling in the field of teaching have been [enticed] into other [better paying] vocations. ... If a system of bonuses were available to teachers,...more teachers would strive for excellence instead of the mediocrity that we have today. There needs to be a redrawing of the salary system, balancing quality... with longevity."Josh Williams, Kiona-Benton High , Benton City, Washington
*A Poor To Negligible Education
*Students expressed concern about illiteracy:
"Even though it does not make very many headlines, illiteracy is many times the root of other problems faced today." Louis Van Alsfine, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin
*"Dumbing-down" policies that feign equality:
"A professor of education at Harvard, Charles Willie, says universities should strive for diversity--even if the school's goal of excellence is lost in the process. His arguments would justify turning away white and Asian straight-A students and instead accepting 'adequate' minority students. Willie explains that equity should be the major concern of universities rather than excellence. While these policies may be well-meaning and intended to create equal opportunities, they are not sending responsible messages. In fact, Willie is saying that 'adequate' is good enough for some, but excellence is not good enough for others, which hardly promotes equal opportunity." Jordon Whitacre, Garnet Valley High School, Glen Mills, Pennsylvania
*Rising dropout rates:
"Time magazine recently interviewed a 51 year-old who has been imprisoned since 1952. This convict referred to crime as a social problem, and education being the only real deterrent. He pointed out that most of the people in prisons are all truants and dropouts, failures of the education system. If you look at all the truants, you're observing future prisoners." Scott Shields, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin
"The leading cause of high school drop outs is truancy. There are more and more high and even junior high students ditching school every day. Schools are not cracking down nor are parents on these kids who are skipping school....More and more teens are failing high school because they do not attend. These kids aren't stupid, they are just lazy." Keith Wrape, Walters High School, Walters, Oklahoma
"Although there are many positive things being done about dropouts, we still cannot ignore the large number of teenagers not attending school. In the long run this small population of people will turn out to be two thirds of prisoners and over one half of the welfare recipients in this country, [costing] the government billions of dollars each year." Adam Parker, DeForest High School, DeForest, Wisconsin
"A heavy suspension policy may seem like a good solution, but it is not. It usually results in increased hatred and resentment toward school and rising drop out rates. Suspension should only be imposed in extreme cases of discipline." Mena Brittain Blair, Harrisburg High School, Harrisburg, Illinois
*Teachers might be able to help more if they weren't so afraid:
"Although some teachers are taking the new wave of violence in schools in stride, others have left their schools, or worse yet, the field of teaching altogether. This move many times leaves behind the 'tough' teachers that really don't nurture the children...which begins the vicious cycle all over again." Amy Fritsch, Iowa-Grant High School, Livingston, Wisconsin
"In one large urban area, there was so much drug use and gang-crimes that the teachers were afraid to say anything to the parents. They were scared that parents would punish the children and the children would kill them [the teachers] or at least seriously injure them." Stephanie Renee French, Camden High School, Camden, Tennessee
"Security and the power of the administration must be upgraded. An improvement must also be made in the area of teacher-student relation- ships. Feldman's survey says ninety-five percent of the violence committed by students was directed at their teachers." Dustin Gwinn, Meadow Bridge High School, Meadow Bridge, West Virginia
"Teachers must become more involved in their student's lives, if they plan on preventing violence in their classroom." Patrick A. Sampson, Concordia High School, Concordia, Kansas
*Others, believe if more students had self-esteem they would stay in school:
"I feel that schools need to go deeper and stress self-esteem and decision making skills along with academics." Sandy Gunther, Deer River High School, Deer River, Minnesota
"Teenagers who have a low self-esteem are more likely to get pregnant because to them, their lives seem pointless or the doors of the future seem closed. These teenage girls think that having a baby will make them feel needed. An example of this occurrence is when a girl that I know in Wyoming was left behind by her mother with her two brothers when they were all really young and then later got separated from her two brothers. A couple of years later, the guy she was engaged to broke up with her and two weeks later she was pregnant by a different guy altogether." Angela Carmen Pinson, LaCrosse High School, LaCrosse, Washington
"Also, sex education teaches the students how to protect themselves when in a bad situation. This, in return, increases self esteem. I do not think that society really sees the importance in these sexual education classes." JoEllyn Cordes, Eureka High School, Eureka, Illinois
"It is important for teens to know the value of an education and the consequences of being a teen mother. If the amount of welfare a mother can receive is limited, I believe her children will see how difficult it is to get by and stop the chain of welfare in their family. If welfare is constantly given to mothers who do not try to get a job, their children will see how easy it is to get money from the government and have children of their own at a very young age." Rachel Overstreet, Kremlin-Hillsdale High School, Kremlin, Oklahoma
*Easy? A bay area woman called a popular San Francisco talk show on May 12, 1994 to say when she split with her husband and kept her three children she started receiving welfare support. (AFDC--Aid to Families with Dependent Children). She told her case worker she planned to go to college and get a teaching credential and asked for a list of child care providers. Her social worker laughed. The woman was incredulous when she was told she was on her own. She attacked the system, letting listeners know how terrible she thought it was that people who could hold down at least a minimum wage job could not go out and work because society did not provide them with child care. *There are several issues here. For example, who did she think would pay the child care providers?
*President Clinton's welfare-reform plan addresses the issues raised above by Rachel and the San Francisco caller. We will discuss the President's proposal in the next section.
Happily Sherrie, judging by the excerpt that follows, does not suffer from low self-esteem:
"Some people in my community say that I shouldn't be able to attend the graduation ceremony because I am pregnant. I feel that it is my right to attend the ceremony whether I am pregnant or not. At the end of this year I will have completed the requirements just as all the other graduates have in order to graduate. The school superintendent called the lawyers. I will be attending the graduati