The Webster Direction defines education as the act or process of educating; the result of educating, as determined by the knowledge skill, or discipline of character, acquired; also, the act or process of training by a prescribed or customary course of study or discipline. With that definition it is easy to understand why so many of our people take education for granted. It is this reason why the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit in particular has the potential to reform education like it has never been reformed before. The state of Michigan’s educational system has been broken for many years and while so many in the nation and even in the state try to highlight the woes of Detroit Public Schools, one should understand that you can judge a state’s quality of education by its largest school district. If Detroit Public Schools have been failing in the eyes of so many for years and the when the state took over DPS in 1998, the state or quality of education in the city of Detroit didn’t improve within the 7 years that the state had controlled of DPS than it is clear that both the state of Michigan and DPS need a complete makeover when it comes to education reform.
Educational reform is a word that many don’t like to hear but the reality is that is the only way that real education can be achieved so that we don’t continue to leave so many youth behind. When people hear education reform, they quickly think about “No Child Left Behind” and say that was educational reform put into place by the President of the United States of America. However what people don’t know, the structure of “No Child Left Behind” was set up for failure because you can’t teach children to pass a test plus if you don’t fund your own plan properly than its not educational reform. Therefore “No Child Left Behind” didn’t just leave the money behind but it left hundreds of thousands of children behind. “No Child Left Behind” probably left us as a nation 10 years behind in our educational system than we were when it was first implemented.
So the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit can learn from “No Child Left Behind” that real educational reform is not just about making sure students can pass a test but it starts with restricting the academic standards for students in order to make it a level playing field for both public and private school students. The state of Michigan first needs to revamp its academic standards in order to make its students more competitive globally. One might ask how will any state does that when it is financially strapped or the state of the auto industry is in limbo. Here are a couple of things the state of Michigan can do to reform its academic standards:
· Students start learning a foreign language in the 1st or 2nd grade and they continue to learn that same foreign language from elementary all the way up to high school. Therefore the feeder middle schools must have those foreign languages available as well as the feeder high schools.
· Stop teaching students to pass a state standardized test while on regular academia time but instead have students go to school on Saturdays to learn for 4 or 5 hours on how to pass a state test. Also have parents participate in this by making it mandatory for parents to attend otherwise their child will be in school on Saturdays for the regular scheduled school hours.
· Institute the same academic requirements for charter and private schools that you have for public schools. All schools should be under the same state standards meaning no one can teach our children without having a college degree in the field they are teaching and are at least working toward obtaining a state teacher certification.
· Students can’t graduate from high school without 4 years of English, mathematics, and science, and foreign language.
· Extend regular school hours by 2 hours with first hour and last hour of any student’s day being study hour.
These are just a few things that need to change academically but all of this can’t be possible without first implementing a parent responsibility law that requires parents to be involved in their child’s learning. Parents need to be required to volunteer 20-30 hours per month during regular school hours within the school and/or attend 20-30 hours of instructional time on Saturdays per month with their child. Parent instructional time on Saturdays should be spearheaded by the school principal and the school’s administration because they should provide parents with lessons and information on better parenting skills and how parents can help the teachers as well as the school in providing their child(ren) a good education both in school and at home. No matter how many academia changes we make in the state, if we don’t start holding parents accountable for their own child’s education than it is virtually impossible to ensure that all children are so what playing on an equal playing field. That’s why a parent responsibility law in regards to education needs to be implemented so that parents understand that they are more responsible for educating their child than the school, the school district and the state. Everything in regards to education starts at home and that is the type of attitude the state of Michigan needs to have.
Also the state of Michigan and school districts need to stop allowing teachers unions to detect the flow of education within our schools. Our students need help and if the teachers unions are not trying to provide the necessary solutions to the problems that are plaguing our schools than we as community leaders, parents and politicians must look at what is in the best interest of our students so that they can compete globally. Therefore teachers unions must stop talking about better pay and smaller classes and they need to start talking about having more qualified and quality teachers to teach our youth. Teachers unions need to start talking about merit pay as a means to increase a teacher’s pay rate and they need to be talking about finding a way to recruit and maintain young & talented teachers by replacing teachers who are not willing to keep up to date by the changing of times.
In order for Michigan’s educational system to be reformed, all sides must bend a little and look at the state’s educational structure not from a financial standard but from an academia standard. Our youth need us more than ever and we have to be there to make sure they are getting the best from us. If we as a state work to improve our public and private schools than we can not only reform our state’s academic standards but we can reform the mindset’s of our parents and students as well as reenergize our teachers, principals and other educational staff. This could be the dawn of a new beginning in the state of Michigan and we could be the blueprint for the rest of America to follow when it comes to education reform. We must approach educational reform in a way that we have never approached it because if we keep doing things the way we have done it than our children will continue to fail and will continue to be left behind not only nationally but internationally.
We have to set up guidelines that address failing schools and failing school districts as well but the most important parts are for the academic standards in the state to change and for parent responsibility to be higher than it has ever been. When politicians, teachers, principals, community leaders, parents and students come together with the mindset to change the state of Michigan’s educational system than we all can get a little bit of what we want in order to revamp a failing state educational structure in the wake of a failing economy. It is time to change the status quo of education within the state and begin a new dawn of real educational reform that spears educational growth across generational & economic boundaries.
This is the opportunity that our state has in order to reform public and private schools across the state. Opportunities like this only come once in a lifetime and this is perhaps the greatest opportunity the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit will ever have to impact the nation’s educational standard.
References:
The Meaning of Education
http://www.teachersmind.com/education.htm
Educational reform is a word that many don’t like to hear but the reality is that is the only way that real education can be achieved so that we don’t continue to leave so many youth behind. When people hear education reform, they quickly think about “No Child Left Behind” and say that was educational reform put into place by the President of the United States of America. However what people don’t know, the structure of “No Child Left Behind” was set up for failure because you can’t teach children to pass a test plus if you don’t fund your own plan properly than its not educational reform. Therefore “No Child Left Behind” didn’t just leave the money behind but it left hundreds of thousands of children behind. “No Child Left Behind” probably left us as a nation 10 years behind in our educational system than we were when it was first implemented.
So the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit can learn from “No Child Left Behind” that real educational reform is not just about making sure students can pass a test but it starts with restricting the academic standards for students in order to make it a level playing field for both public and private school students. The state of Michigan first needs to revamp its academic standards in order to make its students more competitive globally. One might ask how will any state does that when it is financially strapped or the state of the auto industry is in limbo. Here are a couple of things the state of Michigan can do to reform its academic standards:
· Students start learning a foreign language in the 1st or 2nd grade and they continue to learn that same foreign language from elementary all the way up to high school. Therefore the feeder middle schools must have those foreign languages available as well as the feeder high schools.
· Stop teaching students to pass a state standardized test while on regular academia time but instead have students go to school on Saturdays to learn for 4 or 5 hours on how to pass a state test. Also have parents participate in this by making it mandatory for parents to attend otherwise their child will be in school on Saturdays for the regular scheduled school hours.
· Institute the same academic requirements for charter and private schools that you have for public schools. All schools should be under the same state standards meaning no one can teach our children without having a college degree in the field they are teaching and are at least working toward obtaining a state teacher certification.
· Students can’t graduate from high school without 4 years of English, mathematics, and science, and foreign language.
· Extend regular school hours by 2 hours with first hour and last hour of any student’s day being study hour.
These are just a few things that need to change academically but all of this can’t be possible without first implementing a parent responsibility law that requires parents to be involved in their child’s learning. Parents need to be required to volunteer 20-30 hours per month during regular school hours within the school and/or attend 20-30 hours of instructional time on Saturdays per month with their child. Parent instructional time on Saturdays should be spearheaded by the school principal and the school’s administration because they should provide parents with lessons and information on better parenting skills and how parents can help the teachers as well as the school in providing their child(ren) a good education both in school and at home. No matter how many academia changes we make in the state, if we don’t start holding parents accountable for their own child’s education than it is virtually impossible to ensure that all children are so what playing on an equal playing field. That’s why a parent responsibility law in regards to education needs to be implemented so that parents understand that they are more responsible for educating their child than the school, the school district and the state. Everything in regards to education starts at home and that is the type of attitude the state of Michigan needs to have.
Also the state of Michigan and school districts need to stop allowing teachers unions to detect the flow of education within our schools. Our students need help and if the teachers unions are not trying to provide the necessary solutions to the problems that are plaguing our schools than we as community leaders, parents and politicians must look at what is in the best interest of our students so that they can compete globally. Therefore teachers unions must stop talking about better pay and smaller classes and they need to start talking about having more qualified and quality teachers to teach our youth. Teachers unions need to start talking about merit pay as a means to increase a teacher’s pay rate and they need to be talking about finding a way to recruit and maintain young & talented teachers by replacing teachers who are not willing to keep up to date by the changing of times.
In order for Michigan’s educational system to be reformed, all sides must bend a little and look at the state’s educational structure not from a financial standard but from an academia standard. Our youth need us more than ever and we have to be there to make sure they are getting the best from us. If we as a state work to improve our public and private schools than we can not only reform our state’s academic standards but we can reform the mindset’s of our parents and students as well as reenergize our teachers, principals and other educational staff. This could be the dawn of a new beginning in the state of Michigan and we could be the blueprint for the rest of America to follow when it comes to education reform. We must approach educational reform in a way that we have never approached it because if we keep doing things the way we have done it than our children will continue to fail and will continue to be left behind not only nationally but internationally.
We have to set up guidelines that address failing schools and failing school districts as well but the most important parts are for the academic standards in the state to change and for parent responsibility to be higher than it has ever been. When politicians, teachers, principals, community leaders, parents and students come together with the mindset to change the state of Michigan’s educational system than we all can get a little bit of what we want in order to revamp a failing state educational structure in the wake of a failing economy. It is time to change the status quo of education within the state and begin a new dawn of real educational reform that spears educational growth across generational & economic boundaries.
This is the opportunity that our state has in order to reform public and private schools across the state. Opportunities like this only come once in a lifetime and this is perhaps the greatest opportunity the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit will ever have to impact the nation’s educational standard.
References:
The Meaning of Education
http://www.teachersmind.com/education.htm
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