The “brokenness” of the education system in America seems to be manifest in
the core of large cities across our land. Students entering high school are
dropping out at the rate of more than thirty percent and some schools are
graduating only a little above half of those who start. Racial and ethnic
gaps persist, according to the Christian Science Monitor. “Forty-six percent
of black students, 44 percent of Latinos, and 49 percent of native Americans
did not earn a diploma in four years.”
Even with those who graduate there is a certain percent who continue to be
illiterate in reading, writing, science and math. History, humanities,
geography, literature and other fine arts have virtually fallen by the
wayside. Teachers across our land, even in moderately rural areas, speak of
their classrooms being a “war zone” or a place where students are so
disrespectful the Teachers are sometimes in fear of their own personal
safety.
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There are countless accounts from Teachers who tell of their classrooms
where students have taken complete control and the Teacher spends most of
the time just trying to protect the weaker ones in the class. As far as the
environment being an environment conducive to learning, some have reported
that threats, intimidation, fear and overt hostility prevent all but limited
incidental, positive learning of the subject.
I wonder what has happened to create the situations in these classrooms
across our nation. Where did we turn the corner from the past one-room,
multiple grade groups of students being taught by the Teacher with very
little resources, to the modern-day multi-million dollar buildings with
certified, educated Teachers and Teacher’s Aides being supported by
multi-layers of supervision and administration?
I seem to remember countless Presidential States of the Union Addresses and
other speeches where Presidents past have said essentially the same thing.
President Eisenhower initiated a post-war “Atoms for Peace” program that
turned the educational attention toward converting the use of atomic power
to peace-time uses. President Kennedy delivered a post-Sputnik era speech
followed by actions that led to the sweeping proposal of putting a man on
the moon within a decade. President Johnson declared that America was big
enough to support the reality of guns [war] and butter with his declaration
of “War on Poverty.” President Nixon supported education with his call for
more involvement on energy independence and domestic tranquility. President
Ford followed suite with the signing of the Education for All Handicapped
Children Act in 1975. President Carter created the Department of Education.
President Reagan cut the Department of Education’s budget by eighteen
percent, but at the same time talked about providing educational tax credits
and enhanced the State governments’ power over the local school districts to
steer the educational process. President Clinton wanted more
“accountability” for the fifteen billion dollars being given to the public
schools. President Bush signed into law the “No Child Left Behind” Act in
2002. And now President Obama wants to “invest” in America’s education to
increase the quality of education for the students across the land.
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If the past is any predictor of the future, it may be that more money being
spent on education is not the only answer. At the same time money has been
allocated to the education process, from the Federal government, State
governments and the local municipalities, there has been a drain on moral
teaching, school accountability and parental responsibility.
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![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2014/Oct/13/images/ads/current/Symphony_lda_091814.png) When President Eisenhower began his first term in office in
January 1953 students around the nation stood each day and said the
pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States. In most
instances after the pledge, the Teacher or a student, stood in front
of the class and read verses from the Bible. In many schools across
the nation after the Bible reading was completed someone might voice
a prayer, or each student was given an opportunity to say a prayer
silently.
The general belief during that era was belief in God, patriotism of
the Nation, a belief in a common morality built on a foundation
found in the Bible that taught the Ten Commandments and the
Christian faith. Schools taught a perspective of history that
America was founded on Christian principles and ideas. From those
ideas came common rules of moral behavior that was based on love,
joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control. For sure, many in the population may not have
subscribed to the Christian moral standard, but conventional
behaviors in the family and in the schools reflected those ideas and
beliefs.
During the ensuing decades as the so-called “political
correctness” groups grew from the atheist groups that wanted to omit
any vestiges of Christianity from America’s history, an unintended
consequence was a void of morality with a replacement of natural,
hedonistic tendencies that stripped God from the “public” culture,
forcing Him behind the walls of various church buildings, and
resulting in predominant national life-styles that manifested itself
in sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, idolatry, sorcery,
hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish
rivalries, dissensions, factions, envying, murder, drunkenness,
carousing, and similar things. Thus, the condition of America in the
21st Century is reflective of the new morality that is lived in a
society that operationally has rejected God. Least we lay all the
blame on Teachers, we need to remember the primary responsibility
for providing moral teaching is parents.
I have said it before and still believe it..."In the Christian
living experience the education of the children first begins with
the parents; continues with the parents; and, ends with the parents.
The so-called mandated, public education is only supplemental to
parental guidance to learning life."
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Teachers have some emotional connection to their students during the
course of the school year, but practically no emotional background
and history with the children who pass through their classrooms each
year. It is a brief encounter to say the least. Additionally, with
the laws the way they are regarding morality, especially related to
spiritual morality, the teacher is working with one hand tied behind
their backs anyway. In the area of morality they are likely using
texts that slant toward the evolutionary or humanistic perspective
which is oftentimes counterproductive with Christian morals that
some parents might be trying to teach. It may not be a good idea to
push a "full-force" teaching curriculum on faith-based morality,
since choosing the "right" faith would be impossible. But morality
based in good citizenship behaviors and beliefs might be generic
enough to help build foundations of civil obedience to state and
national laws.
At the very least the teachers ought to be required to teach the
rudiments of manners and respect for others. They should reinforce
the efforts of their students to learn and do it within a civil
environment without disruption. Students should be taught respect
for authority, but still within the context of questioning concerns.
Students who are unable to conform to a civil learning environment
by continuing to be disruptive should be removed and provided
remediation until they can learn to participate in a productive
learning environment. That is only fair to those who want to learn.
We can “invest” more and more money into our education process, but
I believe that our own history has shown that it is not enough to
turn the heads of students to find within themselves the motivation
and desire to re-focus, buckle down, work hard to learn the
fundamentals and persevere in an educational environment where
respect, manners, dignity, morality, and self-control have been
given away for the thirty pieces of silver.
[By JIM KILLEBREW]
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