🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <38177@uflorida.cis.ufl.edu>, djohns@elm.circa.ufl.edu (David A. Johns) writes:
> In article <1993Jan4.081435.2354@ucbeh.san.uc.edu> turnerbl@ucbeh.san.uc.edu writes:
> 
> # A perception is going around that poor balck students can't learn
> # because of the schools that they are in.  This has been disproved
> # again and again by the waves of immigrant asian students from poor
> # schools who still score in the top of their schools as well as top
> # in the SAT/ACT tests.  Students, not schools, make these choices.
> # It always comes back to the kid.
> 
> Well, yes, but the kids have to learn their values somewhere.  It
> seems to me that parents have to learn what sort of support kids need
> to thrive in school (for instance, the TV is off on week nights) and
> parents have to be collectively strong enough to counter the lure of
> the peer culture.
> 
> David

Well, let us assume that, just for a second,that the same student who has the
brain to strip a car in less than 2 minutes, can assemble a 9mm gun in his
locker with no one seeing it, can assembele a drug ring including sophisticated
beeper systems, that this student csn make a choice about education.  Now, the
school's obligation is to be there to meet the needs, to the extent of its
resources, of every student making the effort to learn.  I think that most
educators in the school systems we are discussing would agree that they are
making this effort.  But where is the loose link?  Hmmmmmmmmm  We could blame
the parent, but it is not the parent who is not attending classes, turning in
homework and acting up in class.  It is the student.

See, in my opinion, we have let the student off the hook far too often.  Broken
homes, inner city stresses, peer pressure, yes they do happen in our world. 
But that is just the way it goes! Clearly all of our coddeling has not made a
difference, so hey, let's try the get tough system and see how it goes, just
for a while (like maybe the 20 years it took to screw up our old system.)

I tend to think that every student who makes the effort to "make it" can.  
Who's responsibility is it to make the effort?  Ultimatly, it is the student.
Who else could it be? 

Brian Turner
"5 schools and 3 colleges later, 
a tax paying citizen with an attitude
about education"