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There are students in every school who we may classify as 'problem students.' Their problem may manifest as severe academic troubles or severe disciplinary problems, but it's source is a complete lack of interest in school. Each day that we concern ourselves with these students educational time and money is taken away from students interested in working and given to those who couldn't care less. Due to our mandatory schooling laws these students must be supplied an education, despite the fact that they confess no interest in receiving one. This forced servitude is also compelled by the fact that high school is closed to these students once they reach twenty. Instead of spending our educational money and effort on those who refuse to put any of their own effort into their schooling, we should change the laws to allow these students to leave school and return when they have matured, and are able to work for their own education. Let's leave our schools for the willing.
School administrators now spend the majority of their work days dealing with problem students. Not students who break an occasional rule, but those who seem incapable of attending a full day of school without having to leave class. Students who never show up in class, or come to school wasted. All of these situations must be dealt with on a daily basis by the teachers and administrators. Time is taken away from the classes, time which could have been spent teaching and learning.
Eventually chronic problem students become too much trouble to even be allowed in school. Each day becomes a battle between student and administrators. All this to force an unwilling student to sit through a school day and learn nothing. The administration decides to kick the student out of school and that's that. Except for one thing. Our educational laws say we must provide a student an education, and if it can't be done at school it must be done out of school. So the school sends the student to an alternative schooling system, or hires a private tutor for the student. All to teach a student who doesn't care about their education.
There are students who pose no disciplinary problem, but still are a drain on the school's resources. These are students who have great academic difficulties, not because they have trouble with the subject matter but because they refuse to do any work. Our teachers and guidance counselors spend much of their time with these students who struggle in all their classes, trying to help them get through high school. In these students' cases, however, this struggle is due once again to the fact that the students are putting no work into it. I have worked as a tutor for many of these students; they don't need a tutor, they need a slavemaster who will force them to complete their school work. But no reasonable amount of force can help when the student doesn't care about the results.
These mandatory schooling laws have a noble intent and origin. They are designed for the students who can't learn inside the confines of our schools, for academic or emotional reasons. These students should not be denied an education just because they don't fit our mold if they can succeed outside of school. But there is a line we must draw, a point at which we must ask our children to take a little responsibility for themselves. These programs are being perverted by those whose only problem with school is that it involves work. There is nothing we can do for these students until they are ready.
However, I don’t place all the blame for this situation on the students. I feel they often have valid reasons for having no interest in school. High school coincides with the height of puberty, and attempting to instill an education during that is a losing battle. Students wisely understand that the true work of their teenage years is social. Teenage life is about dealing with hormones, dealing with your peers, and learning to be a social creature. School will always remain a low priority for the majority of teenagers.
Our school system is taking humans at the height of their growth, physical energy, and spontaneity and cramming them in classrooms. Not to mention largely unimaginative, uncreative and unnecessary classes. One of my students told me that he could get hit by a truck tomorrow, so why should he waste his time on algebra, when he could be home jamming on his drums. I find it hard to argue with his viewpoint. I feel we’re doing a great disservice to our kids by stifling their humanity at every turn. Our educational system needs to be drastically changed, but in the meantime we need to stop wasting our resources on students who aren’t interested.
We need to establish a new system with more freedom for our students and schools. As it is our laws provide a very small window of opportunity for studeents to take advantage of our public high schools. The window leaves no opportunity for maturity on the student’s part. And our mandatory education laws leave no freedom for the schools to remove troublesome students. These two components need to be changed.
We must alter the mandatory education law to allow administrators to kick students out of school. Until schools can remove problem students, the rest of our children will not receive the full potential of their education. These problem students should be sent home and left to their parents and themselves to deal with, without tutoring or any other public schooling.
However, if we are to give our administrators the power to remove students from school we must give the students the ability to make up that lost schooling. The maximum age limit at our schools should be lifted, so that a person of any age can return to school. With the knowledge that a student can return whenever they are mature enough, administrators can feel free to remove problem students without worry.
These changes will create a school environment which is much friendlier to education. It will be peopled only by students serious about doing their work and recieving a diploma. Removed students hopefully will return when they have matured enough to focus, and have realized the importance of a diploma in our society. Morale will be much higher in a school where students realize no one is being forced to work here. Many students would benefit from the ability to live out their teenage years away from school, working, playing sports and socializing; perhaps receiving a dose of life outside of school. They could bring their new understanding back to school where they would better be able to apply themselves once the tide of hormones had passed.
This new system would spawn classrooms with a wider range of ages. The presence of adult students would lend a new atmosphere to the classroom. Putting together a horde of teenagers is a sure recipe for a party atmosphere. But when teenagers deal with adults they often act in a more mature manner. The adults would help the teenagers to focus on their studies, and the teenagers would lend some of their vitality to the adults.
These are some simple changes which if utilized would have a positive effect on our schools. We must begin to run our schools for those who are willing to take advantage of them, and to give others a true choice to shape up or ship out. We must abandon our belief that education should occur from the ages of 7-18 for all Americans. Most importantly we must accept that education is something that cannot be scheduled or implanted.