Instant Gratification

We live in a world where most people's lives are run by their need for instant gratification. Fast food, faster cars, faster downloads, etc... people are becoming obsessed with having what they want, NOW. This is a big problem in general, but is becoming a huge problem in the classroom. I'm in college and every class that I'm in has at least three people in it who everyday, for the entire class period spend their time on MySpace and Facebook. It's pretty ridiculous actually, my generation and every age group below it have been so over-saturated with stimulating images and activities, that they can't resist them. When you or your parents are shelling out over $30,000 at least to be in college and you can't keep yourself off social networking sites so you can chat and look at pictures, you have issues. I'm not in grade schools, middle schools, or high schools anymore, but I know things are the same there because I talk to my friends' bothers and sisters. What ever happened to stressing patience and explaining the satisfaction that you feel when you have to work for something or wait for it, instead of everything being a mouse click away. I know that technology and innovation rule our world, but why. It isn't because it is making everyone happier. Children don't realize that many of the habits that they develop today will stick with them for the rest of their lives, it's up to parents to explain that. How can so many adults around our country not see what type of life they are setting their kids up to have? A child who never learns patience will struggle to succeed in the business world much more than a child who does have patience. I can't give this topic as much time right now as I want to, however I feel it is a very important issue. Children now days spend too much time at home and their friends houses being constantly stimulated, experiencing instant gratification numerous times every hour. I feel that is an issue that must be addressed as well, but should really show people how important it is to keep school a place where children experience something vastly different than their life outside of school.

Bad Health and Education?

There is a disturbing trend that developed in the 90's that is still alive and well here in 2008. The trend I speak of is the trend of public schools looking to companies like Coke and Pepsi to make up for budget shortfalls within school districts. How did we get to the point in this nation where Coke and Pepsi are keeping portions of the public education system going? It makes me sick to my stomach when I think about Coke and Pepsi officials telling a school district that to recieve their help, the school district must meet a quota in regards to the total number of vending machines present in schools and the amount of soda they sell. Does this make any sense to anybody? We are saying as a country, "we won't pay more taxes to support schools, we'd rather let soft drink and candy companies ruin the future health of our children because they are contributing enough money to barely keep schools running!" To me this is not only sad, it's ridiculous, schools shouldn't have to sacrifice the health of their students to keep from shutting down. I'm not blaming Coke or Pepsi either, they are offering some help. But their products don't help anyone health wise, they only do damage.

My high school, Glencoe, which is located in Hillsboro, Oregon, surfs in and out of debt each year. They start each school year in debt, get out of debt during the school year thanks to Coke, but are back in debt by the summer due to the lack of funding that is present across the U.S. This is not the way things should be or have to be, we as a nation are choosing for things to be this way. How can anyone believe that our country doesn't have the funds to make a public education system not only work, but have an excess of funds? I know that we have the time, energy, money, intelligence, etc... as a country to find a solution to fix the declining state of education. But the only way that this is going to happen is if the American public makes it happen. We need to insist that the current presidential candidates make a clear concise statement as to how they plan to help public education. We must contact senators and any other local officials that can help make this issue a national one. Basically, those of us who want to see changes made within our public education system have to make our voices heard as often as possible. Use blogs, letters, e-mails, and any other ways that you can think of to make it clear that our nation's public is not satisfied with the current public education system. Please let your voices be heard, because if we don't start soon, who knows how bad things are going to get.

Just Let Them Play!!!!!!!

I want to address an issue regarding funding for our education system that I haven't brought up yet and doesn't get as much attention as it needs. The lack of funding for our public school system in this country has become such an issue that sports programs at a number of high schools are either being cut down in size or being cut altogether. This is a very disturbing trend in our country that began in some of the smaller districts, but has now begun to affect even large school districts in big towns and cities. Some of my fondest memories from high school are from me either competing in or attending school sporting events. When you begin to take the fun areas out of school you begin to make school seem like a job. Teenagers already have neough going on in their lives to make school seem like a job. What gets me, is that the adults in the government and education system that decide to underfund schools and cut these sports programs were at one point teenagers who loved playing and watching high school sports themselves. How can adults become so far removed from their own lives that they don't realize they are forcing a generation of teenage students to endure a schooling process that in now way resembles the one that hey themselves have great memories of.

With other areas of the schooling process like the school band and art programs being cut from budgets, it's time for parents and adults across out country to take a stand. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and other portions of our public schooling system are in need of some serious reform if our country is going to move and improve the current state of our education system. Standardized testing should not be such a huge concern and point of emphasis, that funding the testing process eliminates other portions of school like after school sports. I can't grasp how adults in this country don't care more about the future of our country, I don't think that men and women in the 60's and 70's would have enjoyed the bland schooling process that is currently taking place in this country. Please help the future of our nation enjoy school by doing whatever you can to raise awareness about the changes that must take place within our public education system.

Things Have To Change!

I was searching through blogs about education and I came across a particularly disturbing blog that talked about a young boy who had dropped out of school. The boy was only 12 years old but had been out of school for the last three years. He described how he and his friends go to the library each day instead of school so that they can study and read together. Due to the emphasis placed on testing, many schools have begun to pay very little attention to students who test poorly because they bring down the the school's overall testing average which determines funding and other issues. Because schools don't pay as much attention to the students that don't test as well, many students like the boy in the blog I read get bored with school because they are quite intelligent but not stimulated enough, so they drop out. The school paid so little attention to the boy that his parents had no idea he had dropped out. He was skilled and smart enough to fake his report cards using Photoshop and InDesign, to the point that his parents never had a clue that their 12-year-old hasn't been to class since the third grade. This kid was highly intelligent too, something that was quite obvious to any reader of the blog.

See, the blog was written by a man who had run into the boy while he was not in school one day. The boy and man got into a conversation that was so intriguing to the adult, that when the boy invited the man to continue the conversation at a coffee shop he couldn't wait. The man asked what he and his friends studied, how he knew so much, and asked himself how a kid who only made it through the second grade could be so personable, mature, as well as very, very smart. In my opinion the boy in the blog is much better off than children who are stuck in public school these days. He and his friends practice different instruments together, play sports together, take tests together, study together, and love learning together.

My point is instead of being stuck in a classroom focused on the next standardized test that they are told over and over will effect their future, the boy and his friends are working together to become more educated members of society. They're having fun learning abut the world around them, something that todays' public schooling system has taken away from the children in this country. I'm not proposing that schools close and students educate themselves, I'm only pointing out that the most grounded, happy, mature, and intelligent 12-year-old I've ever read about dropped out of school when he was nine, so what does that say about the U.S. public school system. Vast changes must be made to our public education system, and using the boy from the blog I spoke about and the way he and his friends have made learning something that they love as an example would be a great starting point.

We need someone who will say HOW they plan to fix NCLB!

How do you plan to fix something as complex as the state of our public education system and the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)? That is what journalists need to be asking the current presidential candidates! I am sick and tired of hearing people in our society, especially politicians, make statements on how things need to be different and that change is necessary, but then never offer a solution. I can tell you about thousands of things that need to be changed in modern society, but that doesn't mean I know how to do anything about them. I have yet to hear any of the current presidential candidates explain how they plan to help improve our public school system, as well as remedy the problems with NCLB.

The American public has to make it clear that we are not going to elect a president that can't explain how they are going to fix one of the most important, if not the most important issue in our country today. Yes the war in the Middle East is very important, but the future of our country depends on the children and young adults who are currently in schools across our country. In my opinion our country has let millions of students down by allowing our school system to decline to the state that it is currently in. We can only make things better if we as a society demand more discussion from the candidates about education in America and NCLB. We can't allow this issue to be swept under the rug! We must make it clear that our future president has to make his or her plans to fix the U.S. education system clear, including their solutions. Again I ask for your help to make this possible. Please post comments on my blog site, post on as many other sites that talk about our education system, and possibly create your own blog, it's free.

Everyone can make a difference!

Education in the U.S., especially public education, needs to receive much more attention from the media, the general public, and our government than it is currently being given. Students are dropping out of schools at a staggering pace, school districts have to sacrifice the health of their students to stay open, and activities like music class, recess, and after school sports are being removed from budgets. Why is it necessary for our country to force a generation of children and young adults to go through a schooling process that doesn’t in any way resemble the one that their parents and grandparents have such fond memories of? The answer is it’s not necessary! That is exactly why the topic of education has to get much more attention in this country.

The current presidential race would be a great platform for the topic of education to be addressed, and in all reality it must be addressed. Topics like the No Child Left Behind Act and funding for the public school system within the U.S. are far too important to the future of this country to be left out of the race for our next president. Our next president should want potential voters to understand how he or she plans to improve the state of our current education system, because let’s be honest, it needs improvement. Times change and so must our education system. However, I can’t understand how anyone, especially the future president of our country can be satisfied with the changes that have occurred within the U.S. education system over the last decade.

What gets me is that our news papers and nightly news programs aren’t filled with story after story addressing different aspects concerning the current state of education, because they should be. There are many reasons why close to one third of U.S. students drop out of school before graduating and very few of those reasons are the students’ fault. We can’t blame students for the way they are educated, that is up to the U.S Department of Education. And the manner in which the U.S. education system is managed is the responsibility of adults across our nation, because we have the opportunity to vote for our president. Help me make sure the topic of education is addressed by the current candidates for president by discussing the topic of education and raising awareness across our nation about it.