I want to mention how important it is for parents to be involved in their children’s education. Start young, teach them the basics…how to read, to count, to spell their name. By the time they enter Kindergarden, they are prepared. Parents! You are your child’s best teacher. So it should be no surprise that parents should be very actively involved in what their child is being taught at school…continue to be a presence in the child’s life as he/she progresses through grammar and High School. It is so very important today because the quality of education in public schools has gone into the gutter.

The children who attend America’s public schools are falling far behind the rest of the world in education. I want to mention a program I saw which aired on ABC that prompted me to write this article. John Stossel’s report on America’s schools: Stupid in America, How we cheat our kids was an eye opener as to how lax the schools have become in regards to instilling our kids with a solid education. What I was seeing did not bring back memories of my time in High School. My teachers were strict with our class then, to achieve our best. If even we were one credit shy of graduating, we were held back.

What some kids were getting away with in the classroom had me stunned. Some were literally playing around in class, right in front of the educator, with no fear of rebuke. A boy dances around with his shirt off while the teacher tries helplessly to restore order in the classroom. The class was completely out of control.

I also noticed the strange but useless method one teacher used to get his point across in a lesson. He involved his students in a game of Monopoly, somehow relating that to a Geography lesson. I failed to see the connection.

We all have heard time and again that American students are falling significantly behind other countries in education. But now, we are really in crisis mode. We are shuffling our kids through the system, spending more money than ever to “fix” education, when all we need are educators who really care, who really believe in their students enough to keep them back a grade if they fail. Yes, that’s called tough love. If educators are at all concerned about our future as a nation, they will NOT send a child on to the next grade until they have mastered the material that is required to pass on to the next grade.

But so many children get pushed through until they end up a senior in High School barely able to read! I am still in shock as to how this is allowed to happen! Take for instance, a young man who was featured on the show…a senior who, with multiple counselors, and administrators, was still not able to pull his grades up. That was…until he enrolled in a school dedicated to helping children with special needs. His reading level then received an amazing boost. All that’s needed are educators who are willing to do what it takes to help a student achieve his/her goals, to tackle a deficiency head on and work through it.

It’s a travesty, but there are many more students out there like this young man, who was on the brink of graduation, but could barely read! It is a shame! There is something seriously wrong with the public school system!

I watched as one teen from Belgium openly challenged American students to reach the same level of education they are afforded in their country. How EMBARRASSING!

This young man could speak multiple languages and here in America, many students suffer flaws in their ability to read and write proficiently. A recent study showed that reading skills are down among college grads. One does not have to be a literary genius, but just be able to at least comprehend what you are reading at an advanced level.

I wonder if educators, who approve of pushing kids through the system, know they are endangering our country when many of the young adults are not able to compete worldwide with other countries. Our nation has been “dumbed down” so much now, if we do not stop and do something about the problem immediately, there will be grave consequences.

Our children are our future right? If we do not want our children to suffer… to try to push to catch up on what they should have learned in elementary school, then we’d better get involved, and stop throwing other useless solutions their way. Teach them the basics. Weed out the bad teachers. The problem there is that many teachers are connected to the unions and when there is a less than stellar educator who should be replaced, they often are not. School administrators do not want to deal with the unions and their endless procedures to oust an under performing educator.

John Stossel’s program went on to point out the amount of money we are throwing at education across the country has not changed the huge problem of under performing schools. Many parents do not have the choice to send their children to better schools. They are stuck. President Bush has pushed for school vouchers to give parents choices to be able to send kids to better schools. Of course, that was met with resistance from the teacher’s unions and those on the left.

But the President does have some allies who stand with him in favor of school vouchers. The following comments are from the Honorable Kurt L. Schmoke, then Mayor of Baltimore in 1999, regarding school vouchers:

“…I believe that the issues of competition and accountability are all too often ignored in efforts to improve public education.

My years of experience in education have led me to be in favor of school choice: quite simply, I believe in giving parents more choice about where to educate their children. My support of school choice is founded in the common sense premise that no parent should be forced to send a child to a poorly performing school.

It just makes sense. Parents SHOULD have the right to take their kids out of a school that is not performing well.

We are failing our children. We fail them when we do not engage them, when we do not completely involve ourselves to help them learn. So the thought of not giving parents the right to choose a school that’s best for their child, should be out of the question!

Do you want to know if we are succeeding? It’s all about input and output. What seeds of knowledge are we inserting into our kids that they will take with them into the world they will soon face? Or for that matter, what knowledge are we not putting into them? We need to stop and think. Obviously, there is a problem. The system is corrupt, it is extremely risky to play with our children’s education. Other nations are surpassing the United States with great speed, and our children are our leaders for tomorrow.

This is alarming, because as we fail our kids now, children from other countries will overtake our children here in America in education, and as they come to America seeking high paying and lucrative jobs, our children will be struggling. These foreign students will advance over American children and dominate. They will dominate in the major areas of study in this country. There is already an influx of doctors, scientists, …etc. who originate from other countries who are practicing in the U.S.. And American students are being left behind.

There seems to be a lack of American children taking an interest in high powered fields. They are not motivated by educators, or given the basic education needed to progress to that level. I believe our children should be afforded a great education to be able to compete in promising careers. This is all happening in the United States, my country, where we should be giving children from other countries a run for their money in the area of education. We have all the tools, the newest technology, we have the money. So our children should be among the top achievers in the world right?

While President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act has brought progress to many public schools (by means of demanding excellence through rigorous student testing and holding teachers and schools accountable), many of our children are still left by the wayside.

It seems no matter how much money or programs that are implemented to help kids excel, there is still a major problem with student achievement. I blame the public school system. It has put too many children out into the world when they are not near as ready as they should be. Why should we not demand anything other than excellence from our children, our educators, and school administrators?

If America is truly the “land of the free”, then we better start giving children and parents the choice of what school they can attend. Children sure have that luxury in other countries. So by all means, it should be implemented here.

Our kids have every potential to shine, they just need that chance. Until every school in America reaches the exemplary level in student achievement, we are failing our kids. We should be 100% behind them in helping them to reach their goals and to be productive citizens.

It starts with excellent teachers, and school administrators, who will make sure students are prepared. To deny our kids anything less than a stellar education pulls the rug out from under America’s future… resulting in disastrous results. Let’s stop this trend!

Related Reading:

ABC News: John Stossel: Stupid in America, How we cheat our kids:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338

Reading proficiency down among college grads, tests show:
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/13488249.htm

Why School Vouchers Can Help Inner-City Children (Hon. Kurt L. Schmoke):
http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cb_20.htm

*Felicia Benamon is a conservative writer, blogger, and activist. She writes for various conservative sites including RenewAmerica.us, Daley-Times Post, RealityCheck.org, Capitolhillcoffeehouse.com, TheConservativeVoice.com, and many more.

Felicia is an occasional guest speaker on KYAL2K, conservative talk radio (http://www.k-talk.com/), Salt Lake City, UT. You may reach her at Feereports@aol.com.
Felicia’s website: http://hometown.aol.com/feereports/feepolitics.html