by June Koppang

Created on: July 24, 2008   Last Updated: July 25, 2008

Our Failing School System

America has a failing school system. We might as well face it and do something about it.

The rest of the world is passing us by in educating their children. And what could be more important than the education of children. They are our future. They are our hope. They are our everything.

We have to see to it that our children get the best education possible. And somehow we don't seem to be doing that very well.

We have to do something more than complain. We have to start to take this problem seriously.

Some people have, by taking their children out of the public schools and putting them into private schools. But that takes money, and not everyone can afford that. And that shouldn't be necessary. Our public schools should be top notch. And I'm sure they could be if we only tried harder and spent more time on solving the problem of our failing school system.

Some people are home schooling which is working out very well. The home schooled children are doing better in all the tests they take than the public school children. What is wrong with this picture? Why do we have a failing school system?

Well, we all know the answer to one of the problems. We don't pay our teachers a decent salary. We entrust our precious children to teachers we don't want to compensate adequately. We treat teachers like baby sitters, but baby sitters they are not. They are the hope of the nation. Without them our children have no future. Without them, out children will be left behind in the world. Without them our children are going nowhere.

Our teachers are everything. Our failing school system needs teachers who are rewarded for their great work. It is not an easy job but so important.

So, to start with, let's at least pay our teachers a really good salary. Without them, we have no schools.

And maybe we should look over the subjects we are teaching in our schools. Maybe, we should look at our new global world and equip our children better to exist in the new world.

We can't just keep doing the same thing, we have to keep up or the rest of the world will pass us by.

It isn't just throwing money at failing schools that will make a difference.

That's been tried, and doesn't work.

It's a combination of a lot of things that has given us a failing school system.

Another thought-children must be taught to behave in school. There should be more discipline so that the children who want to learn have a better chance. If a child refuses to behave maybe he or she should be thrown out of school and make way for those who want to be learn. Why should the children who want to learn suffer because of some that don't? It doesn't seem fair.

And a last thought. Years ago children were taught from the home to do what their teacher told them to do. And if the children got in trouble in school, the parents told them the teacher was always right. But nowadays, the teachers have to argue with the children and the parents alike. That's not a good situation.

We need to respect our teachers and that would be a first step in reviving our failing schools.

This is a big problem for America, and one we must solve if we are to compete in the world of tormorrow.

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