by Cameron Gile

Created on: January 10, 2009

In a recent meeting with my employer while considering the impact of an account that we do business with, my employer asks of me, "Why do you think that this account is failing?" With all of the facts still spread out before us on the desk he continues "You certainly have researched all of the factors involved, so what is the problem?" The expression on his face said more than the verbalization's that he was using to communicate with me. The problem was not being contributed to any of the reasons or as some would consider them to be, excuses, that I had just presented to everyone present, the problem was that I had not taken the client company in the direction that they had so eagerly desired, that direction was up. Even though I may have diagnosed several cracks in their operating systems, I was not being paid to diagnose the problem or to fix it but rather to give the client company a new direction, to help them to see that if they implement the set programs that I had not yet designed they would reap the benefits that they started the business to achieve. Much in the same way we would like the answers to be handed to us on a platter when it comes to our children who are failing in school. Sometimes we would rather look the other way and sometimes it is easier just to attribute the problem to a learning disorder, however just identifying the problem rarely fixes it and more is needed to get control than just laying blame.

I believe that to better illustrate that we need to hold teachers more accountable we should think about it in a couple of different ways. Just as my employer asks me what the problem is with my struggling account and not the source of my frustration we may also do well to ask the school system why are our children failing, if no answer can be supplied perhaps the problem has become something we have adapted to live with as opposed to something we are trying to fix. Not that I would ever compare our youth to animals, but if you owned a pet, a puppy, and the trainer that you paid to train you new pet was not and never seemed to make even small progress, how long would you continue to use their services, not as a trainer but as a baby sitter? Unfortunate as it may be, society has many times overlooked the real reason we send our children to school, but instead are using the schools as an affordable option to daycare. More must be looked at than just the teachers that interact with our children though, also as important is the amount of attention that parents give their children's education. Remember that our children often mimic our actions, seen and unseen, and will usually not think that education is important unless we show them that it is.

Of course it would be easy to just send our kids to school and not worry about it, but look around, people are doing that now and that is why students are failing and not graduating school. They need to see an active interest in what they are learning and understand how what they are learning applies to everyday life and the best way for them to learn that isn't at school in a classroom but at home and in real life situations. Without parents being involved in their children's education it will never be as important to their children as something else that may satisfy them temporarily at best.

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