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When a large number of American students are failing courses at public schools, it is time for a fundamental change to occur in the education system. Receiving failing grades is devastating and discouraging to students and can often cause problems between the student and his or her parents. We are failing our children when adults and administrators are not trying to find the root sources of problems that are creating dysfunctional classrooms, ineffective schools, and high dropout rates. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered; however, these answers can be only found by interviewing students, teachers and their colleagues, and by having someone observe the classes in which failing grades continue to occur. Oftentimes this type of oversight does not occur due to financially strapped school districts and the red tape caused by tenured teachers.

As a high school student, I had a gym teacher who continually posted failing grades for her students. Any girl in her class was happy to get anything higher than a C. I personally never got anything higher then an 82 in the span of four years, except when we had a student teacher and my grade was a 98. Maybe the administration just thought that all the girls at Hanover High School were just really lazy and un-athletic... The truth was that the majority of the girls at the school with participated in at least two varsity sports, if not three. One can surmise that it isn't always the students that need to be questioned when bad grades are being sent home in their report cards. If I were a teacher and a large portion of my students were doing poorly in my class, I would take that as a sign that I needed to rethink my teaching technique. It is good to have high standards, but children also deserve to hold the same high standards for their teacher. Teaching is a two way street: both the students and the teacher must have respect for each other.

Encouraging all students to succeed while having high academic standards can work pretty much everywhere if it is approached right. The teacher and the students have to work together to reach that goal. My college maintained high academic standards and I felt that all of my teachers want me to be able to succeed; however, we all understand that it takes hard work and dedication from the both the student and the instructor to be able to reach that goal. This understanding is key to the idea of high academic standards that ensure that public education is not failing American students.

Learn more about this author, Joan Huston.
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