The big issues

The biggest issues at my current school involve our struggling students. There are many and they deserve our attention if we want our mission of public education to withstand scrutiny from an increasingly polarized political climate. This is a climate that views public education with mistrust, sometimes rabid, sometimes subtle. Public schools are inclusive symbols of American democracy; their success is paramount if America is to remain great. Now, my school has a marvelous faculty, and wide diversity of course offerings, accolades everywhere, but there remains a constituency flailing apart from the strengths of our curriculum.

We can easily identify the members of this group, and outline the prevailing attitudes that prevent these students from conforming to the written and unwritten rules of a school setting. Question is, how do we remedy it? How do we integrate more students into the academic club?

Education theorists have spoken repeatedly of the need to adapt our curriculum and instructional delivery to the caliber of the students. The rowdy, disinterested ones, the students manifesting the attitudes that make their success more difficult to attain, these kids demand a different approach. After years in the classroom I do believe in this dictate of American public education.