Education Reform

Public education has changed drastically in the last 50 years. Teachers no longer have the authority they once did. The grading scale is less standard and more personal. Schools have become the nurturing influences on students, and have lost sight of their educational goals. Let's get into a little more detail.

Students show teachers very little respect anymore. At one time a teacher had the authority to paddle an out of line student. Students had a natural fear of teachers then, and were less likely to have disrespected them. Without the power to punish students, the students themselves now have control of the classroom. I see this to be a very large problem.

Public education used to have a more standardized grading scale, but in recent years and through personal experience this has become more relaxed. I have manipulated the education system to work in my favor. I passed classes without doing work, fraternized with the faculty to increase my grades. I was amazed at what I could do with a few nice compliments, and a couple passes at the teachers themselves. Let's move on to what I feel is a more detrimental part of the system.

Schools are more worried about making their students happy that they've lost sight of the fundamentals. Nurturing is something the parents are responsible for not our school systems. Teachers need to show authority not comfort, but with the recent violence in schools this has changed. Especially for the minority of the kids that are outcasts and disciplinary problems, these specific students are being setup for failure by telling them it's ok to have outbursts or misbehave because it's a psychological problem. Employers and post secondary schools will not have similar regard to such problems and holding a job or getting a college education will be near impossible. I feel we need to bring back some of the older policies.

Let us bring this to a close.