Yesterday I did something I said I would never do. I went to a Toyota dealership and seriously checked out a foreign car - the Prius. Consumer Reports recently gave it red stars in every category. Plus it gets nearly 50 miles to the gallon. That sure beats my PT Cruiser.
Why does it? The Big Three provides excuse after excuse about why the Asian companies outperform American companies.
Somehow I think we are doing the same thing in education. We make excuses.
The Converge article talked about Global competiveness. Asian students are "on fire" to learn. Much of their learning requires learning English first. Both India and China are using eLearning to reach students in areas that don't have the best schools and teachers.
Why aren't we?
DPS has nearly a 50% high school drop out rate. That figure depends on who is doing the calculating. I teach a 7th grade Reading class and in my class I have a young man, Marcus, who just turned 16. Marcus comes to school every day, is polite, and hard working. He works with me every Tuesday and Thursday after school. His reasons for being behind in school are the usual ones - changing schools, family upheavel, transience. I checked with my principal about moving Marcus into high school and she said he had to be in 8th grade to be moved. When he does move it will be to one of Detroit's alternative schools. These are frequently a challenge to get to and educationally not very challenging. I am sure Marcus will some day soon get discouraged and drop out. I probably would.
Yet this week when I was in E. Tawas, I met a young man who was getting his diploma on-line. His mother didn't want him in the local school system so she enrolled him in a virtual high school. He graduates in June and has already been accepted into Alpena Community College.
I teach in a new Detroit school that has three computer labs (35 computers in each) but no computer teacher. Each classroom has five computers for student use. They are rarely used.
We are getting ready in a few weeks to have another workshop day for teachers. The agenda includes nothing about technology. We will be reviewing MEAP scores. Same old.
Marcus deserves a future. It shouldn't involve being 6 feet tall in the 7th grade and eyeing my parking spot. There are thousands of students just like him. We need to wake up from our deep educational slumber.
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6 comments:
You are right how do we meet the needs of the Marcuses of the world. In theory virtual schools are the answer, but if the district is not equipped to meet the needs of the students its of no use to us or the students. The Detroit district is tossing and turning, hopefully it will wake up with a plan.
Wow, true food for thought Marge! It's very disheartening to read about students like Marcus, and the reality is that there are millions. It is also disappointing to read about the computers that are accessible for teachers and students, yet no teacher to effectively guide the students with educational technology usage. For this reason and more, I am "on fire" to learn more about technology. I want to be able to help better prepare my child and younger sibling to compete educationally, and I want to offer something fresh and new to my students to grab hold of their minds.
An educational slumber is putting things mildly.
Hey Margie,
Don't feel bad or like a traitor, that Prius sounds extraordinary. Funny, I was just reading a joke about the Pirus and I did not know that it was a car, so I was about to look it up. So, you have a great since of humor, here's the joke:
"The Pentagon admitted Tuesday it sent nuclear missile fuses to Taiwan thinking they were helicopter batteries. If the U.S. government can't tell the difference between a nuclear fuse and a battery, thank goodness the Prius is built by a Japanese company." LOL.
So Marcus has to be in the 8th grade to be moved up one grade? How ridiculous our rules are. Marcus is blessed to have you and your principal knows it. I agree with you on the reasons why Marcus may dropout, because the world would love nothing better than to blame students' failures on educators. When the truth is that the home situation is the foundation more so than the primary grades. Parents are the source and resource for our future and Marcus would probably not excel in virtual schooling for these same reasons. We as educators are called to instill knowledge, but as you said Marcus comes to school ready to learn, but home life is in turmoil. I pray that we recognize where the real help is needed and that we are awaken really soon from our educational and societal slumber. Then as someone said, do something about it.
Marge,
Don't do it. Prius's don't come equipped with North American jobs, 401K's, healthcare, and good corporate citizenship like the Ford's, Chryslers, Generous Motors of the world. I make it a policy to not buy a car that doesn't have a building or endowement trust named after it. Even in these very trying times for Ford, the family donated $346 million dollars through their charitable foundations last year. Toyota doesn't have such an organization or endowement here in the US.
On convergence, my Blog post this week could have been your Marcus case study. I think that Special Populations should be targeted for the Virtual schooling given it's track record at providing an opportunity to turn students around.
Brad.
Asian culture values education and highly regards educators. Just go to a Vietnamese nail salon and tell them you are a teacher and they fawn all over you like you are brilliant and have the highest paying job in the world! The thing with many Asian education systems is that they are highly competitive and do not foster critical thinking skills or independent thought.Nor are they equipped for special needs learners. they also require students at very young ages, middle school, to be career tracked based on standardized test scores. We in the US have a very different educational culture and expectations. I'm not sure we can compare the drive of the students. What we should do though is use the models that are successful for our learning styles from all cultures since we are now competing in worldwide market now.
Marge,
I broke down and bought a Honda Civic (35-40 mpg) a little over a year ago. I was amazed to see on the sticker that it had more American parts and assembly then the Ford Focus. It was eye opening.
I think we need to open our eyes when it comes to education and embrace technology. You hit the nail on the head when you said your computers are going unused and no time is spent on teacher training. “We” are so busy looking behind us toward the old ways and methods we have no idea where we are going or how to get there. The students who do not succeed in a tradition setting are getting “run over” by our blindness.
TTFN
Allison
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