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When the Majority Fails

© Valerie Ringrose

When the Majority Fails

My husband is working for his final year at a small highschool in the countryside. It has been deemed far to small and thus far too expensive for the board to keep it open. At the end of the year it will close its doors for good. I suppose most people won't really mind- this highschool has been dwindling and dying out for many years already.

The poor little school never attained the population it needed. It never even reached 250 students. Built in the countryside, it attracted only the rural kids, the kids who lived on farms and maybe the kids across the street from the school. These kids present a serious challenge to teachers. I don't want to generalize- there is always a good student who excels at school and leaves the family farm for a better career- but 98% of the farming students at my husband's school have the same characteristics.

It is comparable to the inner city school discussed in earlier articles. These students just come from families where an education is not valued. They know they are going to grow up and take over the family farm. Why should they bother to do the busy work of some assignment that they feel will never benefit them? Simply put, they don't bother at all. Some teachers call them lazy, some just don't care. It really hit everyone on staff though, when last week the principle ran off a credit alert list and circulated it around to all staff members. There were 180 students (at least) who were going to fail one or more of their four courses.

The school is grossly over-represented by grade 10 students. Grade nines heard that the school was doomed in August and quickly switched schools. In grade 10 students turn 16 and can legally leave school. For this reason, and the fact that other schools have far more specialized courses, the upper year students are a rarity at my husband's school. The grade 10 students are also some of the first students to have to deal with the new curriculum, one that is far more challenging that the first one.

This seems to be the reason for the high failure rate at the highschool. Currently teachers are meeting to decide what to do about it. If something isn't done, the school will close in a very ugly state. Further articles will give updates on the events that lead up to the end of the school year.

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