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The Best Way to Solve the Problems is to get Actively Involved

© R. L. Head

Other than a child's home and private life, school is the most powerful influence in a child's world. I can hear readers cringing at the thought of schools being any more powerful than they already are. These are the same people who complain about the government. What I want to say to them, as diplomatically as I can, is you are the government, and you are the school system. If you don't like them, get involved and change them.

We have to decide what we want the schools to do and how we want them to do it. At the federal level, the government is loosely involved with defining methods and outcomes. It is on a federal level that we must come to some consensus so that our nation is unified in its direction to the extent that any nation of this size can be.

States are free to guide education within their jurisdiction. Local school boards dictate policy within the guidelines of their respective state governments and the federal government. This is how it is done now. The proposals my future articles will explore are meant to be implemented within this framework.

I remember a conversation I once had with a parent regarding some distasteful part of school. I was commenting how terrible I thought a particular activity was. Her response was that she had suffered and survived, so why should her children have it any easier.

The reason why change should occur is twofold. First, having suffered, why would we want our children to suffer? Second, what better place to change the future than by changing the way we raise and educate our children?

The school systems of our country have never formally been given the task of righting society's wrongs, but they have been left with the problem of how to deal with them. They haven't been given the resources needed to improve conditions, but they have been blamed for their perceived failure. Now that society's violence and rage has found its way into our schools, we can no longer ignore the issues that tear the fabric of our civilization apart.

We must make sure that all children are ready to learn by providing them with the best medical care including dental and vision. Tutors should be provided to help children who might not have access to people with enough knowledge to help them with their homework. All children should have the pleasure of experiencing music, the arts, and classes which lead to better physical development. Their contribution to the learning process has been demonstrated in academic literature. Children should be provided every opportunity to take advantage of what technology has to offer. Where families struggle, mentors should be made available to help these families so that the chains of poverty and ignorance can be broken.