O-mama - Opinionated Moms

Think about when you take your child to the first day of Kindergarten...leaving our precious angels in the capable hands of the teacher who is going to teach them not only “everything [they] need to know,” about life during that foray into their school years, but be there to put a bandage on their scraped knee and give a hug when they need one...or, graduation day when we are swelling with pride, wondering how time passed so quickly and why analytic geometry seems so complicated and irrelevant...teachers have a profound impact on our kids. They spend 7 hours a day, 5 days a week for 13+ years teaching our kids reading, writing and arithmetic and more.  Teaching them how to learn, how to listen, how to think outside the box. It's a big job for a teacher!  You know it, and she does, too.  Teachers have to get these little minds ready for some pretty big stuff as they progress through school.  They have to hit marks, pass tests and be ready for the big world when they graduate.  Make no mistake; American students are in a race.  They are racing against students, not only in their own classrooms but around the world for the best education. The winners get the best jobs.     

The public schools are in trouble.  We have crowded classrooms, underpaid good teachers, overpaid bad teachers, budget shortfalls, arts/drama/music/sports programs being cut, etc.  Are our students prepared?  Can we trust the school system with getting them ready for the workforce of the new millennium?  This is not the workforce of the industrialized nation, but one that rewards innovative thinking, problem solving and technological prowess.  U.S. teenagers rank halfway down the list in science scores of industrialized nations, just below France, and 23^rd from the top in math.  In studies of students in grade four and grade 8, the US ranks just below Lithuania and the Russian Federation in Math.  The top performers in all of these tests come from Asia.  Quite literally, our students will be competing for jobs in the all fields which require strong math and science backgrounds (can anyone say technology?) and they need to be competitive.  Reforming the American public school system has been a theoretical top priority for past and present administrations, but as always the devil has been in the details.  How do we measure student’s progress?  How do we evaluate teacher performances?  How do we ensure that good educational practices are continued and rewarded, and the deadwood is cut out?  How do we invest in education and the future of our country?

The current administration is committed to helping the states in a new initiative, America’s “Race to the Top."  States are in a competition for federal monies to support their schools based on the number of schools that apply, and assessments made of the applicants.  The Secretary of Education has allocated up to $350 million in Race to the Top funds to help the states develop these assessments and to design a competition for these funds.  These public and expert input meetings begin in Washington this week. 

The program promises to improve struggling schools by improving teacher training and compensation.    The teacher’s unions, however, are not behind the program because it proposes basing teacher compensations on student’s standardized test scores.  They say that the test scores should be a factor but not the whole measure of teacher performance.   Other critics say that the program does not deal with current state’s budget shortfalls for from this year or expected shortfalls for the next school year. 

Fixing education is a race because there are winners and losers. But, we have to remember that we are all on the same team: the racers, the trainers, the coaches, the cheerleaders.  We all have a place on the team.  Motivating the whole team to go for the gold is a much different prospect than winning one race.  It might not be enough to base teacher salaries on test scores alone.  Maybe administrators have to get their hands dirty and go into the classrooms to assess the teacher’s performances.  Who evaluates the evaluators?  How do you compare teacher performances at schools with tons of resources with those at schools with limited ones?  There is also the factor of the children themselves.   They are growing, changing and have developmental clocks and issues, which are all unique and decidedly not systemic in nature.  The important thing for the government, parents, teachers, unions and schools to remember is not to let their own interests and egos overwhelm or get in the way of what is best for the children.  When our kids race to the top, we all win. 

America's moms need to “make sure [they] learn something new every day” by doing some simple things at home, like the EDUCATION tips we put on our monthly "Things To Do" list (see little school bus icon).  

For example:

1) Help them to make math fun by playing games using edible/inexpensive manipulatives like M&Ms or Cheerios

2) Read for 20 minutes a night with each of your kids

3) Volunteer your time and work in your child’s classroom

Regardless of any government initiatives that come down the track with regard to education, America’s moms are responsible for making sure our kids cross the finish line, because “Change Begins at Home!”