Ideas for Improving the US Education System

It was in 1981 that my first child entered kindergarten.   Since then I have not had a year when I did not have a child in one school or another (and I only have three children).   Over the years I've spent a substantial amount of time thinking about ways to improve the education system.  While, as parent and someone who has never worked in the education system, I reserve the right to be completely wrong, here is what I propose:<u><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /?></u>

<u> CHANGE THE ENVIRONMENT (Dress, Behavior, and Building)</u>

While I would not necessarily recommend returning to having an environment that made children feel as if they were in prison, I believe that the pendulum has swung to far in the other direction.  Many school environments today resemble a circus, and I don't believe that sends children the right message about education.  The term, "free-for-all," comes to mind.

<u>A Standard of Dress:</u>

Each school should have a reasonable dress code.  It doesn't have to be a rigid one.  There is a reasonable middle ground between showing up at school, looking like a slob or a street-walker, and showing up, looking neat, clean, and appropriately dressed.  How we dress can affect how we feel about ourselves and the situation.  School is supposed to prepare students for society as well.  Sending the message that school is school, and school is important, is sending a valuable message.  Reminding kids that there are certain codes of attire in different situations makes sense.

<u>Student Behavior:</u>

While it may not be good to return to the old ways of treating children as if they aren't human, today's school are often too lax when it comes to a minimal standard of behavior.  Administrators will say they won't tolerate bad behavior, but what they say and what they do are often two different things.  Sometimes the problem is that administrators are not aware of some behaviors.  At other times the threshold of what is considered, "bad behavior," is just too high.

Expecting civilized behavior is a reasonable expectation.  My elementary school's recess policy was essentially (I'll paraphrase), "Play but don't run around like maniacs.  That kind of play is for after school."   That resulted in school yards full of kids playing games at recess or else talking.

Having regular discussions about things like bullying, teasing other children, the dynamics of in-crowds in schools and why most students don't belong to the in-crowd could promote better understanding and behavior among students.  Establishing that there will be no tolerance for teasing other students or making fun of them, encouraging children to report infractions, and establishing a process for handling such infractions would let students know that such behavior would not be tolerated.  Explaining why this type of behavior cannot be tolerated would help children and teens understand the serious impact it can have on victims of it.

Each school needs a three-strikes policy.   Many children who are generally decent kids may say something mean at some point.  There are those times when a generally good kid will think throwing a snowball at another kid will be funny.  Adults need to understand that.  Still, most parents know how there can be one kid who is always doing something to other kids.  A write-up system that keeps track of incidents would reveal those kids who were problems.  Children who are regularly aggressive or cruel to other children have emotional problems.  Schools need to identify those children, address the issues with parents, recommend counseling, and identify whether or not protective services should be called.

A school principle once told me that about 10% of students don't behave well in school.  About 90% behave perfectly well.    Having separate schools or separate sections of schools aimed at addressing the behavior issues of that 10% of students, and structured in a way that would that 1) attempt to identify root causes of that behavior and 2) use teaching methods that would be more effective with those students would help.  That would leave the 90% of students in a setting that could be aimed at them and only them.

Improving the overall behavior would help most students feel less stressed.  Stress leads to difficulty concentrating, and trouble concentrating leads to trouble learning.

<u>The Building:</u>

Many new schools have beautiful environments.  Not all schools do.  While it isn't necessary to have the finest rugs and curtains in schools,  the walls in schools should be painted in colors similar to those in buildings, where concentration is important.  Natural lighting, natural wood, and plants are better for concentrating than fluorescent lights and orange walls.  An attractive environment that encourages the right mood doesn't need to be expensive and fancy - just generally neat, clean, and fresh.

In addition to other benefits (creating an atmosphere, encouraging concentration and a pleasant mood), this could reduce stress as well. 

<u>CHANGE THE TEACHERS</u>

There are too many teachers who should not be teachers.  Some lack the type of intellectual ability required to be a good teacher (even if they don't lack intellectual ability in areas not

related to being a good teacher).   There are different areas of intelligence, and the areas of intelligence required for teachers include having a well above degree of understanding human nature, a well above average level of reasoning ability/common sense.   Since schools often overlook these abilities when assessing the potential of students, many students who would make good teachers are overlooked and even neglected.   Being particularly skilled in understanding human nature and in reasoning ability can make a student more likely to become an underachiever.  As a result, students who thrive in the school environment and get good grades are often not necessarily those who would be the most gifted teachers.

By not losing the students who are most gifted in understanding human nature, and by encouraging them to become teachers, schools would eventually have a sufficient number of the most gifted teachers.  This would result, in turn, in better recognition of the most talented students in the future.