So-Called Productivity

It might help to establish that I am writing this post while at school. I'm in a class where I spend time as a sort of teaching aide, helping out the teacher with the minimal work (the bitchwork) and the students as well--students who are in my own grade! I might add that I elected to take this class, and I am not getting paid for my time.

While I'm not complaining about a class which doesn't require any real homework or time spent out of class, I thought I might take a moment while in school to ponder about the state of our public school system. I try to keep politics out of this blog as much as possible, and I really don't know politically how I'm supposed to stand on this question, so don't accuse me of being one way or the other here.

I have seen the educational system both fail and succeed, from experience and from hearsay. My elementary school in West Virginia had wretched computers with outdated programs on which I excelled--I had completed the entirety of the 5th grade curriculum programs when I was barely halfway through 4th grade! When I moved to Georgia, I moved into a much more affluent area by comparison, and my elementary school showed it--much bigger, shinier, with new and fast computers. And I can't help but think, weren't these kids in my new elementary school getting a better quality of education than the ones in my old one? Not that computer quality necessarily dictates educational quality! I might say that the quality of the teachers in my old elementary school was far superior to that of the ones in the new. In my high school (which I will be SO glad to be leaving soon--just a few months!), there's an interesting mix of great equipment and crappy, ancient equipment, and fantastic teachers and really horrible teachers. However, I've visited the southern portion of my county, which is far less affluent, and the schools there are overcrowded, underfunded, and full of kids who are just falling through the cracks. Does anyone really deserve this? In our country, where having a job that makes adequate amounts of money basically requires education, is it fair to get students off to a bad start? I'm not even talking about college here--it's what comes before college that affects students more, in my opinion.

I have been hearing a lot recently about proposals for vouchers for the parents of children in poorly-performing schools to send them to private schools. While I can see where these people are coming from, I'm not sure I agree, because private schools have the ability to determine their own curricula and do not necessarily have to comply with what public schools have to teach. Sending a child to a private school on the taxpayer's check means the state supports what the child is learning, and if the child is learning something directly contradicting the curricula established by the state, i.e. creation science as opposed to evolution, that is considered the state's tacit approval of what is being taught, is it not? And what about the doctrination of students in the religion of the private school? I am a spiritual person--perhaps in some blog post I'll be able to expound my spiritual views and ideas about God and the universe--but I don't think the state should be supporting religious education. It makes me extremely uncomfortable because religious issues are for the religious organizations and the individuals...not the government. I love my spiritual beliefs, but I don't want anyone teaching them in a school run by the government and the taxpayers' money. They're between me and God. Does this view make me drastically different from anyone else?

Anyway, I have simply no idea how people should even begin to approach the inequality between schools in different areas. One side starts accusing the other of discrimination, and then there's yelling about "just throwing money at" the problem, and all the while I'm just wanting to remind people that there are young livelihoods at stake. Go work at a school and volunteer with the kids--and not in the rich, stuck-up neighborhoods. I mean, take a look at how the rest of the population lives. I've mentored kids in a school that was in a really bad neighborhood, and there was so much that they had been lacking. It was very saddening. If you are a smart person with the time, please consider devoting yourself to helping a student at a disadvantaged school. I've been lucky. But I know there are thousands of students who have not been.