Dear Editor:
America’s education crisis has nothing to do with the schools rich people send their kids to. Those schools provide safe, calm orderly learning environments for the sons and daughters of the privileged – always have, always will. Let’s say a kid from Philips Exeter Academy (the prep school for Harvard) or Tenafly High was unable to concentrate in class because a handful of students repeatedly disrupted the lesson. He’d go home and tell his dad (wealthy, high-powered executive or company president) who’d promptly call the principal and demand that the students interfering with his son’s education cease their disruptive behavior immediately or be removed from the school. Case closed.
The children of America’s poor aren’t so lucky. They must attend public schools where a small number of disruptive students make it difficult or impossible to learn. The truth is, it was a few well-meaning but wrongheaded Supreme Court lawsuits by liberals in the late 60’s and early 70’s that destroyed a teacher’s ability to maintain order in the classroom. By overvaluing “student rights,” the Supreme Court paved the way for today’s chaotic urban schools where students openly disobey teachers and mock their authority. When you consider the severity of the social problems students bring with them to class these days, (drugs, gangs, violence, poverty), a reversal of those Supreme Court decisions -which cripple a teacher’s ability to create an orderly learning environment – needs to be considered.
Separate schools must be created for repeatedly disruptive students. They do it in NYC, they should do it in Hudson County. Give these schools a vocational focus, since blue-collar work still has dignity. With the rapid disappearance of factory work in America, perhaps it’s time for a new public works program modeled after the New Deal – possibly focused on national security – to create job opportunities for kids who have no interest in going to college. To teach these tough kids you need tough teachers. I suggest hiring ex-cops who retire young and are looking for a second career. Being in a mainstream environment is just as harmful to the disruptive students, who flounder as their identities harden into the thugs of the school. Give them tough love in a school of their own, and you might just save their lives.
Amazingly, none of the last three so-called “Education” presidents: Bush, Sr., Clinton or W., said a word about what any teacher will tell you is the number one problem in urban schools; lack of discipline. John Kerry, who’s been searching around for a theme these days, could do worse than to pick this one. And to pessimists who say urban schools will always be chaotic, you’re like the people in the 80’s who said NYC would always be infested with crime and squeegie guys. Giuliani imagined a different New York and worked hard to make that vision a reality. Yes, it’s possible to transform our schools as well.
If anyone’s interested in starting a task force to take action to solve these problems, my number is 201-792-0085. Email: jfbredin@hotmail.com. Thank you.
John Bredin
Substitute teacher