Craig Daily Press / Our view: No easy answers

July 19, 2008

Craig — There seems to be a common — at least somewhat common — idea in this community that its youths are not getting a proper education.

We see much of the same thing.

There are no easy solutions or scapegoats in this.

Parents are to blame. The Moffat County School District is to blame. The youths are to blame.

When people talk about society going down the drain — which they always have, and likely always will — we all share in that indictment.

Not every student is being failed.

There are some students, taught at the same schools as the rest who are thriving. The School District just had two sports teams win Academic State Championship Team and several athletes win academic achievement honors, for instance.

Then, there are the others who seem to be falling through our community’s inadequacies.

Business owners say they have a hard time finding a Moffat County High School student who can read and write to come work for them.

Of course, many of them won’t go on the record because of “business considerations” (which is one more aspect of a community that is failing its youth).

There seem to be more teen pregnancies each year, there seems to be more drug use each year and there seem to be more students willing to pay their dues by being at school (most days), who bide their time until the last bell rings.

To everyone, we say it is a wasted life that accepts anything less than perfection.

In that, our school district and parents may be lacking, too.

But, who can blame them?

The state and federal governments control much of what and how schools are allowed to teach.

Parents have more responsibility, more problems, more heartaches and headaches than any person should be allowed to have.

Again, there are no easy solutions, but that doesn’t mean we can’t bring it up and challenge ourselves.

Why doesn’t Moffat County have more mentoring programs?

It would seem that, if the business owners around town were so concerned about the quality of the workforce, they could sponsor some programs that would teach these students or at the very least reach out to them.

Homework should be just as much a priority for parents as students.

And, hey, we know some of that is just busy work, but that’s kind of the point. Learning how to focus and complete jobs that hold no interest or immediate reward is as important as learning to multiply.

It’s obvious that, even if the community as a whole sinks $10 million into mentor programs, not every student is going to hit the honor roll.

Aside from the plain reality that some students are going to refuse to be reached, there are some students who have more important needs than school.

We applaud the School to Work program. There isn’t one path for everyone. There isn’t even one direction.

If there’s a teenager in Craig who just wants out of school and wants to start working, well, at some point before they turn 18 that should be his or her decision.

But parents not making sure their children do their homework, study and read set their children up for failure.

Schools that teach solely from the books and administrators who care more about test scores than listening to teachers set students up for failure.

Students who complain about rules, hate teachers that challenge them and would rather have Ds than stay 30 minutes after class set themselves up for failure.

We are all, as a community, failing.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Comments

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19 July 2008 at 6:18 a.m.

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taxslave (Anonymous) says…

I do. Vote out “No Child Left Behind”. We need to take back the control of OUR children. It's an unfunded mandate (which I believe the State can opt out of). Bush is an idiot and wants the rest of the nation to be idiots as well.

What they have done is eliminate all critical thinking, raising them to not ask question. They've turned our children into test takers and our teachers into test givers.

19 July 2008 at 6:52 a.m.

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grannyrett (Anonymous) says…

Quit offering all the cutsie electives. Teach out kids the basics—Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic. Quit telling people it's illegal to spank their kids. Return discipline to schools. Quit trying to make all the kids feel good about however they do. If they don't get it, show them. Don't make them feel good about it.

19 July 2008 at 9:19 a.m.

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50cal (Anonymous) says…

oh man this is such a complicated issue. you have parents who depend on electronic devices to keep their kids company, many familys that both parents work out side of the home, schools that feel they have to take over the challange of parenting, teachers that pay their union dues and are therefore loyal to the union instead of the student.a federal government and state government who have taken away control from the local school board and now treat every school district the same be it the inner city or nwco. I don't even know if we can cover them all. Why do we not hear about DECA anymore? is this the new school to work program?
Lets start off this way, I went to school here. Hated it, was the d student who only when I had to did I get off my butt to do school work, hated homework. barely graduated high school. Then I got out and found out about the real world. Wasn't my parents they raised some of us that got straight A's. It is the kid, each one is different you cannot cut a mold(no child left behind) and put them all through it and get the same results. I definatly would not consider myself a failure even if my spelling sucks. what this takes is an effort to reach students in time to grab their attention. I was raised on a ranch I hated being in a class room when I could of been out on a horse. then along would come a teacher who would make all that boring crap interesting. wow I could be taught (teachers). I had two parents who would have beat me within an inch of my life if I had decided to drop out(parents). I got my butt out of the house when I got home because we had chores and we didn't have video games. This is a unique place we have an opportunity to make it better. We have a new collage campus coming to craig. Not every student who walks the halls fits into their current academic programs, This being a community with a huge reserve of technical jobs and not a great degree of professional jobs shouldn't we have a technical school? Welding, diesel mechanics, auto mechanics, heavy equipment operators, The local industries are screaming for people to fill these good paying jobs. Our youth have to leave the area and often once taught don't come back. Couldn't we use something like that while trying to gain control of our local school systems again?

of coarse I guess we could always just build a rec center.

19 July 2008 at 5:36 p.m.

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oldsage (Anonymous) says…

They said, “We applaud the School to Work program. There isn’t one path for everyone. There isn’t even one direction.”
Well, the school to work program is socialist in nature because it takes children who they (insert name of school administrator here) think are slow and forces them into a training program for one specific low level job. For example if little Suzy is going only going to be on a housekeeping staff at the local motel why teach her anything about Algebra or Geometry, and for that matter why teach her the proper use of the English language, she is not going to need that because all the other bed changers speak Spanish.

This is bull, a High School Diploma used to mean that the person who had one could navigate through life with a basic set of necessary skills that would enable them to obtain employment at the entry level in many occupations. When the failing schools started giving and I mean giving diplomas to individuals who could not read, write, and speak the English language, add, subtract, multiply, and divide, (the simple skills needed to balance a checking account) and without the ability to think or reason, those so called educators devalued the diploma to the point that to get an entry level position you now need a collage degree. We have too many of the expert administrators who make too much money diverting funds from the individuals who actually produce the product!

Now that the people were suckered into a new school building at a cost of millions the editorial board wants to talk about improving the quality of the product produced in the building. That was something that the board should have been discussing prior to pushing a new building and expense on us, and the same goes for the hospital. But I digress! If you love your children educate them yourself, they will thank you for it later. My dad always said if you want a job done right do it yourself!