Functional Democracy

SUMMARY

• The educational system in the United States allows many people to pass through it without academic achievement or success. One manifestation of this is the unacceptable number of schools that fail to graduate more the 60% of their freshmen, thus they receive the classification of “dropout factory.”
• Follow this link to the original story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/30/AR2007103000154.html

COMMENTARY

• Schools continue having problems stimulating the much-needed intellectual development of the children of this country.
• The values of hard work, honesty, integrity, and intellectual growth are less important to some students and their parents than the desires for being popular, becoming a famous entertainer, or being entertained and living a passive existence.
• Local education often suffers from inadequate resources, both financial and intellectual to meet the needs of it students.

SOLUTIONS

• All citizens should have access to the public education system regardless of their age or intellectual abilities, if they study and meet some established standard of academic achievement.
• There should be a national system of education including a single national curriculum. It must address the needs of the student as a prospective productive citizen. Areas of study that require mastery for graduation must include communication, computation, civics, and citizenship, which are presented in a context of the student’s responsibilities as a worker, voter, life-long learner, tax payer, and honest citizen.
• Schools should provide mentoring and tutoring to all students. Use them to motivate and remediate those students having trouble and providing opportunities for advancement to those students who have the desire learn more or learn faster.