Getting High School students to want to go to school

[citylove101]

Amazing the responses here: Someone once told me "America hates its poor." Judging by many of the responses here, she was right.

The most dysfunctional families in this country are the very poor, AND THE VERY RICH. KIds in both suffer from a lack of strong parenting, the former because they have so little money to do the things they want, the latter becuase they think mony is a subsitute for actual parenting. And both live on government handouts. But of course we reserve our scorn if the handouts are Section 8 vouchers or food stamps or a free cheap cell phone, and not if they are tax-free trust income or overseas bank accounts.

When neither group can parent well, it falls to the schools, by default, to instill the "soft skills" that make success feasible. We don't worry about the rich kids because a)we live under the illuison tht the rich actually worked for their money (and some did) when they stole it, inherited it, or fed off the government trough with subsidies of various kinds and b)the rich kid will always have money to support himself--even if that money often comes from the pockets of the people doing so much to demonize the poor.

Educational success depends on a lot besuide "good parenting" --and as a parent I am really sick of the constant parent-bashing that goes in our society. While bad parents get dumped on, people feel free to give a pass to stupid curriculms, excessive testing, horrible facilities, bumbling administrators, and inept politicians. There are many stakeholders in educational success and ALL of them need to do thier part. It's not just a bad parenting thing.

Hasn't anybody ever considered that so many poor kids live in absolutely degrading environments that are geared to discourage educational achievement? We've allowed huge concentrations of poverty to develop in the US that amplify and aggravate social dysfunction. This has often been a purposeful societal goal achieved through economic, housing, policing, and transportation policy, that isolates the poor rather as if they were lepers who contaminate everything they touch. And that's just urban poverty. Out in the countryside we pretend the poor don't even exist.

You can't make poor kids go to school and appreciate it as if nothing else is happening in their lives--or the nation's. I don't have the magic formula for getting kids to be successful. Nobody does. But it won't happen until ALL stakeholders -- not just the kids and parents -- own up to what they can do and we stop bashing the poor over a few food stamps or housing vouchers.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by LovingSAT

How can you make students want to go to school. My thought is a low income district where high school students do not want to go to school. How can educators encourage them to go to school and how can we as educators help these children succeed?

I don't think educators should. If kids don't want schooling, let them make a living (parents should kick kids out of the house at 16 if not enrolled in school). A few months in the oilfield or on a farm will encourage many to hit the books. I'm also for mandatory military service.

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

Pay for grades (obviously, the teacher's can't do this but, perhaps, the state could).

Seriously, kids need to see an, immedicate, need for doing something. In low income districts, kids aren't living in 10 years from now land. They're not thinking about how the decisions they make today will impact the rest of their lives. They're thinking about how they impact today.

I don't think this would work in wealthier districts, because the pay rate would have to be too high for the kids to even blink, but if we paid kids to go to school and tied the amount they were paid to grades, I think you could make an impact on low income schools.

Hell no. Kids should be given the opportunity to learn so they have a chance to better their future, not because its some incentive plan for today (so they can get iPhones and sneakers). If they have no money its their parents fault, and there are other programs to deal with that. Now could some schools be focused more on vocational training, I'd say yes (kind of a magnet program for non-academically inclined kids).

[Oildog]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

I really want to be a fly on the wall when this video game addicted, I shoudl be entertained at all times, generation hits the work force. Jobs are not like video games. No one entertains you for the 40 hours a week you're there and you won't get the summers off to play. It's going to be a rude awakening.

Were already there...look at the popularity of Twitter and Social media sites. How many people under 25 could stay away from it for a week. How many business meeting have you been to where young workers are checking the phone every 5 minutes.

[Cav Scout wife]

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

Pay for grades (obviously, the teacher's can't do this but, perhaps, the state could).

Seriously, kids need to see an, immedicate, need for doing something. In low income districts, kids aren't living in 10 years from now land. They're not thinking about how the decisions they make today will impact the rest of their lives. They're thinking about how they impact today.

I don't think this would work in wealthier districts, because the pay rate would have to be too high for the kids to even blink, but if we paid kids to go to school and tied the amount they were paid to grades, I think you could make an impact on low income schools.

Heck NO!!!!

If snot nosed lil brats don't want to make something of themselves, then let them drop out, at ANY age, and be required to join a work crew (till age 18) picking up trash on the side of the road or something like that, just like the prisoners at the jail do. Maybe a few weeks/months of that will wake them the heck up!

They DO NOT deserve to get paid to try and better themselves for a future job, that should be a proority in their lives, not a paid incentive.

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Of course, I'm prepared for the flaming I will get, but...

What do we do to get high school students to want to go to school? Nothing. We teach the kids who show up and want to learn. We remove the golden safety net that is currently available for the kids (who eventually become adults) who don't have an education or skills to get a decent job. Certain kids don't feel the need to show up and learn because they see adults who don't have to get up and go to work- they have food stamps, housing vouchers, free meals, free health care. Why bother? Once we remove those 'safety nets' and the choice is work or starve, then we'll see the kids show up to school ready to bust their a$$, just like they did a few generations ago.

AMEN!

Originally Posted by Ivorytickler

Maybe we need to give them jobs picking up trash until they want to go to school.

I don't, totally, disagree with you. I cannot teach a child who doesn't want to be taught. I have one right now that I just wring my hands over. When he shows up to class and I can keep him awake, he gets the material but he won't put in one ounce (I'd go metric here but I can't decide if ounce should be changed to millilter or gram???) of effort. This kid could get, at least, a B in my class if he'd show up, stay awake and actually turn in some work. It's too bad we don't have some kind of work release program from school. Something gross like cleaning out gutters or scraping gum off of the undersides of tables and side walks.

Originally Posted by LovingSAT

Interesting and no flaming, but what does our society get in return? That scares me. Because reality is we will not let them sink or swim even though that sounds like a good option.

If we ship all the illegals back to where they came from, there will be an overabundance of jobs left picking veggies and don't other "unwanted" labor, let the uneducated do those jobs. You don't need a HS diploma to pick tomatoes.

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Our society gets more money to go to people who are actually trying, and in the end, more productive citizens. We should- and can- let them sink or swim. We (society) did that for thousands of years until about 50 years ago.

Originally Posted by dazzleman

...but they can't be bothered to put out a box of cereal for their kids in the morning. So the school now 'needs' a breakfast program. .

Hey now, that's unfair for PLENTY of parents for you to make the jump that no cereal=bad parents. My youngest gets up at %am every morning to get ready for school, cause she has to be on the bus at 5:55am, and that stupid bus drives all over town for HOURS till it finally reaches her school at 7:30.(her school BTW, is LESS than a 5 mins drive from our house, seriously, like 16 blocks!) I DO feed her in the morning, but after an almost 2 hr drive in a school bus, she's hungry again, lol!. I know plenty of kids in the same boat.

Honestly, it's quicker and easier for her (and us) to pay $0.25 for her to ride the CITY BUS to school, lol! She gets there a few mins before the school buses do, and she gets to wake up and hour later.

Hows that for practicality?!

If you think that's bad, go over to the Louisville city forums and see the clusterf**k they have to deal with for school transportation!:s hocked:

Originally Posted by Oildog

I don't think educators should. If kids don't want schooling, let them make a living (parents should kick kids out of the house at 16 if not enrolled in school). A few months in the oilfield or on a farm will encourage many to hit the books. I'm also for mandatory military service.

I know a few adults who would LOVE to work in the oil fields right now, or economy in this area is horrible, and say a company has 3 openings, they will get hundreds of applications; there are too many people right now that want to work, and can't find a job.

As for the military service, only position they could do is grunt, since there are so many technical jobs now a days. Heck, even the Army won't take idiots anymore.

[fedricklawson]

Educators can't. There job is just want to teach their students. They don't bother about what his student do and whether he succeed or not.

[takealready]

Well let's look at what these youth are faced with today.

1. They realize (from talking to other teens) that College isn't the cure for cancer, the way the schools have been preaching for the past Twenty years. Going to college won't make money fall from the sky. Therefore what's the point of continuing High School if College is a joke?

2. They have an older sibling or cousin that is a college graduate and still is unemployed or underpaid.

3. They see entertainers making millions of dollars without higher education or even graduating High School.

4. They do not want to be told what to do anymore. Children of this generation think they're "grown" by the time their 10.

5. They do not wish to conform to society. They see what society has done to their elders, therefore they wish to make their own path (even if that means no education. See #3).

Those are a few of the things that face our Youth today. With that being said, an educators job is to educate. It's up to the parents to motivate their children to want to do better in life. So if you a is doing your part then it's up to the parents to do their part.

Lastly, so many of our youth spend so much energy on becoming rich and famous (like their favorite entertainer), that they don't realize all that energy could have gone into getting an education.