What's Right? What's Wrong?

The topic for this column is Education. There is much concern today about the negative trends in education in America: decline in educational standards, drop in standardized achievement test scores, severe discipline problems, unexcused tardiness and absences, vandalism, theft, cheating, lying, drug abuses and promiscuity, to mention a few. In a November 2010 speech, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan reported that "one-quarter of U.S. high school students drop out or fail to graduate on time. almost one million students leave our schools for the streets each year."

About this same time a group of top retired generals and admirals released the following information: "Seventy-five percent of young Americans, between the ages of 17 to 24, are unable to enlist in the military today because they have failed to graduate from high school, have a criminal record, or are physically unfit. America's youth are now tied for ninth in the world in college attainment."

Duncan has initiated several reforms to achieve the highest educational standards. His biggest push is to raise the status of the teaching profession. Why? Tony Wagner, the Harvard-based education expert and author of The Global Achievement Gap explains it this way. "There are three basic skills that students need if they want to thrive in a knowledge economy: the ability to do critical thinking and problem-solving, the ability to communicate effectively, and the ability to collaborate."

Two of the countries that lead in these skills are Finland and Denmark. They insist that their teachers come from the top one-third of their college graduating class. As Wagner put it, "They took teaching from an assembly-line job to a knowledge-worker's job. They have invested massively in how they recruit, train and support teachers, to attract and retain the best."

I certainly agree that the recruitment of teachers needs to be upgraded. After devoting thirty-three years to the educational system of America as a teacher and counselor, I'm of the opinion that one-fourth of the teachers do an excellent job, one-half do an adequate job, and one-fourth do a poor job. Thomas L. Friedman, columnist for The New York Times, in an article titled "Teaching for America" is in total agreement with Duncan and Wagner and adds: All good ideas, but if we want better teachers, we also need better parents- parents who turn off the TV and video games, make sure homework is completed, encourage reading and elevate learning as the most important life skill. The more we demand from teachers, the more we have to demand from students and parents. That's the contract for America that will truly ensure our national security.

I would add another skill to those of Duncan, Wagner and Friedman: moral principles that spell out right and wrong behavior. Ethics is the process by which these determinations are made; for the Godly, the process is always God-centered rather than self-centered where anything goes. Children need moral standards to make the right behavioral choices. Godly principles provide and equip them with those standards. Parents who rear their children by God's laws can rest assured that they will serve them throughout their lives. God holds parents responsible for teaching their children right and wrong. Teaching moral principles is an ongoing process, and that is why it's so important for parents to be with their children as much as possible, especially during the formative years. In children's eyes, their parents are God. So, before parents can teach their children about the God they want them to follow, they must make sure that they are representing Him Accurately in their own lives. Chances are children are going to worship the God of their parents, whoever or whatever it is.

Daniel Taddeo        www.taddeo.fairwaypress.com