Education in America: The Cost

Whole day, half day, whole day, half day, half day, that is October’s schedule for grade school students in New York.  More and more parents and children are being challenged.  Children in grade school are now subject to math we were subjected to in High School, leading to an increase in pressure on children at a very young age.  To make it even harder the schools employ even more half days then most of us saw when we were in grade school, and the reason I’ve been given is that they still get funding if they have school for half a day.  Half of the half day’s that I see are for staff development and the other half are for parent teach conferences, so instead of having them after school hours when most parents can make it without taking time off work, they have it during school hours taking study time away from the children and money away from their household.

At the same time we wonder why more and more children are troubled, why more and more children have issues and why more and more are becoming increasingly violent.  Now holding with the decline of accountability I say it is that they are not held accountable no one is teaching them integrity no one is teaching them core values, they are floundering, left to their own to find their way without anyone looking out for them because their parents are too busy working trying to put food on the table, clothes on their backs, and shoes on their feet to say nothing of shelter and electricity, all of which cost more every year.  No it is not the guns, or the bombs, or the misguided children it is society that is to blame for the increase in violence.  It is society that accepts it and lets the fear run through it.  It is society that cowers in fear and no longer stands proud with courage, how far the mighty Americans have fallen.

I was talking with someone one day about these issues and he said that more households work and slave away because they want two cars, and while I am sure many think having a car a privilege  to many families they would not be able to go to work if they did not have a care and if they are lucky enough to have a two parent home where both parents work it is likely they need both cars.  This person did however make a valid point, more and more Americans are greedy, they want the newest electronics, the newest gadgets, even my 8 year old girl has been asking for a phone and an iPad.  We don’t need these things and we can certainly live without them and many families have to live without them.  Should they?  I know for certain my 8 year old does not need them, but some newer gadgets like e-readers could be beneficial and anything used for learning should be considered less and luxury and more a necessity.  All of that aside, the fact remains there are more and more single family house holds that don’t have the option of a second income, and many are living in the lower to lower middle class income bracket, congratulations on top of being a single parent, you must now deal with low income, and increased child care because once a week your child will be out of school.

I am under the impression the reason we have accelerated our math and English programs is to keep up with the rest of the world, America, it seems, has gotten dumber.  More and more countries are passing us by while we flounder around.  Those of us who do want to get an education do so at a great risk, and at great debt.  If the government is truly concerned perhaps they should make college more affordable, in fact shouldn’t they make if free, if nothing else then by way of a tax credit for all that you have paid.  Instead we earn tens sometimes hundreds of thousands to become educated, to show the world there are some of us left in America that care to learn indeed even love to learn.  In fact so willing are we to learn that we have accumulated this massive mound of debt that makes it hard to breathe when we consider the difficulty with which we are meet in the job market, when we consider how little we make in comparison to how much we owe, and how much these other companies and indeed even the government make off our plight.  Education should not cost use nearly as much monetarily but more importantly it should not cost us our health which surly pays the price from the stress if not from the long hours working to pay off a debt that seems insurmountable.

In the end it looks as though our system for educating America is broken, our society is broken, our integrity is hanging by a thread if not already lost or severed and our family values have declined so far that I am afraid they will vanish completely.