Public schools must be future-focused on creating leaders instead of followers by putting a pause on allegations in the community of achievement gaps. Instead, schools should hold frequent community meetings for mutual betterment and understanding of the expectations of a true citizen. Tapping the community needs helps in identifying required resources to reduce the achievement gap in the education system and ensure that a larger democratic purpose of improving the morality and ethics of candidates is served by the public schools by being open to everyone regardless of disability, wealth, status, race, or religion. In summary, it is clear in diversity lies the strength, so we should try different models to explore the best practices that can be implemented to ensure moral equality in the education system. We need schools that will help the young generation and adults to learn and practice the necessary skills of scientific spiritualism to be participants in a vibrant democracy and be responsible citizens of tomorrow.
The public-school expedition was initially led to deal with the increase in immigration, urbanization, and industrialism and to bind the American population to participatory democracy. Efforts were taken to eliminate all alternatives to Government-run public schools to ensure attendance compliance and uniformity in the curriculum. The Government authority met with sharp criticism from liberal writers and John Taylor Gatto condemned public schooling for highlighting subordination and obedience instead of unleashing intellectual and creative powers among students. Based on the findings of the 1983, A Nation at Risk report, a substantial portion of the American population continues to express contempt for the inability or unwillingness of the public education system to improve public school performance although choices are expanding, charter schools are flourishing, private schools are in demand and count of homeschooling is growing too. Particularly with the change in power relationships among parents with increased choice to decide the education system for their children, there is a need for rebuilding trust between public schools and the communities they serve instead of following the dictatorship of state and federal government macro managers
The nation’s predicament has now shifted significantly since the founding of public schooling in the 18th century when the nation was submerged in huge influxes of immigrants, and problems with industrialization and urbanization. However, with the onset of information technology, the world has become considerably smaller with the amplified use of the invention of innovative technology. Therefore public schools must consider upgrading their core operation with respect to current trends and redefine the public school system by creating a mutual understanding of vital concepts driving the mission of public schools. By forming shared ideas about the purpose of the public school, innovation can be fostered within an environment for fostering continuous learning with a questioning mind to ensure that the system is appropriately fitting to the community they serve. The central government offers no incentives or financial support to cater to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requirement of administering standardized tests. Beyond financial implications, the standardized testing program has set up an environment focused on teaching to the test. According to Stephanie T. Scott, creativity, innovation, and content depth are replaced with a quick-paced and lower- thinking-level curriculum. There is no doubt that this made students test-taking robots, and the need of the community to produce vigilant, productive members of society is gradually getting lost with the requirement of students to take tests to prove that their school is meeting the minimum standard.
Hess (2004) argues that public schools should have a progressive purpose to provide for productive citizenship development through mentoring skills, instilling knowledge, and encouraging constitutional freedom and responsibility. However, if the community provides feedback on the improvement of the public schools in their district and affirms their required expectation, undergoes rigorous counseling to have a broad outlook regarding the expected education system based on moral and ethical needs of society then an effective education system can be well-formed. I approve of Scott (2008), when he mentions, districts and states should be actively involved in generating funds for cutting-edge research to improve student progress through new technology, with better resources, innovative teaching styles, and effective teaching practices. The funds involved in carrying standardized assessments would benefit the nation and the state if put to better use in supporting creativity, innovation, and improvement in student conduct to create productive members in society with marginal crime rate, produce more critical thinkers by meeting the needs of a diverse group of students including students with disabilities, gifted and talented students, students from families of different income levels and other cultural backgrounds instead of prescribing a one-size-fits-all education.
Though schools are providing geographical choices for education but not the choice that allows the community to input what ideals and values to be taught in the classroom. Parents have more say when they admit their children to private or parochial schools. It is observed that private schools that do not incorporate change to meet the basic spiritual hunger are obliged to change to meet their needs or lose their student population. In the public school system, bureaucrats at the district, state, and central levels make the decisions of values, priorities, intellectual habits, and performance standards looking only at the corporate balance sheet instead of the well-being of the community. Socioeconomic status is often used as a reason for failure by putting the blame on the community.
However, schools and teachers should equip themselves and be informed about the latest approaches that will help the students be mentally progressive and not make excuses that create obstructions in their academic success. The central government and state government should allocate enough funds to bring about such changes including special scholarship programs for talented students and incentives to quality teachers to promote such overall growth among young aspirants. It is evident that when students are exposed to higher standards of scientific spiritualism with clear and consistent expectations, students automatically rise to the challenges by self-controlling their learning pace. Thus, the purpose of the public school, therefore, should be explicitly redefined based on the foundations of scientific spiritualism and expectations should be communicated in advance to produce future citizens who will have problem-solving expertise requiring a higher level of thinking from different perspectives.
References:
1. Against School – John Taylor Gatto. (n.d.). Wes Jones. https://www.wesjones.com/gatto1.htm
2. Hess, F. (2004). What is a ‘public school?’ Principles for a new century. In J. Noll (Ed.),
Taking sides: Clashing views on educational issues (pp.152-160). Dubuque, Iowa: McGraw-Hill.
3. Scott, S. T. (2008, March). An argument for redefining public schools [Electronic version]. In
S. Flumerfelt (Ed.), White papers. The Pawley Institute for Learning. Available: http://www4.oakland.edu/?id=4709&sid=12
Latest Businesses helps you list your business on every possible business directory in the best possible way to increase your business is seen and recognized. This will increase the reach of your business profile in searches across different search engines.