With the introduction of the Common Core Standards in replacement of the No Child Left Behind act, the public education system has been put under a magnifying glass. In this blog post, a preschool teacher, Tom, reflects on the problems with public education. He says that the current problems do not lie within the teachers or students; it’s the poverty.
To make his point heard, Tom begins the post by informing readers, “if we only count the US schools with a student poverty rate of less than 10 percent, our students outperform the kids in China, Singapore, and yes, even Finland.”
For me, this is alarming. The kids and teachers of our nation are just as capable as those in every other country, but our poor economy is bringing us down. This is not saying that students who are effected by poverty are any less intelligent than those who are not. Student whose families struggle with poverty may not receive the same support at home; parents may be working multiple jobs just to try and make ends meet. In struggling families, an emphasis may not always be put on education, as students may be forced to deal with a variety of things a child should never have to worry about.
If students are suffering now, it is only going to continue to get worse. In order to ensure a better future for our country, we need to do everything in our power to drastically change the current poverty levels for the better.
