Ignorance Diluted.

 Ignorance Diluted.

 

Reading the headlines today, it is obvious that the local school board took a deep breath of relief that the state of Texas has not decided to take over the local schools. Just this past year Houston was in the news because they lost control of their schools because the students were failing. This time, only ONE school is failing locally, but the board’s answer to that problem was to close the school and place all those students in other schools nearby in our city. This way the ignorance of that one student body is diluted among schools that are actually making the grade and have passing tests that satisfy the state of Texas.

 

Years ago, when the TASP classes were first started at a local university, it seemed so strange that entering freshmen students needed to be taught to read and write before they could actually take on freshmen classes. One of those classes happened to have this old lady as an instructor. A written assignment for that class involved taking on the persona of a city inspector of buildings, or an irate neighbor, or a prospective builder. In each case, the student would be sending a letter asking the three little pigs if they had obtained the proper permits for building, or it might have contained the protests from the irate neighbor suggesting that the neighborhood would be ruined by their building proposals, or it could be a letter/advertisement from a builder suggesting that his company could improve upon and produce a better product than any of the three little pigs might otherwise have considered. As the class completed that day, a young football player came to me and asked where he could find this story as he had never heard of it before. He was from Houston.

 

Thinking about our schools reminded me that some schools in this city have the best reading teachers, the best science and math teachers, and some of the best of the special education teaches around. If students have not learned to read in years one through five or six, those students are at a disadvantage for junior high, and they certainly would have difficulties in high school. We reward good teachers, but what about the students who missed the mark entirely?

 

When teaching a basic literacy class, a student once came to me and asked if she could learn to read in my class. She had a scholarship to the local university and could only use it if she had learned to read. “How did you graduate from high school?” was my question. “The coaches had someone else do my homework,” she said. To me that sounds criminal! How can we even keep teachers who do not realize the importance of basic reading classes?

 

How can we be fair to teachers, students, and future employers? No, the story of the three little pigs is not a necessary foundation for knowledge, but the ability to read or compose a letter should be the basic premise for any level of education. Many of our students visited local businesses and wrote thank you notes for the tours and treats. ANY level of social interchanges should include making one’s appreciation obvious. Yes, letters seem to be on the way out along with any handwritten notes because of   computer generated correspondence. Still, even sitting down at a computer to write a simple thank you note should be encouraged both at home and in the school. We need to start asking our children to be responsible for telling others what they like about life and their world. This is a basic need today.

 

Now tell me, who is failing? Is it the parent who never knew the story of the three little pigs? Is it the child who never learned how to use the library? Is it the teacher who let a child slip out of class before he or she was able to read at that grade level? Or is it some school board members who believe that they have dodged a bullet because they could dilute the dumb-downed portion of our students by hiding them inside the schools with more advanced reading levels?

 

It is horrible to contemplate that we are allowing future citizens to fail in society by not being sure that they can handle even the basic abilities to read and write.

 

We may not be able to tell all those young people the story of the three little pigs—or about Goldilocks and the Three Bears—but maybe we need to start volunteering to help in schools who need extra hands and hearts to teach reading.

 

Let us be grateful to God who gave us good parents and teachers.

 

Rest well, my friends. You are loved.