I decided to repost this article from the U.S A Today. I think it's interesting how a teacher especially this one view the problem of the education. So while you are reading this, ask youself, is this really true that foreign students are performing better in school than the U.S citizens? Should the students be blame for the failure U.S education and not teachers?
Enjoy reading....
For Once, Blame the student
By Patrick WelshWed Mar 8, 7:08 AM ET
Failure in the classroom is often tied to lack of funding, poor teachers or other ills. Here's a thought: Maybe it's the failed work ethic of todays kids. That's what I'm seeing in my school. Until reformers see this reality, little will change.
Last month, as I averaged the second-quarter grades for my senior English classes at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., the same familiar pattern leapt out at me.
Kids who had emigrated from foreign countries - such as Shewit Giovanni from Ethiopia, Farah Ali from Guyana and Edgar Awumey from Ghana - often aced every test, while many of their U.S.-born classmates from upper-class homes with highly educated parents had a string of C's and D's.
As one would expect, the middle-class American kids usually had higher SAT verbal scores than did their immigrant classmates, many of whom had only been speaking English for a few years.
What many of the American kids I taught did not have was the motivation, self-discipline or work ethic of the foreign-born kids.
Politicians and education bureaucrats can talk all they want about reform, but until the work ethic of U.S. students changes, until they are willing to put in the time and effort to master their subjects, little will change.
A study released in December by University of Pennsylvania researchers Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman suggests that the reason so many U.S. students are "falling short of their intellectual potential" is not "inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes" and the rest of the usual litany cited by the so-called reformers - but "their failure to exercise self-discipline."
The sad fact is that in the USA, hard work on the part of students is no longer seen as a key factor in academic success. The groundbreaking work of Harold Stevenson and a multinational team at the University of Michigan comparing attitudes of Asian and American students sounded the alarm more than a decade ago.
Asian vs. U.S. students
When asked to identify the most important factors in their performance in math, the percentage of Japanese and Taiwanese students who answered "studying hard" was twice that of American students.
American students named native intelligence, and some said the home environment. But a clear majority of U.S. students put the responsibility on their teachers. A good teacher, they said, was the determining factor in how well they did in math.
"Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."
As my colleague Ed Cannon puts it: "Today, the teacher is supposed to be responsible for motivating the kid. If they don't learn it is supposed to be our problem, not theirs."
And, of course, busy parents guilt-ridden over the little time they spend with their kids are big subscribers to this theory.
Maybe every generation of kids has wanted to take it easy, but until the past few decades students were not allowed to get away with it. "Nowadays, it's the kids who have the power. When they don't do the work and get lower grades, they scream and yell. Parents side with the kids who pressure teachers to lower standards," says Joel Kaplan, another chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams.
Every year, I have had parents come in to argue about the grades I have given in my AP English classes. To me, my grades are far too generous; to middle-class parents, they are often an affront to their sense of entitlement. If their kids do a modicum of work, many parents expect them to get at least a B. When I have given C's or D's to bright middle-class kids who have done poor or mediocre work, some parents have accused me of destroying their children's futures.
It is not only parents, however, who are siding with students in their attempts to get out of hard work.
Blame schools, too
"Schools play into it," says psychiatrist Lawrence Brain, who counsels affluent teenagers throughout the Washington metropolitan area. "I've been amazed to see how easy it is for kids in public schools to manipulate guidance counselors to get them out of classes they don't like. They have been sent a message that they don't have to struggle to achieve if things are not perfect."
Neither the high-stakes state exams, such as Virginia's Standards of Learning, nor the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have succeeded in changing that message; both have turned into minimum-competency requirements aimed at the lowest in our school.
Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration.
As a teacher, I don't object to the heightened standards required of educators in the No Child Left Behind law. Who among us would say we couldn't do a little better? Nonetheless, teachers have no control over student motivation and ambition, which have to come from the home - and from within each student.
Perhaps the best lesson I can pass along to my upper- and middle-class students is to merely point them in the direction of their foreign-born classmates, who can remind us all that education in America is still more a privilege than a right.
Patrick Welsh is an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
Copyright © 2006 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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It's funny, because I was discussing this yesterday with some friends.
I definitely agree that the student needs to take accountability for poor grades. If the student doesn't understand something, he/she can ask the teacher, a peer, or get a book from the library.
The "rich kids lack a work ethic" can be true as well, but as per usual, there are some who go against generalization.
In terms of the immigrants having more of a work ethic, that makes sense. A lot of immigrants come to the United States to do better in life, to excel. Of course they're going to work hard to do the best that they can. (Again, not all.) Also, a lot of these immigrants worked hard in their mother countries, so the attitude just transfers to a different place.
I believe that teachers need to take responsibility for their students' education. But I agree with the authors comment. How can teachers be responsible for student motivation? That has to come from within the student and from the parents/guardians. And if students aren't motivated, no amount of teaching is going to significantly raise grades or content retention.
However, I do think that there is pressure on some school administrations to push for higher test scores (MEAP, AP, whatever) so that the school can get more government funding. This pressure can be detrimental, because it encourages the admnistrations to tell teachers to teach to the test, and not the content of the subject. Even though that isn't directly mentioned in the article, I think that's relevant.
The columnist writes that the No Child Left Behind Act was a good idea - I don't think it was. I notice it's the same with the exams that Michigan runs on all the schools
- the teachers concentrate on teaching the kids what has to be known on the test, and that's it. They struggle through 3 weeks, cutting the courseload in order to fit the test
scores. Because if they don't, teachers and administrators alike lose their jobs when the state takes over. The No Child Left Behind Act seems to just nationalize something states
have been doing for a long period of time.
Because of the tests, I'm not able to grab the information necessary to remember any of it - it's all rushed through so we can have notes of it come MEAP
(Michigan Educational Assesment Program) time, so at the very least the teacher's can say they had us "prepared" for the "test".
While I do think work ethic on part of the students plays a role in America's educational illness, I think it has a lot more to do with parental irresponsibility. Parents accept less than what they should,
and have in the past, because it ends up being easier - at least, until their kid ends up working in some factory job, or not having a job at all. I'm just happy my own work ethic
ends up being better than many students.
Note to the author of this blog post: Please do a better job of copying and pasting or use a differenty news source. You really screwed up the HTML on this one >_<
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If a society is willing to give freedom for temporary security, they deserve neither.
I aggree
Students need to be responsible for their own actions and poor grades. But so do the teachers, parents, and school administrations. There are different reasons on why students are failing through out our country and to generalize is not going to get us anywhere. Immigrants work hard, TRUE, but not every immigrant. Rich kids, don’t have a work ethic, TRUE, but not all. I think that we need to evaluate each case differently. Are the failing students having trouble at home. Are they working to support their family, do they have support from the teachers/community? Or are the students failing just because they can...it is a problem and society should hold everyone accountable.
Students are held accountable when they should be. They want to act like little adults, but they can't take responsibilty like one.
Statistics are taken too seriously. It all depends on the student and the teacher. If they both do their jobs as well as they can, there are no problems. If the student has trouble doing work or learning, for whatever reason, that should be taken care of.
I had an algebra teacher who did not teach. He would write equations on the board, give us homework assignments, and then glare at us from his desk. Math is a very "scary" subject to a lot of students, and it does require an equal amount of effort from both the teacher and student.
I also do not think that the "entitlement" syndrome is anything new. Betty Friedan cited it in The Femnine Mystique back in 1963 (particularly in the chapter Progressive Dehumanization)