Patrick Welsh has written an op-ed piece in the USA Today that should get him completely ostracized from every teaching institution in America by the end of the day. You see, he thinks some of the blame for poor performance in schools should be laid at the feet of the students - not completely on the teachers...

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.

There are many problems with schools and they seem to always get worse, not better. But I believe Mr. Welsh has a point - problems are seldom caused 100% by one party when there is a group involved. So, while there are bad teachers, kids who have classes with outrageous amounts of homework, curricula that is badly designed, mainstreaming of students, etc etc, etc. At some point we do have a problem with the students themselves.

After talking to any number of high school students who have told me they basically slept their way though grades 9-12...(and no I'm not talking about their sexual habits - I'm talking about sitting in class in a daze and paying no attention at all) I am never shocked when all their vaunted plans for college fall through in the first semester.

The question is - how to motivate them to do better, how to challenge them, and at what point do you tell them to suck it up and get to work? It's a difficult proposal all the way around, but student participation in making their grades better simply can't be ignored just because the system itself has problems.

I wonder though if this op-ed piece will have people driving past his house and throwing Molotov Cocktails or the burning of him in effigy at a local protest. At the very least I can see them smearing his name in scandalous stories all over the front page of the NYT. After all the man is a heretic - not following the party line. It's a dangerous path to take.

Posted by: Teresa in Education at 08:16 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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