by uebermann » Thu Aug 30, 2012 10:37 pm
Yeah I don't think there's an easy answer to all this. Leave the swearing sailors in class disrupting others and often being disrespectful to the teachers? Well thats not fair to the ones that want to learn. Kicking kids out of school for not wanting to be there isn't exactly a punishment either. That also puts more of a burden on the parents, many of whom (in NYC anyways) probably can't afford missing work to try and figure something out for their kids.
Do parents have a degree of responsibility? Yeah, a bit, but since its mandatory that kids go to school, you kinda put people in a bind. Its not like the 1800s where mom was always at home and dad was out working in the fields and if Johnny got kicked out of school, he'd just go home and help with the chores.
I think the biggest change that would make a difference is employing teachers that want to teach and can do so in a manner that makes kids want to learn. Not an easy task, but not an impossible one either.
There also needs to be a tiered system. Some kids just aren't going to learn and don't want to learn. Let them do vocational school. Let them learn tradeskills so they have an actual skill set.
Or, 3rd option, military type school. Give them some discipline and learn some skills that would, again, give them something useful in the real world.