Figure 1.--.
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Figure 1.--. |
There are no doubt many fine state schools offering a first class education to their students. It is clear, however, that many English parents are dissatisfied with their local state schools. We are not talking about . the moneyed-eliete in England which attended independent schools as children and never seriously considered state schools. Many of the parents now choosing independent education in England are middle-class parents who did not attend independent schools, but are opting for independent schools. The decision to choose these schools is based on a variety of factors. In the past a primary reason was the realization that the friendships and associations formed in school would have an important impact on a child’s future career. , This undoubtedly is still an important factor, but increasing number of parents are clearly choosing independent schools because of real or perceived declining standards at state schools. The authors have spoken with numerous children who started in state schools, but who were subsequently transferred to independent schools, at considerable financial cost, because of problems and poor performance encountered in the state system.
One contemporary observer of modern education tells a parable about a group of people picnicing beside a river. Suddenly these see an enormous number of babies being carried down the river by the current. Their first impulse is to jump in the river and save as many of the babies as they can. But the babies keep coming and the picnicers can only save a few. Finally, they realize that they must get out of the river and see what is pushing them in the river upstream. [Harris] Of course the parable refers to disadvantaged children and our society’s primary intervention--the schools. The parallel with the babies is valid because much of the current problem is the result of teenage children having babies and being unable or unwilling to give them the nurturing that children need. It is the state schools that have to take these children at about 6 years and provide what their parents have been unable to do. Such children are not prepared for school and teachers, generally from middle-class families, are unprepared to meet their needs. The results are predictable. One visiting teacher from a prep school in New Zealand described his experience to the authors in an inner-city London school. He said it usually took him a half hour just to get the children settled. [Patrick: Do you remember any details?]
The state spends a great deal of many on education. Yet even many middle-class children do not achieve at the same level as children in other industrialized countries and disadvantaged children do much worse. In some cities, half the children leave school early without any qualifications. Few of these children have the skills to get a decent job. Educators debate endlessly how to address this problem. Many insist that increased funding is required, with some validity. But even if the schools were given every available resource, it would be like jumping into the water to save the babies. The state must make every available to help these children. It is a great mistake, however, to delude ourselves that the schools alone, even with a massive infusion of resources, can resolve the problem.
Research demonstrates that the child’s brain develops most rapidly during a child’s first year. Babies which do not receive adequate nourishment and health care could be slow to develop and may be permanently impaired--even before they are ready for preschool. [Patrick: Are there state pre-schools.]
A child’s physical well-being, however, is only part of the issue. Children need parents who make them feel secured and loved, but an indigent unwed mother, especially a teenager, who herself is insecure and lacks self-esteem will find it difficult to teach the baby through constant care and interaction that he is secure and loved. Children who do not receive this nurturing are likely to enter preschool unprepared and who face a spiral of academic failure that lasts through their school careers and beyond. These children have enormous needs and are require enormous effort and constant attention on the part of the teacher. Few teachers succeed in meeting their needs. And it is not only these children that the state system is failing. A teacher may be able to handle one such child in his or her class, but if they have more than one such child, there is no way that their needs can be met without shortchanging the other children’ in the class. The number of children involved is frightening and the number of classrooms and thus children affected by their needs is enormous.
England and America clearly have immense national problems. The authors are not addressing the moral dimensions of unwed parents. The simple matter is, however, that it results in a huge societal problem, affecting not only the children involved, but all children in the state system as well as the society at large.
In 1990 more than 28 percent of American babies, more than a million children, were born out of wedlock. Most of these mothers are children themselves without job prospects or any appreciation for what is required in raising a child. Few o~ the fathers have any intention to assume his responsibilities. Current trends suggest that by 1995 over one-third of America’s children will be born out of wedlock.
Harris, Irving. “Education--Does it make a difference when you start?” Aspen Quarterly, Spring, 1993.
