Urban Education

 

 

"Everything needed for success, resides between the ears..."

Last week we attended the graduation of our oldest daughter. She received a Masters Degree in Non-Profit Management from an urban college in the Twin Cities. One of the things I found interesting was the different degrees which were offered. One of the degrees was called "Urban Education". It was different from a regular Education Degree, as it was suppose to equip young teachers how to teach kids in an urban setting.

Wow! Have we come a long way since my wife and I graduated. My wife has an undergrad in Elementary Education as well as a Masters in Special Education. This entitles her to teach in any elementary classroom in Minnesota. We were both somewhat flummoxed by this term "Urban Education". It seems to fly in the face of E pluribus Unum (Out of Many, One).

To follow up with this confusion, in today's paper was a huge article by some substitute teacher who just did a job at an inner city school. The theme of the article was how different he was from the students, and to not recognize those differences made it tough to connect with the kids. What? This is the United States of America. We spend a lot, an awful lot of money of education. We spend even more in the inner city to ensure there is a "level playing field". After spending over $20k/student in North Minneapolis, kids still can't learn unless they "connect" with the teacher?

Not to sound too much like "old school", I need to say the following. When I was in school in the 50's and 60's, learning was incumbent on the student. If I did not learn, it was on me. If the entire class did not learn, they might look at the teacher. However, the connection back then was as follows - teachers taught, students learned. If a student did not understand, it was up to the student to raise his or her hand. If the student needed extra help, it was up to the student to ask the teacher for it. That was the connection. Plain and simple.

Our system is one of minimal expectations. We look for excuses for failure. Our kids today are every bit as smart as the kids from 40 or 50 years ago. Challenge them - they will rise to the occasion. If you give them excuses for not learning, they never will. Kids today are our future. Take off the kid gloves. Treat them like students, not experiments. They will do fine, urban, suburban or otherwise.