MANUFACTURING VS. SERVICE INDUSTRY SCHOOL SYSTEM

America has changed over the years from a society of manufacturing industries to service industries.   Service industry is based upon appeasing the client.  Service industry is measured on the end result, usually making a sale.  Service industry is more likely to cut corners with the client so that the end result is met.  Manufacturing industry is based upon the accountability for the assembly of the product.  Manufacturing industries are about the means along the process towards reaching an end of a well assembled and accountable product.  Public school education has changed over the same period in time.  Public school education has a means and an end.  The means is each student’s daily comprehension, understanding  and accountability towards each subject.  The means in school is to produce a student who knows each subject matter and is accountable for that gained knowledge.  The end of a public school education is the issuing of the diploma.   More emphasis is placed by school districts upon the end which translates into more diplomas awarded to students.  Less emphasis is placed upon student understanding and comprehension during the high school education.   Students are held less accountable and within lower standards for comprehension along the means.  Correct spelling, proper grammar usage, math proficiency, historical information, writing ability, scientific concepts, etc.  are not as important as it used to be when America was a manufacturing society.  Schools are educating and appeasing students towards an end of receiving a diploma only.  This is a symptom of a service industry society.   Public schools are turning into a service industry.  Public schools should revert back to a manufacturing mode to produce a better product,  accountable fully educated graduated student.   Then each end product, the student awarded a diploma, is of measurable and accountable quality this USA society deserves and requires as we progress more and more into the 21^st century.

EDUCATORS CHANGING STUDENT SCORES ON STANDARIZED TESTS

This week in Atlanta numerous teachers, administrators and superintendents were revealed to have changed students  scores on standardized tests.  The report indicated this unprofessional practice is  widespread across America and not localized to any particular geographic region.  Too many educators have only two goals in their careers.  The first goal is to reach tenure with a school district.  Then the union can give them protection through job security.  The only other goal for too many educators is retirement.  Educators submit to cheating and sub-par practices to make their student and the district meet and better achievements and set statistical data. The powers overseeing the school district often narrow their look at data, not the individual student’s comprehension of said subject material.  “Students aren't knowledgeable, and are probably lazy and procrastinate, so they cheat. These are crimes based on a lack of knowledge. It's a terrible character trait to develop” Quote by  Fran Cohen.  As my book is about character traits I fully agree with the words of Fran Cohen.  The educator is deficient and lazy while not doing their job and knowledge so the student performance is acceptable.   Educators should not only do what is expected, they must do what is correct.  Let me conclude this entry with a description of the school district the educators have made through cheating.  Sri Guru Granth Sahib wrote,  “ Cheating is eating a rotting carcass.”  

PARENT INVOLVEMENT - CLASSROOM AND THE SPORTS FIELD

Many parents are involved  in their children’s school sports.  Parents should put as much involved participation in their children’s school class room.  Football, basketball, baseball, soccer, etc. are just sports, which translate to mean a game.  School sports are like the lottery.  Each player goes into play with a certain practiced skill. Each player takes a chance at winning.  Both the lottery and school sports contests have one winner.  No matter if only two play against each other or thousands play, only one winner is victorious.  Many parents pay attention to their child participating in a sporting match or game, every inning or down, while encouraging their child to do their best at executing each task to the best of the student’s ability.  The parent yells at the top of their lung to their child how to use their skill each down, swing, kick, move, etc.  The parent does not want their child to lose their chance at being better and recognized  in sport.  The parent wants the child to be the winner.  Too many parents never pay any attention to the class room from which their child is daily educated.  Each day, hour, second every school student is influenced by some subject matter or learning experience.  School class rooms are where most of the children will be exposed to past events, present events, opinions, facts, lessons and appropriate group behavior.  The class room subject and its message is where most students will pull their future livelihood. Too many parents do not know who the teacher is leading all this knowledge exposure for their child.  Each parent and teacher must come together the same as on the sporting field and arena, and team up to make sure each student uses their skill to the best of their ability.  Education in the class room is not up to chance.  Success in the class room equates a student’s effort and the resultant achievement. Each student can be the winner.  The only competition is the student and the comprehension of the subject matter.  Pat Riley said,  ‘There are only two options regarding commitment.  You are either in or out.  There is no option in life as in-between.’  Parents must put the same effort into the daily life of their child in the class room and its curriculum as their child participating during sport.  Teachers must nurture an environment, dialogue and platform for the parent to be in full participation.

EACH STUDENT IS AT WORK

I have students which do not want to complete assignments.  They put their head down, mess with their cell phone and continually ask to leave the classroom for the bathroom, locker or anywhere but where there is an assignment.  I tell them school is a student's work.  Students laugh at me and retort, 'School is not their work.'  I challenge each one.  I relate to them if I call their Mother right now on the telephone and report their child is refusing to do the assignment and does not turn in the assignment, the Mother will want to speak with their child.  I ask the student, what shall their Mother say to them if I put the two together on the telephone?  The Mother always says, 'Get your WORK done.'  She will say, 'Turn in your WORK.'  So now to each student I ask, "Where did your Mother send you each morning when you left to go to school?"  The student went to WORK. 

SCHOOL POLICIES ON CELL PHONES

The school district I am involved has a collective goal for the students to reach when they take the ACT college entrance test.  The collective composite score for the school should be 21.  Some of the students in  the surrounding schools have reached and surpassed this composite score goal for their school.  The teachers in my school, for the most part, would like to have cell phones and electronic items banned from the school building.  But the policy is students can use their ipods and cell phones in the hallway, common areas and lunchroom.  This is no matter if class is on or not.  Once a student is out of a classroom, electronic items can be used, no matter the time of the school day.  I reviewed the student discipline policies for the surrounding schools which had met our set goal for the composite ACT goal.  Their cell phone and electronic policy is zero tolerance.  No cell phone or ipod is to be visible or used during the school day, period.  When I related this information the comment came forth that unless further survey and data was collected there could be no correlation made between policy and the results for the ACT test.  That was not my intention.  My comment in return says my thought on the matter, 'if you wish to eat like a cheetah, run like a cheetah after cheetah food.'

STANDARDIZED TESTING

There seem to be too much standardized testing of the student in the USA public school system.  I must say, there is too much standardized testing without any intervention improvement for each student as follow-up to the testing.  The tests seem to be conducted for the sake of data collection only.  There is no improved learning by a student from taking a standardized test.  There seldom exist an individual student improvement plan stemming from the student results on a standardized test.
I shall always remember the words a fellow educator said once concerning too much standardized testing, 'it is like trying to fatten the cow by weighing it every day.'

G.R.A.S.P. Education is now out in print and available in paperback and on kindle

My book G.R.A.S.P. Education - Character Traits Towards Educational Success is currently available at site http://graspeducation.com. The book is available online with Barnes and Noble, outskirtspress, ilibris and Amazon sites in numerous countries.  The kindle addition is on offer from Amazon. It shall be a pleasure to hear from you.  There is something in the book which will be pleasing to each and every reader.  The cover design is at the beginning of this blog. Thanks for the support as we collectively start an involved dialogue about the character traits we need so our students will realize educational success.