Why Your Child Isn't Making the Grade is a refreshingly new take on education. Alton James guides the reader through a comprehensive look at various factors that influence education today. In providing his new take on education, he first outlines historical factors that impede educational success today. He then navigates through the world of education and the systemic barriers that continue to be problematic. Lastly, Mr. James delves into the personal lives of people in society by providing riveting anecdotal accounts of experiences on the front lines of education. Yet, he saves his most compelling argument until the end. Brace yourself for the coup de grâce as to why your child isn't making the grade . . .

WHY Your Child Isn't Making the GRADE

By Alton Maxel James IV

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2012 Alton Maxel James IV
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4772-8764-4

Contents

My Education Background............................................................ixChapter 1: Denigrated Demographics.................................................1Chapter 2: Social Capita...........................................................l9Chapter 3: Economic Capital........................................................15Chapter 4: Health..................................................................25Chapter 5: Over-Emphasis on Data...................................................31Chapter 6: Emphasis on Classroom and Not Experiential Learning.....................37Chapter 7: No Teacher Support......................................................43Chapter 8: No Accountability for Parents or Students...............................51Chapter 9: No Job or Economic Security for Educators...............................59Chapter 10: The Pain of Micromanagement............................................65Chapter 11: Digital Dummies........................................................71Chapter 12: Different Schools for Different Folks..................................77Chapter 13: Parenting (The Coup de Grâce).....................................83Chapter 14: The Lost Generation of Teachers and Students...........................91

Chapter One

Denigrated Demographics

Nuclear Family

One of the most under-analyzed and oversimplified issues in contemporary society is the nature of demographics. The first problem of note in regards to demographics rests in the degradation of the nuclear family. For years, strong marriages and households have been the pillar of American Society. Religious institutions frequently suggest that the "First Church" a child receives is found in the household—from a strong nuclear family. As religious institutions insist on having parents teach the values and morals that are necessary to pursue a healthy faith life, the same devices are needed in order to have children enter school eager and ready to learn. However, with the shifts that we are seeing in divorce rates as well as teen pregnancy, the face of the nuclear family has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Statistics and studies prove time and time again that children benefit from the security of a stable household—a benefit that bodes well in terms of the health of a child: physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Undoubtedly, there is a tragic correlation between the increased rates we continue to see in debilitating health issues in our children today and educational success—health issues like autism, obesity, ADD, ADHD, as well a whole host of other illnesses. Almost every facet of humanity requires a support system to accomplish any monumental task. There is an old adage that says, "It takes a village to raise a child." While this is absolutely true, we also lose sight of the importance of the "First Village" that a child is exposed to in the first place—the home. In an era when the "Fast Life" is glorified through American media and divorces are as commonplace as when one changes his or her shoes, we set up our children to assume they have no support systems. If the adults in a child's life show no consistency, what hope does a child have for stability in his or her own life?

Ultimately, a shift must occur in the psyche of this country if we are to make significant changes with our students. A committed home of two adults must be glorified in our media and our communities to begin to allow strong nuclear families to become a reality once more. Additionally, we must see parents have their children at ages when they have secured a career and a means to raise their children. Although teen pregnancy rates have declined in recent years, a detrimental problem still exists with parents having children "too early," without commitment to one another, and without the physical, emotional, and financial well-being to do so properly. As controversial as the term family planning has become in society, on some level, people need to genuinely find legitimate means to plan the appropriate time in their lives to raise children.

Birth Control

As it relates to family planning, the advent of birth control has created a huge shift in the nature of how society functions. However, by no means am I saying that birth control is a reason for the plight of education today. What I am going to illustrate is how its proliferation in today's world has altered some sects of society in ways that indirectly negatively influence educational outcomes. Firstly, the introduction of birth control came along during the same era as the signing of the G.I. Bill (a bill that created incentives for military vets and "non-traditional" students of the time to enter colleges and universities). This is important to note because of two reasons: one, we saw a shift in the American industry.

This shift in America's industry made the acquisition of jobs contingent upon attaining degrees from higher education institutions. Furthermore, it essentially started the eradication of the middle class. Once people could not rely on high school diplomas to create a meaningful and productive life, the floodgates were opened to increasing the cost of higher education as well as decreasing access to it. When industry moved away from agriculture and manufacturing, we ushered in an era in which only a select few jobs are available to a small minority of qualified individuals. This leads us to our second note of importance. In conjunction with the institution of birth control, a different climate was created in society. Birth control empowered women to take control of family planning in a way that had never been done before. Consequently, women were enabled to enter the workforce more easily and pursue careers in ways that wouldn't be possible without the worry of starting or adding to a family.

Coupled with laws spawning, protecting, and continuing affirmative action, women began their rise in educational attainment in staggering fashion. Given this shift in American households to having two adults working, the cost of living rose dramatically (not that women entering the workforce created this trend) along with the necessity of having a two-parent working household. Despite the greatness in the garnering of rights and educational attainment that has benefited women since this epoch, a definite decline in the nuclear family has ensued (rise in divorce rates, rise in teenage pregnancy [ironically], and the rise of unwed mothers). I'm not suggesting that these factors are a direct result of the rise in rights and educational attainment; however, there is an ironic correlation nonetheless.

Isolation

In retrospectively analyzing the start of America and its cultural progression, a recurring motif of exclusivity arises in its chronology. Although America was supposed to be built on religious freedom, people quickly learned of this "ideal" facade. Very soon, people realized that only Christianity was truly recognized or deemed legitimate. This notion was clear when American settlers felt that they needed to evangelize and save the Native Americans from their "barbarous paganism." Moving further, Americans felt the need to essentially eradicate the Native American population through their own barbarous genocide—a genocide that isolated Americans away from others—an isolation that forced Native Americans to the outskirts of America on...