The state of Education in Toledo
The city is in the down part of an economic cycle. Those that have a higher income have less stress, a more stable home life and so on.
Those in the lower income areas have well less stability less of every thing. When the city starts the ascent upwards we shall see an improvement. If we look at the downward trends we see the decline and one begets the begets the other.
We can look for answers in new Superintendents and support staff and decry the pay levels of the teachers and so on. Throwing money at the system is easy to do and looks something is being done but how much money has to be sunk in before it sinks in that it is not working. How many leaders do we have to shuffle and when we look at some of the former leadership we see that they are still not effecting change in the new assignments.
So, then we look inward and when we look around we see people walking in circles with hands wringing and desperately looking for answers to the problems. We have people labeling students in racial terms and labeling them as inner city students as if that is some sort of badge that makes them out as automatically failures in education. This is not inner city versus outer city, this is a problem effecting our community no matter the skin color or ethnicity.
While the foundation of community is faltering we have leadership that is resistant to change, content with infighting and bickering, content with the way things are and not with the way they could be and should be.
We decry the lack of change. That starts with us. Many citizens have commented and made the public aware of the problems with the way students are treated. Many have commented that there are problems with the grades and the way that students are learning and the failure of those to learn adequately. We have identified the problems, the problems are with the learning. Where is the motivation when one looks out and sees declining opportunities, sees lack of jobs, sees the declining neighborhoods with boarded and vacant homes, sees vacant and boarded up businesses.
New and fresh leadership is needed with an eye towards change and a sense of cooperation across the city and not more of the same.
Some say there are seven stages of public opinion…
Stage 1 : Dawning Awareness
Stage 2 : Greater Urgency
Stage 3 : Reaching for Solutions
Stage 4 : Wishful Thinking
Stage 5 : Weighing The Choices
Stage 6 : Taking a Stand Intellectually
Stage 7 : Making a Responsible Judgment Morally and Emotionally
It doesn’t seem enough have reached beyond Stage 4 here in Toledo and from an economic standpoint, Toledo is doing better than some of the other large cities in Ohio. I refer you to a post about poverty in Ohio that was written on June 13th which has this pdf.
We wait for government to take care of the problems for us all too often, when the reality is there are many things more of us could do to take responsibility to make the Toledo area better. When it comes to schools especially, it’s up to the community to reach out, I wonder how many prominent citizens in Toledo actually have considered volunteering at any of the schools that are having problems, the class issue of those who have being treated better than those who have not is not something unique to Toledo and for that to change? It’s going to take a major shift in the attitudes and thinking of society in general not just here in Toledo but as a nation.
Then there is the ultimate reality, there will always be those who have more and always be those who have less in our country. Can we do better as far as providing more educational resources? Yes. Can we do better in providing experienced teachers and to increase minority hiring of teachers? Yes. We can also start realizing that the reason why we don’t have new leaders is because we don’t elect them, it’s been said you get the government you deserve, and at times I think that’s very true.
August 16th, 2007 at 11:33 amFood for more thought.
August 16th, 2007 at 2:30 pmNC, you are right and I hope the other voters also see what you see. We cannot afford the “same old” anymore. Thanks for sharing.
August 16th, 2007 at 6:06 pmBeautiful
August 16th, 2007 at 7:36 pmExcellent editorial, Lisa. Right on the money. I’m glad you were willing to share your personal thoughts with us.
August 16th, 2007 at 10:06 pm