No Reason Madison Students Should Not Be Able to Read

At the outset I am sure some will find my thoughts on this post insensitive, or not politically correct.  To them let me say I was embarrassed that all four Madison high schools were placed on the state list of 95 schools that failed to meet the No Child Left Behind standards.  There is NO reason this should be happening. 

I understand the deep disagreements that exist over President Bush’s program.  I share some, but not all of them.  But the program is not the issue at the moment.  The fact that there is a growing number of students that fail to read at the level they should has profound consequences for all of us.  As a taxpayer who has been an advocate of more state spending on schools, and one who has urged for the passage of many local school referenda, I feel like I deserve something more than a rude headline in the morning paper.

So let us cut the crap and talk about really why the kids are not reading, or reading at the level they should.

First, parents must face the fact that they are central in the educational development of the child.  The national statistics show where the problem is today; the lack of education among the parents, and the lack of value placed on education in the home.  Let us have the courage to be honest about this debate.  There are too many couples that only know how to procreate, and know nothing about child rearing. Children do not raise themselves–don’t have them if you do not want to be bothered with raising them properly.

Unless you start to read to your child at a very early age, and continue to do so, your child will not learn the basics of letters and sound. Parents must have books around the house so that a kid can select one and be read to….over and over again.  That is just the way it is.  The child needs lots of time in the early years with the parent for discovering the reading process.  Parents might have to cut back on their free time in order to raise their kid.  God knows the rest of us are doing our share by paying the taxes for these kids to go to school.  The least the parents can do is prepare them for the public education system.

Second, I am outraged that kids in HIGH SCHOOL can not read.  Time to get serious folks.  How in the world do these little ‘tax exemptions’ float from grade to grade without being yanked by the collar and forced to pass basic reading?  When these ‘little darlings that can do no wrong’ get to high school and can’t read why are they allowed to select elective classes, rather than a remedial English course?   Instead of ‘fun’ classes, these kids need to sit their backsides down in a chair and learn the basics!  Am I the only one to have ever thought this way?

Third, the reason for public education is to get instructed in at least the basics of reading, writing, and math.  When our school systems can no longer even achieve the basics, the rest of us must wonder what in the world is going on.  When I hear parents whine about costs for school sports programs increasing, or school officials talking about spending more money to improve a track or athletic field we should all hold up a copy of Wednesday’s newspaper and just let the headline about Madison schools be our only response.  We need to spend our taxpayer dollars on the real reason we send kids to school.   To learn, not to play.

There just is NO reason for Wednesday’s newspaper headline.

There will be some who will now use these numbers to urge that more public dollars go to education.  I disagree.  There will be others who will say some families are so stressed by the economy and other hardships that they can’t monitor their child’s education problems.  To be blunt, I say to them that they need time management skills.  I am tired of the excuses.  I would like to feel the pain, but truthfully I can’t.  As a citizen I understand the value of education.  I pay my taxes, and have been pro-active with educational concerns.  But it is time for the parents to take a leading role with their own child. I did not have the child.  They did.   A large portion of child rearing should be the sole responsibility of the parent.  I am tired of paying for it, and I am tired of seeing headlines like that in the paper on Wednesday morning.

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