Azileretsis

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February 10, 2011

community

Two weeks ago, I visited two local schools to judge high school science fairs. Both schools were public schools: one in a rich suburban area and the other, an inner-city school. In the evening, at the suburban school, we had at least ten science teachers and 20 judges looking at 300 science fair projects. Not all projects were the same but some of the top ones were worthy of graduate school level quality though maybe not in effort. At the inner-city school, it was during the day so we had approximately ten judges for 200 projects and one science teacher.

I should disclose that I went to a suburban public school and I do believe that my school system was a really good one. I believe in public schools and especially local community involvement in those schools. However, my experience at the inner-city school was eye-opening.

Though far from my first experience in the inner-city, I had never step into an inner-city school during school hours. It would be safe to say that there was a culture shock from both sides, mine and the students'. As I judged the posters, the students had many good ideas but there were more deficiencies when it came to using the scientific method to carry out an experiment. However, the problems did not end there. The posters reflected these students were learning their language skills from the short communications like texting and netspeak. They were learning but learning from the wrong sources. Also, their secondary education seem to all come from TV.

If people are for more local community intervention for public schools, these inner-city schools might be in more trouble. How could such a stark contrast exist between schools that are only 45 miles apart? Is the community failing these students' educational requirements to be a functional citizen in society?

Education is not a new problem. Yet, we ignore it at our own detriment.

Posted by azileretsis at February 10, 2011 05:55 PM

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