Crisis in Urban Schools

The violence in our urban public schools has reached and all time high. The fact is that the children know that their educators are afraid of them. We see situations such as this in the movies and on television, however the reality is that this is real. Children do not fight with fists anymore, they use guns. Knives are now considered weak.

One reason these children feel they have to fight is because society, in my opinion has written off urban schools. Those more intimately familiar with conditions in urban districts point to dilapidated and unsafe buildings, administrations hopelessly mired in politicized and inefficient bureaucracies, and an endless series of reforms that never seem to lead to genuine improvement.

Urban school failure is pervasive. It is indicative of all of the nation’s largest cities – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, and not uncommon in small towns such as East St. Louis, Poughkeepsie, Camden, and Compton. It seems whereever poor people are concentrated and employment is scarce, public schools are almost always very bad. In many parts of the country, the problems present within urban schools are perceived as so numerous and intractable that the term "crisis" is frequently applied to describe the situation; and this is how it is described by those who haven't given up hope completely.

It is not a "black" thing it is people thing.The issues confronting urban public schools in the United States are profound and deeply discouraging, characterizing their plight as either one of crisis or utter hopelessness is inaccurate. Nor do such grim portrayals serve as a genuine diagnosis of the problems or shed light on what should be done to address them. Such descriptions do, however, play an important role in influencing popular conceptions of urban schools, and ultimately have an influence on how policy makers approach the task of "fixing" them. The educators(teachers) who brave this madness to try and teach also face so much opposition. Laws that were put in place to protect the students also hinder the teachers. It is not uncommon to find a student threatening a teacher. Even if a teacher trys to raise the level of her voice to gain the classroom attention, this can, and sometimes does result in his/her dismissal. Teachers are at the students and administrative's mercy.

I don't see this current Government really giving a rat's ass about what is happening with our educational system. It seems more focus is overseas then in the homeland. In the meantime the people who suffer are the children, because they don't care ...because they feel no one cares about them.