The Failure of Public Education

This past week I had a very interesting experience with one of the boys I tutored at the 826. The boy asked me for help with his math, this wasn't my first time helping a student with math so I wasn't concerned. He pulled out his homework and we began going through the problems together. His homework was on long division and it quickly became apparent that he had absolutely no knowledge on how to do long division at all. I had to teach him each step of long division and also many skills for multiplication as well. He then informed me that he had a test on long division the next day that he felt completely unprepared for. I felt awful, it was clear that the public school system had failed him, the school was ready to test him on something it had not properly prepared him for. How could his teacher have not seen that he was struggling and offered extra help? This seems to be the main problem with the public school system, schools seem more concerned with getting through a curriculum than actually making sure that students are actually learning what they are being taught. Not only had the school not properly taught him long division but they hadn't showed him ways to deal with not knowing how to do a problem. Every time he was unsure what the answer to one of my questions was he would become flustered and just start guessing random numbers with hope that one of them would be correct. I understand that some people just aren't wired to be good at math but it is the job of the school to make sure that all students are learning in a way that is best for them. Not all people are the same and thus not all students should be taught in the same way. As the session came to an end his grandmother came up to me and asked me if I could speak with her in private. I obliged and she took me to the side and asked me about her grandson's progress. I tried to explain it to her without being too bleak, she asked me if there was anything she could do to help, it was clear in her eyes that she was truthfully very concerned for her grandson's education and really wanted him to excel. I recommended that she pick up multiplication flash cards because that was really where her grandson had struggled. She thanked me for my help and asked if I could continue to tutor her grandson the next week. Although I wasn't allowed to make that promise I wish I could because I truthfully believe that I could help her grandson through the failure of the public school system. Sorry for the very serious topic this week, but I have been thinking about this a lot since it happened last Thursday. Next week I'll go back to talking about things like the Bachelor and the Suite Life of Zack and Cody.

Love you,

Cam