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This week, we’re focusing on issues that Out.Rage.Us. I have an issue with Mississippi’s educational system. The system, apparently is broken, when we consistently rank in the bottom two or three states in education. Our test scores are average, but nothing spectacular. This worries me as a parent because I’m concerned my children will not be able to compete with their peers from other states. Making A’s in Mississippi may not be the equivalent of making A’s in Texas. It doesn’t help when your school system lowers the grading scale to make students “more competitive” by giving them the opportunity to make more A’s when a 90% A is not as good as a 95% A. Our community cheers for a grading scale that inherently hurts our students by lowering the academic standard and rigor which actually makes them less competitive with their peers. This encourages laziness and mediocrity because now I don’t have to work as hard to get an “A”. Ironically, our students are still struggling and making average and below average grades even with a lower academic standard. Something is wrong!

I’m not one to point the finger, but our educational system and students need help. We need to increase academic standards, not lower them. We need to let our students know they can excel and we EXPECT them to. We need to encourage rigorous learning by making classes as challenging as possible. We need to prepare all students for success outside of the classroom by teaching life lessons and skills. We need to help students whose parents are not able to help them keep up in class. We are losing many students who have the potential to succeed but are getting left behind for one reason or another. Then, these students get stuck and become frustrated with school. Once frustration sets in, they stop trying and begin believing they are a failure. At this point, we have just about lost them.

Our educational system needs teachers who care about students more so than just getting a pay check and working towards retirement. Our educational system needs to invest in more remedial and tutorial programs to assist students who are falling between the cracks. Our parents must take a more active role in the classroom and helping students with homework and studying. Our parents must be advocates and voices for their children helping them navigate through the educational system. Our community organizations (businesses, churches, etc.) need to play an active role in educating our students and supporting the efforts of those who do. It takes everyone working together to make our community and state the best it can be.

The common core standards have helped introduce a new rigor to our classrooms that has been missing and challenges students to learn in new ways. It challenges them to think, analyze and reason. It challenges them to a better-rounded student able to tackle life’s challenges. But many parents are opposed to these new standards. Why would you be opposed to something that will eventually help your child? Yes, it’s difficult now because our students are not used to having to think for themselves to get an answer. They’ve been taught to memorize answers and look for the easy way out. They’ve been spoon-fed for a long time and common core does not spoon feed. They are being challenged to use their brains in new ways and expand their learning capacities. I hope we will see the value in this new curriculum which still has a ways to go in being integrated successfully into the classroom but it is well on its way to producing smarter and more competitive students which makes for a stronger community.

~Coletta Jones Patterson

*Feel free to join the dialogue and make comments or suggestions.