Is poverty inherited was meant and is meant as query to all of us. The school system is a mess. Yes, a mess. Teachers in most of the schools in both the inner city and the fringes deal with behavior problems of some magnitude. The obvious solutionm rid the troublesome student and all will be well.
That argument accomplishes little. Lil Joey in the back of the classroom can and will step into the void. Why do children misbehave in the school setting? The answers are often not complicated.
Chattanooga and the county system are in for some serious and complicated issues. Yes, the white school-age children are moving out in the areas of Apison, Sale Creek and other. Those all white communities also have all white schools. I used to have students at Sale Creek and my first visit to the school ever was just a pleasant experience. Reminded me so much of my own high school.
Some of the inner city high schools do not and cannot have the students that we see in Sale Creek and once upon a time, Red Bank High. What can be done, and further who is willing to see poverty as not inherited but a challenge for every taxpayer; every parent and every child that starts school at age five and begins failing?
Something is not right with that scenario and we have a few people at central office that don't see solutions but blame. Blame only removes me from the problem. The problem is still there.
I can envision changes and those changes would involve a fruit basket turnover of what is traditional schooling. No longer would the failing child be allowed to fail and instead programs in place for the learner, not the curriculum; not the state; not central office. The child is center and so is the parent. The parent of the failing child can and should be included in any educational turnabout. The parent of the failing child does not have to be a victim of poverty, but an advocate for change and people in the schools can do that. It means, however, that the school must no longer be an island removed from the populace but part of it; in the homes serving as advocates for change.
I can hear the screams now. Cost too much. One question to the naysayer, what does poverty cost, crime, neighborhoods in the inner city, etc.? Our society has built and entire platform to deal with, not solve, poverty. The solution to poverty, simply, education but not the way we educate Jimmy or Laura at Signal Mountain Elementary.
Robert Brooks