Editorial: Enough Blame to Go Around

Along with continual talk of T.C.’s status as a “Persistently Low Achieving” school comes a seemingly endless citywide game of finger pointing. This blame-game appears to be leaving everyone in Alexandria thinking the same thing – who is really at fault here?

Truthfully, there does not appear to be one single answer to this question. Just taking a walk down any hallway in T.C. yields a wide range of opinions on the topic. In fact, the answer may be that there is truth in all of these views.

TEACHERS & STAFF
Some members of the T.C. community put blame on the teachers and staff. When asked about the problem, one junior immediately offered her personal experience as an example. As she approached her third year of high school, she realized that she was taking a lot of difficult classes, and suddenly was not sure she could handle the workload. To take off some of the pressure, she decided to enroll in General Education (regular) English 11. What she did not expect was that the teacher in her English class basically did the work for students. The class was assigned an essay about a novel they had recently read. However, instead of writing the essays themselves, students were only expected to “think about the last two sentences” of one that they copied off the projector screen.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are students who admit to perceiving some teachers as inattentive or even lacking faith in their students’ abilities. Sophomore Reba Pearl admits, “It’s hard to want to work for good grades in school when you feel like your teachers don’t even expect you to.” Then again, these lowered expectations may stem from the actions of students themselves. Imagine being a teacher and constantly having to force kids into learning – the one reason they come to school in the first place.
Another common complaint heard at T.C. relates to other staff, such as hall monitors. Instead of continuing to enforce the rules that were so firmly insisted upon in the beginning of the school year, students say that the hall monitors do not actually succeed in making roamers go to class most of the time. It is true that the vast majority of students probably have nothing against this hallway freedom, and would not want to admit that it is actually a problem. However, a direct result of it is that a surprising percentage of the student population ends up skipping multiple classes every week, causing grades and test scores to suffer.
“We need hall monitors that tell kids what to do, and don’t try to be our friends,” said one sophomore. In fact, a member of the Theogony staff recalls one specific incident they witnessed at their academy office. A student stumbled into the office, and appeared to be under the influence of marijuana. When a nearby hall monitor noticed the student, he pulled him over. “Instead of reporting the kid, he just told him ‘You’re lucky I’m the only one who saw you. You can’t come to school when you’re on that stuff.’ Then he sent him home.”
In their defense, the hall monitors have an incredibly difficult job. Some may even say that keeping control at such a huge school – 461,000 square feet and over 2,200 students – is nearly impossible.

THE TOP DOGS
Some of the most popular people to blame at the moment appear to be members of the administration, and even the School Board and Central Office. For instance, the School Board has been criticized for just about everything – from not getting T.C. enough money, to hiring a superintendent that people may not agree with. There have been grumbles about Central Office not keeping teachers informed, as well as the school administration not making the most of outside opinions, like those of teachers and students.
Another problem at T.C. involves a lack of enforcement and follow-through on discipline. When a student is sent to the office for disrupting class, their teacher should feel confident in the administration that the situation will be handled – meaning that the student will be disciplined to prevent them from causing future disruptions. In addition, T.C. needs a principal who is truly invested in our future. While short-term principals have done a commendable job here, no permanent changes will happen without a permanent authority figure. We need someone who will connect T.C. with the Alexandria community, and will stay with us for the long haul.
However, while there is truth to all these complaints, it’s unfair to simply lay all the blame on the decision makers. Obviously, the people who run our school cannot be without fault when a problem arises. But the current administration has been working hard for T.C. For example, they’ve already implemented the new Titan Up program, which will allow students more time to work on the subjects they need the most help with. In addition, the Senior Experience program will help ease 12th graders’ transition out of high school. Most importantly, it is imperative to remember what a demanding job our administrators have. For a lot of them, most of their day is spent dealing with troublemakers, which at times forces them to act more as school police than anything.

ALEXANDRIA, PARENTS & SOCIETY
A portion of T.C.’s problems can actually be seen as originating in larger, societal problems. These problems seem to branch off into two main sections – cultural, and socio-economic.
A cultural “problem”, in this case, can be better defined as a trait or stereotype of that culture which interferes with students’ responsibility to learn. For example, having a baby as a teenager can obviously get in the way of someone’s academic life. However, for a girl whose culture and beliefs involve having children young, there is no easy way to convince her that she would be better off postponing motherhood until she finishes school. And unfortunately, teenage pregnancies can often lead to extremely difficult living conditions. According to the National Campaign to Prevent Teenage Pregnancy, over 75 percent of all unmarried teen moms go on welfare within 5 years of having their first child.
In turn, vicious cycles of poverty greatly contribute to Alexandria’s socio-economic problems. Poverty is obviously no easy thing to overcome. If someone has to use their entire paycheck each month, and is never able to save, then how will they come out of poverty? A child’s intelligence tends to be affected by their family’s financial situation. According to a study done by the University of Kansas, three-year-old children with parents on welfare have vocabularies of roughly 525 words, while those whose parents were professionals already knew twice that amount. As a result, schools are forced to fill in considerable gaps between students.
In addition, we as a community are not stressing enough to kids the importance of planning for their futures. Huge portions of generations are growing up in today’s world, even in our city, and they are not planning on graduating, going to college, or getting a good job. And if someone does not plan on doing any of those things, then what purpose would school serve them?
This is where parents figure into the equation. Kids need a parental figure telling them how important it is to succeed. Without that positive reinforcement, teenagers have trouble making the connection between school and the real world. Someone needs to be there for them, to help them understand that passing a test can actually affect more than just their grade point average. If no one ever tells students that studying for their math tests will decide whether they go to college or end up in jail, how will they know? How will they realize that high school should be more to them than just four years of avoiding homework?

STUDENTS
Where students stand in the blame game is a bit more difficult to figure out. On one hand, upon seeing failing test scores and falling graduation rates, the student population should be the first place to turn and look for a problem. However, some would be more reluctant to place blame on students, because they may not be getting those pushes that they need. However, so many students are capable of putting out way more effort than they do currently. Someone can be told everyday that school is important, but unless they take active responsibility for their own education, nothing will change.
Judging from T.C.’s label as a “Persistently Low Achieving” school, one can determine that many students here suffer from apathy. To put it simply, many just do not care if they pass or not. This is, without a doubt, T.C.’s greatest problem. If a student does not care about homework, how can they be convinced to do it? If they never come to class, how do teachers help them study? How does a teacher make a student learn if they do not want to?
Beyond that, how do teachers make someone want to learn? The problem is endless, with no single group of people to blame. It is up to the Titan community to realize that everyone has to take responsibility for the crisis, and we all have to realize that our actions have real consequences. Without drastic change, generations of Alexandrians will continue to cycle through the school system with limited to no success. The time has come to stop pointing the finger at each other, and start working together to save our students.