Do buildings educate?

I have always tried to keep this blog apolitical but after reading the following in Charles Payne's WStreet Market Commentary this morning I felt a strong need to pass this on. FYI... Charles Payne is a commentator on the FOX Business Channel. He is one of the few black financial commentators on Wall Street. The only reason I bring up his race is to re-enforce his comments in this article. He was raised in a lower middle class environment in NY and through hard work (flipping burgers at McDonalds at night) education and a drive to succeed managed to work his way into the top tier of American Financial guru's. 

 WStreet Market Commentary

9/13/2011

"We can't expect our kids to do their best in places that are literally falling apart. This is America. Every kid deserves a great school ˜ and we can give it to them."

-President Obama in Rose Garden yesterday pushing the American Jobs Act

So, we can't expect kids to do their best unless their schools have science labs, computers, and whiteboards. That stuff is nice to have, but to say we can't expect the best from our kids unless they're going to pristine-looking schools underscores the biggest problem with the nation today. There are too many excuses for failure. The notion here is kids in poorer schools should be forgiven for subpar grades even if it's more a function of subpar efforts on homework, subpar input from parents, subpar expectations in the community, and subpar use of tools for lesser results.

Don't get me wrong, I recently left the board of a charter school because of foot-dragging on a new building, but that's because the school shares a building with three other public schools. I wasn't worried about the physical structure as much as the mentality of children not in our school. This is classic victim pandering/creation that says everyone unemployed more than two years hasn't turned down a job considered beneath them or paying less than their benefits. Instead, everyone is a victim and should be coddled and pitied until they can get back on their feet.

I wonder if any of these great American writers went to schools with whiteboards and computers: Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck, Mark Twain, Tennessee Williams, Richard Wright, Maya Angelou, Edgar Allen Poe, William Faulkner, Herman Melville, Kurt Vonnegut, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or Walt Whitman. I know class size and snazzy electronic stuff helps, but to say we shouldn't expect great things from children unless they have that stuff is nuts. But, it's part and parcel of the narrative of fairness and it's supposed impact on our society, where subpar effort is expected, even considered noble. Instead of being a motivator, not having things is considered a good enough reason for not doing things.

This is absolutely backward thinking. I heard a commercial on the radio today for people on food stamps and WIC to get their free cell phone and 250 minutes of free air time. This is what some people consider social justice, but it's nothing more than another part of the victim trap that tells the recipient they deserve certain things simply because they have less than others while telling those that have even a modicum of success it's their role to pay up so others can get free cell phones. It's more a nail in the coffin of poor people in the sense their circumstances are made more comfortable and they believe others owe them something.

This victim syndrome seeks to snare more and more people into its net, hence the unyielding use of the word fair, and at the same time attempts to shame those that have the gall or audacity to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. Of course we can expect our kids to do their best as their parents did without computers and their parents before them with fewer books and their parents before them who often learned by candlelight. What they all had in common was expectations to do their best. What they all had in common was a no excuses policy. 

How do you look a ten year old kid in the face and say it's okay you are falling behind because you're school is old the desks are old and there are no computers?

Is this leadership? Is this how we fight back? Chinese kids are blowing American kids out of the water and it's not because they have better looking schools, as I'm sure they do not. They have a type of determination that is not only failing to be taught, but is being ridiculed, in America. I think every American kid should have a great school, but not having it should not be a cop out for not demanding they learn and excel. What the hell happened to the audacity of hope? There are parallel crises going on right now but the short and long-term are intertwined around things like spending and debt. The short and long-term challenges also revolve around education. Folks, we aren't prepared, and I can tell you right now telling kids it's okay not to be prepared will have disastrous results. 

15 year old kids in Slovenia rank higher than American kids in math and science. We must demand our kids do their best and forget the pity party and victimization stuff.