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Students and Educators Responsible for Education

Posted on: Monday, 7 November 2005, 21:00 CST

An Oct. 17 letter to the editor, "Shame on superintendent for blaming students," concluded that school districts are supposed to ensure the education of every student.

This left me wondering. How can schools ensure anyone's education? I also was left recalling a wise quote that says, "No matter how fine a school you are in, you have to educate yourself." After all, what a school ensures is not an education, but the opportunity for an education.

Another conclusion drawn by this Oct. 17 letter is that a school system is solely to blame when students fail. That assertion is as ridiculous as claiming that schools should be credited for all student achievement. School critics now view education as a mere service industry where students "get" their education served up to them by educators and somehow, if a student does not "get" their education, it's because the school did not deliver it.

This absence of individual accountability short-circuits the educational process. Why is it that F and D grades used to mean a student was failing, but today those grades indicate a school has failed?

It would be ludicrous to claim that educators perfectly perform their jobs. However, it is even more absurd to maintain that the only obligation in a school lies with educators and that students have no responsibility in completing the learning connection. This blame game of schools may continue, but one thing is certain; No Child Left Behind will only happen when every educator and every student get on board.

Dan Nagle

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Source: Pantagraph

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