(USA Today–hat tip to B.H.)”Failure in the classroom is often tied to lack of funding, poor teachers or other ills. Here’s athought: Maybe it’s the failed work ethic of todays kids. That’s what I’m seeing in my school. Until reformers see this reality, little will change.
A study released in December by University of Pennsylvania researchers Angela Duckworth and Martin Seligman suggests that the reason so many U.S. students are “falling short of their intellectual potential” is not “inadequate teachers, boring textbooks and large class sizes” and the rest of the usual litany cited by the so-called reformers — but “their failure to exercise self-discipline.”
The sad fact is that in the USA, hard work on the part of students is no longer seen as a key factor in academic success. The groundbreaking work of Harold Stevenson and a multinational team at the University of Michigan comparing attitudes of Asian and American students sounded the alarm more than a decade ago. “
TheStateOf…education. The article goes on the state that polls show Asian students believe the key to academic success is “hard work;” non-Asian American students say the key to successful learning is “the teacher.” I think the Asians have it right. I spoke at a career day in South Central LA a few weeks ago, and I don’t think there is a teacher on this earth that could successfully control those kids. It all starts in the home.
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