Feb
27
You can’t fix stupid.
Filed Under Current Issues, Education, Opinion, Politics, Psychology
This morning, I cam across an article on abcnews.com. It seems a 6 year old was suspended from school for wearing a mohawk, in violation of the schools grooming policy. Some information worth noting, the child was at a “charter” school. While these schools are still part of the local public school system, they were started as social experiments. Their findings have been quite interesting. A child’s socio-economic background does not have as big of an impact on their learning process as we previously thought, blasting the social drifting paradox out of the water. Students wear uniforms and have strict behavioral rules. Getting into the schools is difficult and students can be sent back to regular public schools for not following the rules. Parents have a vested interest in their child’s education at the charter schools due to the limited number of positions available and the risk of being dropped from the program.
What might be most interesting in all of this is that the charter school studies are reinforcing findings of social scientists regarding workplace productivity; people that come to work dress professionally not only do more work, but it is of a better quality. Requiring uniforms and dress codes in schools is very much a good thing. It reduces violence and increases test scores. Dressing for school or work has a psychological effect on people and they are more mentally prepared for the job at hand.
So what is the biggest complaint about charter schools? There aren’t enough of them. Many communities with charter schools hold lotteries to see who gets admitted. Perhaps most schools should use the charter school format and have “regular” schools only for delinquents? And their test scores shouldn’t matter; you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. And the teachers will all be former military personnel.
Perhaps what is most disturbing about the story above is that the child’s mother values her son’s hair cut more than his education. The fact is, charter schools work and the child is worse off for leaving. She justifies her decision by say, “It’s something that he really likes.”
~cv