In the Emphatic Words of Clark W. Griswold Jr., "Hallelujah, Holy ****!"

At least somebody gets it...

The following is an column originally printed in the March 7th edition of USA Today.

For once, blame the student
By Patrick Welsh

Last month, as I averaged the second-quarter grades for my senior English classes at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., the same familiar pattern leapt out at me.

Kids who had emigrated from foreign countries — such as Shewit Giovanni from Ethiopia, Farah Ali from Guyana and Edgar Awumey from Ghana — often aced every test, while many of their U.S.-born classmates from upper-class homes with highly educated parents had a string of C's and D's.

As one would expect, the middle-class American kids usually had higher SAT verbal scores than did their immigrant classmates, many of whom had only been speaking English for a few years.

What many of the American kids I taught did not have was the motivation, self-discipline or work ethic of the foreign-born kids.

Politicians and education bureaucrats can talk all they want about reform, but until the work ethic of U.S. students changes, until they are willing to put in the time and effort to master their subjects, 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.

Asian vs. U.S. students

When asked to identify the most important factors in their performance in math, the percentage of Japanese and Taiwanese students who answered "studying hard" was twice that of American students.

American students named native intelligence, and some said the home environment. But a clear majority of U.S. students put the responsibility on their teachers. A good teacher, they said, was the determining factor in how well they did in math.

"Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."

As my colleague Ed Cannon puts it: "Today, the teacher is supposed to be responsible for motivating the kid. If they don't learn it is supposed to be our problem, not theirs."

And, of course, busy parents guilt-ridden over the little time they spend with their kids are big subscribers to this theory.

Maybe every generation of kids has wanted to take it easy, but until the past few decades students were not allowed to get away with it. "Nowadays, it's the kids who have the power. When they don't do the work and get lower grades, they scream and yell. Parents side with the kids who pressure teachers to lower standards," says Joel Kaplan, another chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams.

Every year, I have had parents come in to argue about the grades I have given in my AP English classes. To me, my grades are far too generous; to middle-class parents, they are often an affront to their sense of entitlement. If their kids do a modicum of work, many parents expect them to get at least a B. When I have given C's or D's to bright middle-class kids who have done poor or mediocre work, some parents have accused me of destroying their children's futures.

It is not only parents, however, who are siding with students in their attempts to get out of hard work.

Blame schools, too

"Schools play into it," says psychiatrist Lawrence Brain, who counsels affluent teenagers throughout the Washington metropolitan area. "I've been amazed to see how easy it is for kids in public schools to manipulate guidance counselors to get them out of classes they don't like. They have been sent a message that they don't have to struggle to achieve if things are not perfect."

Neither the high-stakes state exams, such as Virginia's Standards of Learning, nor the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act have succeeded in changing that message; both have turned into minimum-competency requirements aimed at the lowest in our school.

Colleges keep complaining that students are coming to them unprepared. Instead of raising admissions standards, however, they keep accepting mediocre students lest cuts have to be made in faculty and administration.

As a teacher, I don't object to the heightened standards required of educators in the No Child Left Behind law. Who among us would say we couldn't do a little better? Nonetheless, teachers have no control over student motivation and ambition, which have to come from the home — and from within each student.

Perhaps the best lesson I can pass along to my upper- and middle-class students is to merely point them in the direction of their foreign-born classmates, who can remind us all that education in America is still more a privilege than a right.

Patrick Welsh is an English teacher at T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Va., and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.

    There are a few really interesting quotes in this article that highlight what I perceive to be a glaring problem in today's schools.  Yes, I'm a teacher, and so my opinions are going to be slightly biased and can be misconstrued in a way that seems like I, too am "passing the buck."  However, my opinions come from first-hand observations and not from reading statistics in the newspaper about hot button topics such as school funding and state mandated achievement tests. 

    The first quote is ""Kids have convinced parents that it is the teacher or the system that is the problem, not their own lack of effort," says Dave Roscher, a chemistry teacher at T.C. Williams in this Washington suburb. "In my day, parents didn't listen when kids complained about teachers. We are supposed to miraculously make kids learn even though they are not working."  DING DING DING!!!  We have a winner, tell him what he's won!  Teachers are expected to be superheroes.  How can we literally have "no child left behind" if  there are children that are not willing to keep up with the rest of the students?

    Granted, the students in these examples come from upper-class backgrounds and so they do not have the economic disadvantages that some (read: all) of my students have, but the principle is the same.  If you want to succeed, it takes HARD WORK!  I don't know how many times I have heard a student say either to me or another teacher, "You can't make me do anything."  That's true.  I can't MAKE them do anything.  I can only provide incentive and motivation to work.  If they CHOOSE not to act on that motivation, I personally feel like it is no longer my problem.  Yes, I feel as if I have failed professionally in not providing enough motivation for that one student, but do I, or any other teacher, for that matter, have what it takes to properly motivate that student?  Probably not...at least not without detracting from the other 20 students in the classroom.  I may feel like I failed, but at the core of it all, is it REALLY my fault.  I say, "No."

   
    My favorite quote from this column is this: 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."

    According to this study, its not the teacher, or the book, or class size that causes the lack of results in education.  It's the student.  Welsh later clarifies this statement when he says that the quality of exercising self-discipline needs to come from the home.  I don't claim to have a monopoly on students that lack a good, strong family life, but a good percentage of my students come from single-parent homes and struggle financially, which naturally leads into a weakened home life.  Does this mean that they do not learn values from their parent or other family members?  Maybe.  Does this translate into lower academic achievement?  Possibly.  Does this give students and parents the right or obligation to blame the schools for their child's lack of success?  Most definitely not!  A school cannot undo in 8 hours a day what is learned or done outside of school.  Someday, someone in a position of power is going to have to either make or acknowledge the realization that children must be responsible for their education.  ALL blame cannot be attributed to the schools. 

    Finally, Welsh is correct in stating that education in America is a privilege, not a right.  Yes, it is free.  Yes, all are entitled to the OPPORTUNITY to EARN an education, but the actual process of education requires work.  A student may have everything else given to them with nothing expected in return either through being wealthy or extremely poor, but becoming an educated person is not something that can be handed out without work.