What to do With Education?

Last night I saw the much heralded documentary Waiting for "Superman".  As an educator, I had heard a lot about this particular movie and was very eager to see what aspects of education it was going to tackle.  I did not know much about it, so I was somewhat surprised to learn about a whole new aspect of education that, I believe, most students take for granted.

The documentary focused mainly on inner city schools and the poor conditions the students face.  It shows some very personal stories about students trying to get into a better school through lottery systems as there are not enough spaces available.  While it was both heartbreaking and encouraging, the most interesting aspect I walked away with is the fact that most kids take education for granted.

In this documentary, good kids, who want to succeed and work their butts off struggle to get into a school that can truly help them.  Instead they are stuck in low performing schools, some called "dropout factories", with no hope for the future.  It made me angry to a point, with some of the students I teach.  We all have them, the ones who complain, say things are too hard, do the bare minimum and want to coast by.  They take for granted the great education they are getting and don't see that there are so many others who would love to be in their position.

It gave me a renewed energy to work more with those kids and push them past "acceptable".  I know I can't stand there and lecture them about what they take for granted, they will just roll their eyes.  However, what I can do is not accept the bare minimum, thinking that it is their choice to get that grade if they want.  In fact, is started today with a student and a project he wanted to hand in.  I told him he was capable of more, gave him suggestions, and told him I would check back in a bit.  He did not complain and with a mere 15 more minutes of work, he improved the project. 

We tend to sped so much time either with the students who need attention or the ones who want to excel.  Often we forget the middle group, who might need our help more than the rest.  These are the students that have the potential, but not the desire.  It is our job as educators to instill that desire in them and help them push past what they think is acceptable.