What can public school systems do to improve?

Well first of all, teachers aren't responsible for making teens understand the importance of education. They can back up that belief, but it's one that needs to be planted and modeled by parents, guardians, and other role models all through childhood.

Truancy, violence and teen pregnancy ARE problems in school, but they are also problems in society in general. They are not problems that only relate to schools.

As a society, we are selfish and disrespectful, and that is shown in our school systems. Students are disrespectful to each other and to teachers, parents are sometimes disrespectful and even teachers are sometimes disrespectful.

We all need to get out of the mindset of "My opinion is the only one that matters" and then we wouldn't have children who refuse to sit still and listen to instruction, parents who refuse to believe that their child did something wrong, and teachers who refuse to change their teaching methods to reach a new generation of children.

We need to realize that the children in school today are going to be our doctors, lawyers, cops, auto-mechanics, secretaries, computer engineers, airplane pilots and politicians in the future. Everyone involved in the child's life usually agrees that the ultimate goal is for children to grow up into successful members of society. If we would all work together to achieve that bottom line instead of wasting so much time complaining about what a poor job children do of paying attention, parents do of raising their kids, teachers do of controlling the children who are in their care, etc, we would be able to fix some of the problems in schools today.

That being said, I do feel that the government isn't helping things. The No Child Left Behind act sounds really good on paper, but it fails to provide the schools with funding that is essential to impliment such a program. Because of a lack of funding, many school districts are cutting back on classroom teachers, filling their classes to the maximum capacity of somewhere around 30 students to each teacher. It has been proven that students are more invested in school and progress through the curriculum more quickly if student to teacher ratios are smaller.

Standardized testing has become so important that the focus is more on passing the tests than on going to school or learning. If school could be more focused on teaching kids HOW to learn, and less on making sure they memorized their prepositions and the quadratic formula, kids would have a better chance of being successful in life, both during school and after they graduate.

More hands on teaching and less book work. Kids are just not interested anymore in all the reading and writing. They are used to doing everything Fast now days and anything that takes too long to achieve a result just loses their interest. Also by the time they are in High school most of them realize the reality of the fact that money talks and BS walks. Yes, it is very obvious in school sports and organizations and clubs...etc. I think also that alot of Parents have lost faith in the school system. I think the school system waste too much time and money trying to make more money for the schools. Adding way to many subjects and projects, trying to get more Grants and ultimately exausting the teachers and the students. Neither can focus on the 3 R's anymore. It seems like alot of Chaos to me. Too much Consolidation also....the kids and teachers are Crammed into these huge institutions where everyone feels lost in space. No more intamacy (bonding) with your teachers and students. Also ...way too many kids on drugs for ADD. A slightly spirited child who is somewhat disruptive in Kindergarten or first grade is told that they have a Problem and placed on medication and forced to see Psychologist and Councelors..etc. Thus producing a Low self image from the get go when they need to be feeling good about their selves and developing self confidence. But remember the school gets more money for the more kids they have with any type of learning disorder. or physical handicap. Placeing truly mentally Retarted kids in the class with the children who do not have these problems, sending mixed messages to the young ones (kindergaten-5th) that one child can get by with things and you can't, one child has to do the work assigned and one doesn't, which can also lead to a bad self image. And by the time the child reaches high school they have concluded that the school really doesn't give a rip about them as an individual. Thus producing rebelion and lack of interest in trying to do a good job anymore.

Parents are the ones who give students their true sense of the value of education. It is the parents modeled behavior regarding their child's future, schools (including attendance and the expected behaviors of their child), and so on that does much more than anything any teacher could possibly do.

Schools need to reduce class sizes so that teachers have more individual time with each student.

Teachers need to continue to seek ways of linking academic skills to a students' perception of personal need (interests, goals, etc.).

Parental involvement is the key.

Children who's parents think and convey the importance of an education, and who get involved are 90% less likely to get in trouble and do better in school.

Drugs are not on your "short list" and should be. Children of involved parents (plural), do better in resisting them as well.

Teach kids facts and critical thinking...as opposed to indoctrination. Suspend and/or expel kids who get out of hand. Hold the kids to some sort of behavioral and academic standards.

In other words, stop forcing schools to accommodatie the lowest common denominator. Most kids can do well in school...given the chance. Some can't...that's life.

Parents most of the time are too wrapped up in their daily lives that they just don't have the time to raise their children. Then when the child does do something wrong, they shift the blame from themselves to someone else.

Require licenses to have children.

have the schools open up a boot camp for all the bullies. that should straighten them out!@.

Convert it to military schools...