children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

problems. Are teachers encouraged or required to
visit homes? Are parents welcomed into schools?
Is there an active PTA? Think through all of the
steps schools might reasonably be expected or requested
to take in order to encourage children to
come to and remain in school.
II. Further Study
"The problem has been referred to the
proper officials for further study, and we
hope to develop a plan sometime in the
future."
Study can go on forever. Meanwhile children
suffer. There are few problems that we do not know
enough about so that we cannot begin to attend to
remedies. For example, school and textbook fees,
the lack of special education services or discrimination
in classification or school discipline do not need
study - 'they need to be changed. Insist on finding
out what school officials can do now about the
particular problems forcing children out of school
in your community.
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12. Community Resistance
"The community will not accept it. We
would like to change, but the attitudes and
responses in the community would not let
it work."
This is no excuse to avoid enforcement of legal
rights. It does, however, raise the importance of
advocates beginning to educate the people arourid
them. Ultimately, the key thing that is going to
make programs function, make democracy work,
and a government honest is an informed, enlightened
citizenry, vigilant in overseeing various government
policies. And it is nice to counter this excuse by
referring to individuals and groups who favor what
you are proposing. Who in the community is the
official thinking of? Force specific answers.
13. Funding
"There is no money."
This is a common argument used to discourage
us about everything these days. Of course there is
money. What is really meant is "we do not want to
spend the money for what you want." It is a matter
of what the nation and public officials care about
or are forced to care about. Whoever yells the most,
the loudest, the hardest, and the longest is going to
win. Advocates for children have not yelled as loud
or as long or as hard as people who are advocates
for guns and oil. Worse, child advocates tend to
accept other people's perspectives, other ground
rules and priorities rather than seeking to change
them to meet the needs of children. As long as we
permit ourselves to fight for the same small piece of
the pie - between better public education, child
development programs, welfare reform, health care
reform - we will be beaten. We must begin to
force choices between family and children's needs
and defense and industry's needs.
Some of the problems of children out of school
may require more money for their solutions. But
many do not. A change in attitudes may be the most
crucial factor to the many children who are pushed
out because of school hostility, condescension, and
indifference. It does not cost much money to design
and implement fair discipline policies and procedures,
to establish periodic teacher-pacent-child conferences,
to encourage pregnant girls to stay in