The terror of Education

As I sit here close to another interview I keep pondering the state of education. No worries, I also hate the articles that last for 37 pages talking about American Education and ultimately go nowhere. So I am going to keep it Marine style, which is bottom line. That bottom line is this. The more I read articles about education and the more that I hear from administration leads me to believe that the number one goal in all of education is high Student Learning. That's an incredible goal and one that I also believe needs to be at the forefront of education. However, what do we do with the student who sleeps on the floor or the couch because he or she does not have a bed. How about the student who's parents are going through a messy divorce? How about the student who's mother finally just got a full time job to support the family........at Mcdonalds. (Yep had all these cases). The glaring problem is that the trend that follows is administrators, teachers, and all support staff who care more about the test score than the child. Everything that the government does revolves around increasing student learning. How good are their grades? What are their test scores like? How much growth are they showing? The last thing that is anyone's mind is the student sitting in the chair. Totally stinks. Really really shows an incredible need for Christ in so many student's lives. My favorite quote from the teacher of the year a few years back in regards to students who were beaten to the point of death to be in a gang, "I wondered why? Why would they do that? And it's because the deepest need in every person's life is to be needed. To be loved. to be accepted." Seems like we are getting further and further away from actually caring about students. Need Christ's love in the schools.