From Family Court to the Classroom

In the last twelve months we have heard a great deal about “Race to the Top” and performance-based pay for teachers.President Obama has even gone as far as praising Eastern Asia for their academic excellence. Could this phenomenon of academic excellence be attributed to their emphasis on the family? The “Race to the Top” sounds like a grand concept but here in America families are shattering like fine crystal every day.

For decades, Washington and The Republicans have failed miserably to connect the fracturing of traditional families, the Federal entitlement funding therein and its impact within American classrooms. Many American educators today are totally unaware of this Federal funding machine (Social Security Act Title IV –B & D Codes) that is waiting to decimate a traditional family. For decades, Family Law and the Democrats have been in direct conflict with the education system and certainly with both the proposed “Race to the Top” and performance-based-pay concepts. Additionally, we’ll never truly know how counter-productive the pro-poverty initiatives will be until we reach a crisis point within our educational system.

Presently, lawmakers seem to be placing blame squarely on the shoulders of many great Administrators & Educators across America, without making the connection to Family Law, Judicial Activism and Children and Family Services legislative agenda. I believe these are some of the main factors contributing to our declining educational ranking amongst developed nations… not just teacher performance. In order to really see an increase in organic test scores of American children we need to prevent incentivizing the shattering of traditional families that is creating generational poverty.

Many American educators are currently well aware of the emotional impact on children of divorce (ACE Study). Most often their emotional trials play out within the classroom. So I will depart on this thought: You have 35 children with varying emotional backgrounds in a classroom, 15 come from a traditional family, 15 from a “shattered” family and 5 at-risk children. A teacher has approx. 60 minutes to administer an effective curriculum experience @ $15 to $35 per hour (Includes Benefits). Let’s take a well-accredited Child Psychologist, and then put him or her in the same classroom for 60 min, not at $150-$400 an hour but for $15- $35 an hour for one school year and demand them to “perform”.

Many, if not all of these well-accredited Child Psychologists, wouldn’t make it past lunch on the first day! You ask why I use 35 children. It’s because in the next five years the “Race to the Top” and performance-base-pay will potentially run great traditional teachers right out of the education field if the connection fails to be addressed. This Exodus will in turn increase classroom sizes. We need to recognize that the judicial activism that takes place within the Family Courts is directly impacting many traditional educators and their beloved classrooms. “Everything” is relative to the strength of the family and educators shouldn’t be the punching bag for the improprieties of the Family Courts that generates huge revenue streams for state and county budgets on the backs of shattering families. We have known for centuries, educators are the launching pad to prosperity, not poverty. Eastern Asia may have schooled us once again.