Puerto Rico's Public Education Needs Intervention, ASAP! Part I

Today is Saturday, August 6, 2011. My son is asleep for the night so I have some time before I just fall asleep suddenly like a Sims character would when you don't let them sleep.

I have been doing research for this entry for the past three or four days. I have very limited "free time", as you may have noticed. So, it might take me a while to get things out. Also, this topic could make any one's head spin in circles and at the same time make your heart sad. Well, at least it did to mine because Puerto Rico is dear to my heart, it is the country that I am from.

Before I begin, let me just ask you this. How is it possible for a mommy to be scholarly? For all those mommies out there who are juggling being a mommy (first and foremost), going to school, and even working on top of that?! I give you props and you have my admiration. How can one be scholarly when you lack the time and the energy? It's called dedication, I guess. So with out further ado...

Intro

Let's begin, shall we?

Puerto Rico is an island located in the Caribbean Southeast of Cuba and East of the Dominican Republic. Puerto Rico was "discovered" ("Oh look, an island with an established culture and society, looks like they've been living here for a while, nonetheless, I, CC discovered it." Yeah, OK, whatever.) by Christoper Columbus in 1493. The United States took over in 1898. It's all really interesting history, I wish I would have paid more attention in school or just cared a little bit more (more on this later). Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States granting Puerto Rican citizens with US citizenship.

Another thing I should give you a background on is the politics in Puerto Rico. Ay Dios mío (OMG), where do I begin? There are three parties:

• PNP - This party that would like for PR to become a state of the USA.
• PPD - This is the party that would like PR to remain a commonwealth of the USA.
• PIP - This is the party that would like PR to become an independent country.

Just thinking about the politics in my country makes me want to save, shut down and continue another day. The politics in Puerto Rico are screwed up for lack of a more sophisticated word to insert.

Education in Puerto Rico has suffered many changes since the beginning of the Spanish colonization and has been unstable. Spain comes in, establishes an educational system that might work then bam! in comes the US. The US comes in, insists on teaching a country that speaks Spanish, only in English and then that changes too, fortunately. Then PR takes over the education system teaching its children in Spanish and makes its own decisions with a bit of supervision from the US. Now, PR is obliged to operate under the mandates of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), which can be a pain to keep up with but for schools that are struggling like in PR will eventually (hopefully) help.

HELP! AYUDA! AUXILIO! SOCORRO! 

One of the largest newspapers in Puerto Rico, El Nuevo Día published an article titled, "Massive Failure in the Puerto Rican Academic Achievement Tests" (roughly translated). Here is the link for those of you who can read Spanish:

http://www.elnuevodia.com/fracasomasivoenlaspruebaspuertorriquenasdeaprovechamiento-1024768.html

To summarize this article, it basically says that out of 1,442 public schools in Puerto Rico, 1,259 are in plans of improvement. Now when you think of plans of improvements you may think that the schools are being repainted, cleaned or worked on physically. What this really means is that those 1,259 schools are low achieving on the Puerto Rican standardized testing. Does that number not make you say to yourself, "wow, that's bad"? Because it is. In this article it also mentions accusations towards the Secretary of Education saying:

Stop encouraging a culture of failure to justify more need of federal funds and partial or total privatization of our education system. (Again, roughly translated).

Basically this accusation says that the government in Puerto Rico is encouraging failure to gain more money! That's a pretty strong accusation!

What do the people have to say about this?

Now remember, I'm just a Scholarly Mommy. To do research I cannot go to people with polls asking them what they think. Thank God for the Internet

Under the article provided by El Nuevo Día there is a comment section. People are allowed to comment about what their opinions are about the article. If there is one thing Puerto Ricans know how to do, its to give opinions.

There were 407 comments related to this article. I read each and every one of them and tallied them up into groups. Out of the 407 comments, 147 of them were placing the blame on whose fault this massive failure belongs to. Here are the details:

• 63 comments were used to blame Politics/Government/Governor
• 39 comments were used to blame the People of Puerto Rico/Parents
• 24 comments were used to blame Schools/Teachers
• 17 comments were used to blame Students (their lack of interest or motivation and laziness)
• & 4 comments were used to blame the test itself

All the other comments were basically people arguing back and forth about who is right or wrong. We waste a lot of time on this.

The Scholarly Mommy's Opinion

Who's to blame for this massive failure in the standardized testing administered in Puerto Rico? I agree with the people of Puerto Rico on this one, though I place the major blame on one thing. I will get to that later. (Gotta make you want to continue reading, right?)

Politics/Government/Governor

The government in Puerto Rico is highly at fault here.  There seems to be a focus on the political parties and what each one does wrong rather than focusing on more important issues, like the people. Secretaries of Education have come and gone without accomplishing much (some accomplishing more than others). There is even one former secretary of education who is in jail now for stealing money (4.2 million dollars to be exact) that was to be used for education purposes. Puerto Ricans have agreed that the way money is managed in the government is corrupt and inappropriate. Not to say that this is how every person who works for the Puerto Rican government functions, but it is something that is a constant argument. There is also the case of politics. Every four years when PR votes for a governor it changes the political party and this has major influence on how things are governed in the education world.

People of Puerto Rico/Parents

People of Puerto Rico are at fault too. I'm Puerto Rican, I love my country, I love my family and friends. Having said that there is a population in Puerto Rico (and if you really think about it, all countries) who are known to be lazy or conformists. They are happy with the life they have as long as things are given to them without having to work very hard for it. This culture is passed from generation to generation. If one person was raised not to value education or to expect things given to them then they in return indirectly teach their children to be the same way. Of course, there are always exceptions.

Parents whose parents never taught them to care about school or value education is passed on. These are the parents that don't care to attend parent/teacher conferences, don't know what is going on in school and leave the upbringing of their children to the school system. Like I said before, this doesn't happen only in Puerto Rico but everywhere you go.

Schools/Teachers

The way schools are set up in Puerto Rico, students are really susceptible to failure. I'm not saying that all students that go through public school fail, but they really have to work hard to succeed. When school begins, the first things parents in the US may take for granted is transportation. There are no school buses to pick children up near their home and bring them to school. Parents are responsible for taking their children to school and picking them up. Students may also take public transportation or walk. What do you think happens to parents who live far from school and car brakes down? This child is very likely to miss school for several days or even weeks.

Also, you know how when your child's teacher is sick and is absent from school? Your child may come home talking about a substitute teacher. There is no such thing in public schools in Puerto Rico. I remember in high school where a teacher was sick for about two weeks. There was no sub, we were just free to leave. When the teacher finally returned, not only were we behind but we were pretty much used to the fact of having free time during that hour. So those that could care less continued to miss class and the ones who did attend never recovered the education for those two weeks the teacher was absent.

Remember how I said we were free that period the teacher was absent? Well, until a couple of years ago, students were allowed in most schools to come in and out of the school as they pleased. When I changed from private school (which would not allow such thing) to public school, do you think I took advantage of said freedom? Heck yeah! I was 15-16, and would much rather walk around town, hang out with friends or just go home and nap than be in school if I did not have to. I hear that public schools are not allowing that anymore and I say, really? Why was it ever allowed?

I could write several more things that are wrong about the school system but I still need to keep your attention while I talk about teachers. Ay Dios mío

There are excellent teachers and also not so excellent teachers. This goes for teachers who teach in public schools and private schools alike. Let's start with the not so excellent teachers. (And again! I need to emphasize that you don't find these teachers only in Puerto Rico.) These teachers may have had many reasons to be mediocre, like poor pay, having to deal with disrespectful kids, etc. Nonetheless, these teachers were really a drag for me in school. I credit my lack of interest in certain subjects to some of those not so good teachers I had back then. Some teacher's classes consisted of dictating notes the entire class. When I attended private school in PR most our text books were in English and during class it was our job to read from the text book and then take notes as the teacher translated it into Spanish. There was no teaching involved. Teachers that do not go the extra mile can affect his/her class tremendously, and for life.

I had many excellent teachers and as I am thinking back now, a lot of them I remember were from the public school more so than the private school. Teachers can be a factor in determining the success of a student. As I reflect on my experience in public school I ask myself now, what was the problem? The problem was ME! My lack of interest, my teenage hormones, the environment that surrounded me and many other factors.

Students
 
When I attended private school I worked hard in only the classes I enjoyed. I had a great math teacher and therefor did really well in math. I had a great English teacher and also did well in English. Spanish was always a difficult subject for me since I was mostly fluent in English having lived in the US from K-5th grade. I managed to do well in Spanish because I had a good teacher.

When I enrolled in public school, the first day of 10th grade, there were large groups of students outside.  It was a welcome committee, and not the good kind.  I was told by a large group that I had to dance (la pelúa for those Puerto Ricans out there that know what I'm talking about) or be covered with large cans of shaving cream.  I refused and immediately was covered in shaving cream.  Do you think that the school was doing anything about this? Heck no! They allowed this to go on, it was just part of a ritual that happened year after year.  After this first day of school, I pretty much decided I was going to hate that school and everything about it.  
 
I chose to go to public school for personal reasons but when I got there I was placed in the advanced group. Many of the students in that class with me are great professionals today. They had good work ethic, and good moral. They attended all classes and never skipped even if they had the choice to. I'm sorry I can't say the same for myself, I had no motivation. I had good teachers but I chose to just get by especially when I knew that I had already been accepted to college. Students have a huge factor in the massive failure that is occurring in our schools today. We can't put all the blame on the teachers or parents, students need to be held accountable too!!

What do I blame it all on?

I agree with the Puerto Rican people who mentioned government, parents, schools, teachers, students and sometimes even the tests. I can't blame that entirely though. What I really do blame this great educational failure is to the lack of ethics, morals and values that govern our society right now. Again, I'm not just talking about Puerto Rico, I include the United States too.

If the people working in the government were there to achieve what is in best interest of the student then things would be different. If parents held their children accountable instead of blaming schools and teachers student achievement would be higher. If teachers gave the extra mile, (like many do now) they would make (and are making) a world of a difference. If students had the motivation and desire to learn, it would happen! They would learn. Imagine that!

So there you have it! LACK OF ETHICS, MORAL & VALUES! This is what I blame it on.

Guess what? I'm not done with this entry. This does conclude part 1 though. Part 2 will include:


What does research say about ethics, morals and values?
The Scholarly Mommy's recommendations
& my conclusion.
I want to thank my beautiful son for taking a three hour nap today, allowing me to get a lot of writing done!! Thanks to my parents who have played with him and allowed me to continue my research! Thank God for grandparents!

Stay tuned...

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That's a lot of asking, isn't it? I should definitely add a PLEASE & THANK YOU!