On the stump again

Yes, folks, I am climbing up on the stump to emphasize the importance of one of my favorite groups of people; teachers.

If we stop and think about it, this profession influences all the other professions, and is the only profession that does.

This being the case it is, in my opinion, time to improve our educational system and give teachers and administrators their just due. I am not just talking about their salaries but the respect and help they all need.

Our government needs to do whatever is necessary to get the job done starting with pre-school through college. It is not a comforting fact to hear that China now graduates more honor students than our entire student population!

How time has changed our educational needs! Neither of my parents even went to high school. Yet in those days and even into the 50s and 60s, young people could get a job in a factory or steel mill. In fact I vividly remember a young man coming into my office when I was a high school principal and showing me his paycheck. It was considerably more than I was making.

Those days are gone! An individual must have training and a good education if they are even going to find a job that amounts to anything.

Schools in many of the big cities of our nation, including Washington D. C., have a poor graduation rate. In some of these poor areas, for every ten students that enter high school only four graduate. Most of these schools are located in poor areas where minorities live and they have not had a quality educational program in years. Of course there are other areas where the graduation rate is much higher.

Folks, it is time we wake up and smell the coffee! People and organizations who study this sort of thing are saying that in twenty years or so the minorities in our country will become the majorities. The prospect of the majority of our citizens having an inadequate education is frightening to say the least.

I hope that whoever is elected president will make education of our youth a top priority of their administration.

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