The Elite Policy

The elite policy

Time flies and it’s been 7 months since I’ve been in school. It’s been a really long time since I was in a public school system, and my last memory of it wasn’t something I care for.

Every school is different. Every school’s teachers and students are different. The students in my school are such innocent kids, they are a blast to be with. The teachers…. Mix feelings.

Every school has its share of good and bad students. In my school, there are decent students. Many are playful, somewhat lazy, but most have positive learning attitude. There some who are doing well in certain areas, and some who lack behind due to several reasons.

Let’s talk about the good ones first. Over a year ago, a teacher(who’s no longer with us) started initiative on developing a sports team. She has sports background and therefore picked her favorite students to be on the team, most of them spread among 5^th and 6^th grade. She herself teaches the 5^th grade class. They have been very successful. Within a year of establishment, they’ve won several competitions and the students have enjoyed lots of attention and care. Obviously, the principal is backing this effort in full.

These kids are no where being pampered. The teacher has high expectation for them. She trains them, feed them, cloths them, yell at them and pretty much parent them. The kids grew to like this lifestyle. They are proud to be a part of this, and there’s nothing but good that this is happening.

Then there are a few lacking behind. Webber being one of them He doesn’t do his homework and that’s how he’s being labelled. The kid who’s never going to make it. The other kid is plain playful and lazy, but like Webber, he’s not stupid. He just needs more discipline and confidence. For both, they just need to develop interest in learning and they will soar like an eagle.

However, while the teachers have time to stay late to train the sports team, spend several weekends taking them to the sports center an hour away for professional training, order brand new and really smart looking sports uniforms for them and even prepare their meals, no one has time to give Webber and the other kid remedial classes.

We are at an era where the rich gets richer and the poor gets poorer. We are at a time when revolutions are incubated because of the inequality in society. This inequality is not because of wealth or opportunity. It is because of the lack of balanced development in education, that people who are in better positions do not have the ability to “feel” like humans should and put their shoes in those who are in need. These “elites” who are cared for because they bring honor to the school will no doubt grow up as the more successful ones if they keep up their good efforts, but that’s not really the purpose of education. If these successful ones can’t share their success by helping the rest become better, then we are doing the opposite of why we educate. We are creating a polarizing society that pushes the world to tipping points, over and over again.

Perhaps this is just what we call “human nature”. But is it? Perhaps I am just over reacting again. Who knows, kids change. May be they will suddenly become enlightened later and become a genius. May be I shouldn’t take this too seriously. After all, it’s just elementary school. Well, I really need to tell everyone that the moral and ethics of a person is most shaped in their childhood. A child can catch up with his school work in the later stages in his academic life, but once his moral values are shaped, it will take a disastrous life event for him to change his mind. We all, no matter whether you are in the business of education or just a pedestrian, have the responsibility to be on our best for our next generation. No one has the right to complain about our future, because we are the ones who shape it.