Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Learning Too Important For School Alone

Learning is too important to be left up to the schools.

This message from Pat Donlow, director of the Community and Family Enrichment Center, was not to be degrading to the area's school districts, but to point out sharing of responsibilities is a way to get more done.

Sharing accountability among the schools, families and community is interrelated, she said. Each depends on the others.

Schools, Donlow said, can't handle education alone. They need help from families and the community. "All aspects of life are involved with education."

She lauded the Smart Start program being instituted and mandated by the state, saying the idea is to get all students to grade level by the time they reach the fourth grade.

Donlow also talked about how the SAT-9 test scores are low in the region, citing students not coming to school ready as one of the reasons for this problem.

Education, she said, must start before a child reaches the age of five. If a student has problems in school when they're in the fourth grade, the situation will only worsen with the passage of time.

Some possible solutions, she said, are to increase standards and require students to be at grade level.

Quality teachers would also help improve the education system, according to Donlow, with teachers knowing what they're teaching in class.

Computers aren't being used by teachers in many cases, she said, because the instructors are intimidated by them. Because of this, they aren't able to show the children how to use them and the students lose out on valuable knowledge.

School districts in Arkansas will soon become more accountable as parents in the various districts will get report cards on how their children's school is faring.

"There's something wrong when a young person can't read or count properly," Donlow said, "and these are the indicators we're seeing in our society now."

In order to turn this around, there are eight national educational goals being set.

The first is for students to be ready to learn when they come to school. This isn't happening now, she said, and there are children not ready to advance to the first grade from kindergarten, or even from preschool to kindergarten.

Finding out if these children are ready to move on can by done by giving them the Peabody test. This tests their basic vocabulary skills as well as their knowledge of numbers.

Schools today, she said, need to look at three-year-olds and see their level of learning.

Next is school completion, or getting those who start school to end their academic prep careers with high school diplomas.

Then comes achievement and citizenship. This, she said, is important as it gives children and young people a sense of belonging and accomplishment.

Teacher education and professional development is fourth on the list. Donlow said teachers need in-service training to keep up with the ever-changing methods and programs in education.

Number five, she said, is improving in the areas of math and science.

The sixth item is adult literacy/lifelong learning. Donlow said reducing the illiteracy rate and getting people to understand learning is a lifetime process is vital.

While down on the list, having safe, disciplined drug free schools is possibly one of the most important aspects of improving the educational system in the state.

Finally comes parental involvement. Donlow said parents need to work with their children, see what they're doing in school and do what they can to make learning fun.

"As children get older they need their parents even more," she said.