It seems that some are looking in the wrong place for a solution to the suspension problem in Minneapolis Public Schools (both the number overall and the rate of suspensions among people of color). This is a complex problem that schools cannot solve in isolation, nor can parents. We need to ask ourselves why are kids fighting in elementary school. We need to ask ourselves why some of their parents may not care. We need to ask ourselves why some parents may not be equipped with the skills to teach their children to behave appropriately (perhaps they never learned themselves). In my view poverty is a root cause of the suspension problem, in addition to the way that violence is portrayed in the media (music, cartoons, tv, etc) and the inability of many of children to solve conflicts without resorting to violence.
If we want to see the numbers of suspensions decrease we have to start before the students get to school. We need to make sure that parents are well versed in the skills necessary to be good parents. We need to make sure that from an early age young people have good role models (parents, relatives, teachers, mentors, etc) who can show them how to behave in social situations. We need to increase the economic opportunity in all communities so that if a parent is told that her child is misbehaving in school it does not pale in comparison to concerns about paying rent, maintaining shelter and feeding her children. Those of us who "know how to behave" need to think about how did it happen. Its not the result of genetics, but the result of our environment and the hard work of caring individuals such as parents, teachers, etc. We need to figure out a way to provide the things that we had to those that do not. If we expect the suspension problem to be radically diminished in the next year or two we are kidding ourselves. We need to get beyond blaming those who need assistance to meet commonly held expectations of behavior and to do that requires various elements of the community (educators, legislators, foundations, churches, etc) to come together and put together a plan to address a problem is going to get worse not better unless something is done. Amelious Whyte Loring Park __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? LAUNCH - Your Yahoo! Music Experience http://launch.yahoo.com _______________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A Civil City Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest option, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
