Let s ignore the socio-economic disadvantages that the Lents community faces compared to the schools that always do well. Let s forget that these students have shown steady, commendable progress for the previous three years. Nothing can be farther from the truth. To make matters worse, the lazy legislators, who want to wash their hands of the failure of society, decided to blame the school system for the breakdown in the family structure and voted to use a test score called the benchmark to gauge a successful academic program. This, of course, is a shortcut to thinking.
Teachers can only do so much with what they are given.
Increased funding, coupled with parent involvement, curriculum revision and other tested remedies increase academic success not short-sighted political solutions to complex social problems. At Kelly, there are teachers that care about their students as if they were their own. The relationship between teachers and students far exceeds the call of duty. One such teacher, Ms. Self, has even taken students out for ice cream after school to reward academic excellence. This, because the student didn t have a mother living with him, and over the two years she had him in class, she took on some roles that a mother would.