Tuesday, May 18, 2010

AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMS

I believe after school programs can provide the answer to improving, even fixing, our poor public education system. Teachers do not have the resources to teach our children well during the regular school day. They cannot teach all that they must to twenty plus students. In after school programs we are able to finish what the teachers begin. We enhance the student’s experience with learning. Sometimes we can even save children from falling behind in their grade.

Children learn at different rates and in different ways. In elementary school some learn to read quickly and some don’t. Teachers don’t have the time to tailor lessons or homework for each child. Teachers cannot even pay extra attention many times to a child that needs it. Often a child just doesn’t understand something fundamental to the lesson but the teacher cannot address them personally.

After school programs can address these issues. After school programs can boost the children lagging behind by making sure they understand the teacher’s lesson of the day, make sure the student stays caught up to the rest of the class and the grade. We can also identify children who should be held back because they are too young or immature in their development to go to the next grade.

In this way after school programs could become the solutions to public educations woes. We could ensure that all children achieve their best, that schools can manage their resources more effectively and that our school system can begin to repair its severe failings.

I would like to be a part of this very important and possibly pivotal mechanism, After School Education, by which we can repair our public education system.

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