GUEST COLUMN: "On the pulse of the future"

Emily Gold and Stephen Kernaghan know first-hand about the current flawed state of public education in America. They want to fix it before it's too late. People often say that the problems our country faces could be solved if only bright young people went into education. But our educational system has much deeper problems than the quality of teachers or even the commitment of parents. The dilemmas are nationwide and diverse, and they stem from the commitment our society as a whole has yet to develop toward education. One of the things teachers most consistently face is huge class size. In the classroom where I student teach, just outside of West Philadelphia, there are approximately 30 students in each class. Each class meets for 225 minutes per week, so each teacher dedicates an average of 7.5 minutes a week to each child -- less time than most people spend cleaning their contact lenses. And this is a good school district. I'd never realized how truly bad things were until Steve, one of my students, began to comment on how much it bothered him. I decided something definitely needed to be said. However, I am not the one to say it. What follows is a commentary on a scarcely recognized problem in our educational system from the voice of a person best qualified to speak on it -- one of its products. I have been in school for many years, and in the scientific world if you have spent nine years on one subject you are considered an expert, so I consider myself a expert on school. I have made an amazing discovery during my years in school: there are way too many kids in our public school systems today. If I remember correctly, when I was in kindergarten, all I had to do was scream to get the teacher's attention. But that doesn't cut it anymore -- trust me, I've tried. Back then there were smaller classes with fewer children. Nowadays, I have to raise my hand, but usually the teachers are attending to someone else. This annoys me because half the time they're dealing with a kid who could care less about school, let alone about anybody else's experiences at school. A good example is gym class. Knowledge of gym is not needed when you get out of school, unless you are planning to be a gym teacher, which I don't suggest. But the school makes you take it anyway, so twice a week I trudge off to gym, to get thrown onto walls by kids ten times bigger than I. The only reason the teacher does not see this is because she's dealing with someone else. Some people consider me an above average student because I grasp and understand things things quicker than other kids do, which is no problem outside of the classroom. But inside the classroom it is. Let's say the teacher is teaching at an average speed and an average level. This presents a problem for the above-average student, who has already grasped the concept and now wants to move on. During the time that the class is reviewing, the above-average student is deprived of a chance to learn more. Having too many students in the classroom also presents a problem for the slower student who hasn't yet grasped various concepts; the teacher moves on before he or she fully understands them. This deprives the student of the time he or she needs to become comfortable with new ideas. When I was in seventh grade, I had a math teacher who yelled at us constantly because we spent several weeks on one area. It took so long because it was a hard concept, and not everyone understood it; I didn't understand it either. But my teacher didn't understand this, and it gave her another reason to yell -- and man, could she yell! In my health class, which is taught by gym teachers, there are 40 children in one classroom with one teacher. This really annoys me because now I can never ask a question, unless I scream until I get sent to the principal's office. Also, if the teacher is paying attention to one student, this leaves 39 other students to spit spitballs, which is fine as long as they're not at me. Although this column was written in good humor, overcrowding in public school classrooms is a very important issue. So please take notice, because one day your son or daughter could be writing this. Perhaps Steve will find a way to change things.