Qualities Many Of Today's American Students Lack example essay topic

Honesty. Respect. Integrity. Motivation. Dedication. Patriotism.

The preceding words represent qualities many of today's American students lack. Many US citizens question the reason behind this decline of morality within the educational system. Parents blame the teachers; teachers claim the students are unable to be taught and parents aren't attempting to assist teachers in their quest to disperse their knowledge. As for the students, they just don't care. Who exactly is to blame?

Students? Teachers? Parents? More importantly, how this be fixed? Government programs like the recent "No Child Left Behind" Act aren't as effective as they claim, and bribing the students with field trips and Coke float parties do not work. What is a nation, quickly filling with uneducated young adults, to do?

Many theories have been tested as to why students are becoming lazy and, for lack of a better word, stupid. Most fingers are pointed towards parental control. Commercials geared towards a drug-free America tell parents to ask questions: Who? What? Where? When?

Most parents are too caught up in the drama of their own lives to wonder who their kids hang out with, and where and what they are doing with them. They are more concerned with Mr. Limon not paying them for overtime or why Clint and Robert got fired. Students are ignored and seldom rewarded for good behavior. However, when Mom and Dad get a call from the school when little Johnny was caught smoking marijuana in the boys' bathroom, it's a different story. The parents become involved, but for all the wrong reasons. When the parents confront Johnny, he responds negatively, with slamming doors and outbursts of "You " re ruining my life" or "I can't believe you!

!" It shouldn't take a drastic measure for children to get their parents' attention. Parents should want to know what's going on in their child's life, in all aspects. In movies, the parent-teenager relationship is portrayed as something very awkward and forced. The way to solve this: change how it is seen in real life. Parents should talk to their children more, and their children will learn to trust them. In one family, a 30-something year old mother has a 16-year-old daughter.

Because of their healthy relationship based on trust and understanding, the daughter considers her mother her best friend. Families need to spend more time together and less time on the run. Plan an uninterrupted family night-cell phones get turned off, computers are unplugged-where the family just plays a nice game of Monopoly or Life, or watches a movie based on positive moral values. If it's not one thing, it's another. When parents are being blamed, teachers are. Many complaints have been voiced about teachers: "She never gets out of her chair!"I can't even speak French!"He doesn't take my education seriously enough".

Hearing these complaints constantly, parents are liable to assume the school is responsible for their children not learning. When teachers lose the drive to teach, students lose the want to learn, despite the fact knowledge is a necessity in today's world. However, students place the blame on teachers for their lack of control on classes. The teacher threatens students with discipline referrals, but when it comes to follow-through, nothing is done. The student continues to think what they are doing is not wrong, and so they continue to do it. The student no longer takes the teacher seriously.

Teachers become discouraged. They quit. Not their job, but they quit trying. What the teachers lack is discipline. If a teacher shows the student who is in charge right off the bat, there are little or no problems.

Perhaps how-to workshops on discipline may solve the problem. Experts on the topic can enlighten educators on what works and what doesn't. Psychologists could put their two cents in and provide tips on reverse psychology or things of the same sort. Obviously, the blame cannot purely lie in the hands of teachers and parents. The students are their own person and they make their own decisions. Why, then, would they choose to not accept a free education?

Although they may not realize it, an education is the one thing someone cannot take away from you. Third world countries don't have public schools for everyone to learn to read and write. Today's students are ungrateful for everything they have. They are lazy. They don't take school serious. Many high achievers believe if other students are purely there because law requires it, they shouldn't be forced in to take away from those who want to learn.

Instead of taxpayer's monies being spent on paying in-school-suspension teachers, it could be better used on new computers for the library, or new textbooks. Public schools receive money from the state based upon student attendance. When so many students have to attend credit recovery because of their constant absences, something has to be wrong. Students are not encouraged enough to attend school. They don't find class to be priority when compared to the "quality" daytime programming or partying the night before. High school classes today are filled with students who drink, smoke, and have sex.

They have no ambition of becoming computer programmers (they prefer to be hackers) or pharmacists (they prefer to be drug dealers). Many young women are already mothers by their sophomore year of high school. Most don't care about their grades. They have no desire to continue their education after high school. Students are unprepared for the real world. The problem doesn't stop with the underachievers-even overachievers have admitted to partaking in plagiarism and cheating.

Is this what we expect? In a recent class discussion on an essay entitled "The Price of Silence" by Laura Bob nak, about a girl who witnessed a friend cheat on the advanced placement exam for her chemistry class, the teacher asked students "Who would say something if you witnessed this?" Few said they would. When asked why they wouldn't speak up, not one person had a good, solid answer. Many students wouldn't turn a fellow student in because they too had cheated once before, or because of things like peer pressure. Students often feel pressured to do things, or not do something in this case, because their friends are not doing it as well. With so many students failing or not doing assignments, it's not uncommon to see their friends are doing the same.

Laziness is contagious, and all you need to start an outbreak is a small sample of procrastination. The solution to this problem isn't as simple as seminars and family nights. Students must go through a sort of "soul searching", where they find, on their own, what is important to them. Before this process, one girl thought her friends were the most important things in her life, and school came in a close second. She would blow off writing essays for her dual credit classes to go to the movies or skating.

However, after one week, in which she was isolated from her "friends", she found they were not worth throwing her education away for. She now knows what she values most is herself, her integrity and honesty, and her motivation and dedication. In addition to nation-wide soul searching, teenagers today need better role models. Many young adults dream of being a rapper known for his association with drugs and alcohol, or a teen-pop-idol known for her 24-hour long marriages and promiscuous wardrobe. With so many other great people in the world, like scientists and writers, why choose the worst ones to be role models? Sometimes, you may not even need to look further than your own community for great idols.

Many programs, such as Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp., are great places to find dedicated individuals with positive morals and outstanding ethics. National Honor Society is full of students who make the honor roll constantly. Business Professionals of America is geared towards training individuals for careers in business. Just because you make lots of money singing about "getting tipsy" or "dirty", doesn't make you a great person. In conclusion, the only way to change how students perform in school is to change their environment, the society we live in. It is hard to say, unfortunately, if this problem will ever change for the good of mankind.

The ball is in America's court now.