Uneducable or unable to educate?

Is there such a thing as an uneducable student or is it the inability for the educational elite to educate. After decades of educational failure, I know whom I will vote for and side with, the student. It’s without question the inability, or even the will, to educate. You see all kids have innate skills and gifts. When those kids enter pre-K and then begin their K-12 education, these gifts have the opportunity to be discovered. It’s up to that educational journey to help kids identify and focus on those innate gifts. If during that journey you show them nothing to enhance those gifts, if you “closet” educate them and then think that they will magically find their way to post high school success, you have what you have today in the Rochester City School District. Their journey will consist of dropping out or being so poorly prepared for a post-high school journey that they drop out and become a part of the working poor or face generational poverty.

Now you would think that local colleges and universities would want to step up and assist in this critical K-12 education. The fact of the matter is that they have plenty of candidates. Plenty of applicant customers, so why waste time and material on the failing RCSD K-12 populace.

Their thinking is, we got ours and the educational failure at the K-12 effort is someone else’s problem. Colleges and universities are businesses first and their attitude on the urban K-12 failure is one of, not my problem. As long as there are enough candidates to fill their freshman class, there is no interest in addressing the Rochester urban educational failure. Their mission is a mixture of bills and profits, salaries and ego. To be blunt they could give a rat’s ass.

There are answers, solutions and opportunities. I have advocated for urban students for many years. At the center of my 28-year medical imaging management there were two items that guided me toward success. I deplored micromanagement and when department meetings took place the rule was, bring up anything and everything with one condition, provide a solution. Solution based meetings. It rarely failed me and more importantly, it rarely failed the team. That said, I have provided a solution to the RCSD. That solution/recommendation was reviewed by Johns Hopkins and received a very positive review.  

It is a fact that the urban Rochester, NY school district has not been able to reach an acceptable level of educating the K-12 populace for decades. That failure has become the norm. The business of education has accepted this failure. In addition, the politicians have apparently also accepted this educational failure. No one dares to step out of their comfortable political sphere and even question this failure. That failure is foundational and clearly visible in the ongoing youth crime, child poverty, teenage pregnancy, drugs and generational poverty. Another generation of our youth denied the opportunity to graduate with a relevant diploma. Another dependent generation. While the vocations, professions and careers are actively looking for individuals to fill the ranks, they will be denied. While they are “encouraged” to stay on the course, to graduate, they are shown nothing in the process. They are, in fact, bored to the point of dropping out. That pathetic failure to show kids the many opportunities that exist will find our youth getting their education on the streets. Eventually arrests, incarceration, drugs, crime and the like become their future. Opportunity lost.  Opportunities squandered, lives wasted and all unnecessarily so.

Do you need proof of that fact? Ask the youth arrested for alleged crime and question their education level. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that there are no electricians, plumbers, nurses, nursing aids, welders, medical technologists, truck drivers etc. etc. among them. I’ll bet none of them served in the armed forces. I’ll bet none of have been shown anything toward post high school success, toward a vocation, career nor profession. The educators just bore them to dropping out.

And that, my friends, is why the RCSD fails our kids. That simple. And the solution is even simpler; teach them the way they learn. Expose them to vocations, to careers and professions. Somehow this solution escapes educational experts. Those with all sorts of educational accolades and certificates hanging on the wall of their offices. Those who walk the walk but are clueless on the talk. They are apparently unable, or unwilling, to pass on the success they enjoy. Although I find it difficult to grasp how an educator can find enjoyment or professional pride in their career with outcomes that doom our kids.  

It’s time to make some changes. It’s time to inject some ingenuity and creativity into their K-12 journey. Time to stop doing the same thing again and again expecting different results, which is, the definition of insanity.  

So…stop blaming the kids! The kids have the innate skills or gifts. It’s up to you, educator, to bring out the best in their journey. You are not only failing yourselves, but you are also failing the future of urban kids. You are, in fact, dooming them to a life of misery. Your inability or unwillingness to educate will, in fact, spawn another generation needlessly falling into poverty. Do better!

…..and by all means, feel free to contact me regarding that educational solution. Semper Fi.

Josh Jochem Porte

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