School summit for parents

Thousands of parents turned out at the L.A. Convention Center on Saturday for the 12th annual parent summit -- a confab with speeches and workshops on dozens of topics.

The keynote speaker, George McKenna, spoke in part about the budget cuts looming for districts all over California, saying that educators faced a "Sophie's Choice": "Who will we leave behind? Which program will we sacrifice?"

McKenna is the assistant superintendent of secondary schools in Pasadena. A former high school math teacher and an administrator in L.A. Unified, he talked about dropouts and gangs and other issues plaguing urban schools, and especially male students.

Among his suggestions was that U.S. service personnel spend time in schools as role models. He also said that too often teachers with the least experience are placed in schools where there are "the children with the greatest need."

-- Mary MacVean

-- Photo by Rick Meyer / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Robert]

All of this is consistent with the need for personal attention by students. Personal attention for guidance, for validation or other elements of development in a young life is becoming scarcer as students age, especially in high school.

My time teaching gave me a lot to think about that was not readily apparent from "the outside." Students will logically get attention from home, from family. Often, for a number of reasons, that does not happen or is in a negative form. Teachers tend to be a part of the attention providers, and, again, it includes substantial "negative" attention. Young people will settle for this if they can't get the "positive" type.

The "role models" include teachers, but I have seen that just past 3 pm, most of the teachers are gone from campus. Little if any opportunity exists for extra work or activities with students, unless mandated by the school or as a paid activity. I don’t know how the plan is to get service personnel into schools as role models, but more integration of students with any number of positive examples would be a welcome change. Negative examples already abound in the youth culture.

Gangs and dropping out relate to this "attention deficit" as viewed in terms of an emotional dietary requirement. The young people go to gangs for attention, they drop out because no one cares about what they do in school anyway. They will seek the attention.

Teachers have a profound effect on students, whether new or seasoned. More ways to work for supplying positive attention to counteract the attraction to "bad" behavior are needed.