Hello Family,

Much of the news regarding education centers around high school graduation rates. Government statistics show the high school graduation rate steadily improving in the 80 percent range; and yet independent reports from the Gate's Foundation, etc. report graduation rates much lower than this especially among minorities with less than half now graduating from high school.

Such arguments over numbers reminds of my years working as an executive in industry. When a problem arises, key managers either seek to debunk bad financial news or are very quick to blame a fall guy.

In education, teachers have been placed in the crossfire for students' poor performances. Every day we hear about the handful of bad teachers; and the best way to reward the good teachers is by offering them incentive bonuses. Once again, a greedy nation believes the best solution is to always throw more money at the problem and hope things improve.

But student's performance won't improve in aggregate because America's cultural base is what is at fault. Nearly 40% of our children are being reared by one parent who must work to keep food on the table, so this important parental bonding time never occurs and unfortunately many of our students suffer from PTS - dare I say we're rearing latchkey children. Our children are at risk of not understanding that this nation was founded on principles and that pursuing the American dream is a lifelong commitment and life's dreams don't happen after 30 minutes like television series often glammerize. Many children who I've taught had no concept of morailty and chose to bully more intelligent children for their amusement. Today's children have low self-esteem and have difficulty focusing for any length of time on any one given topic, because too often TV, the Internet, cellphones are what these students have molded their lives around. Even when schools have tried to incorporate technology to help assist students in the learning process, the students quickly catch on and tune off to such hype.

So what is the most effective way of teaching misguided students who don't have a strong parental base? Turn your classrooms into family life centers. Teachers can't teach when students become disruptive even violent and fear expressing their opinions. Likewise teachers who rule with an ironclad fist restrict students from understanding one of the key principles this nation was founded upon - freedom of expression. It is very difficult for restrictive teachers to allow students to be open and honest; and yet just like our government we'll never be able to solve life's ills by swaying public opinion polls with erroneous statistical data or molding students based on threats and intimidation. Students respond positively to a family style learning environment because family promotes security, family fosters growth, but more importantly family members need parental guidance; and parental guidance implies love. Children need to feel loved and appreciated most of all.

So instead of arguing over who's right; who's wrong we should develop long-term, meaningful solutions in education (not more tests!) and give our students the opportunity to dream to promote a positive lifestyle. For as I continue to preach: To live without hope is to die a little more each day.