More than charity begins at home

More than charity begins at home

The Vindicator’s story re- porting school board member Anthony Catale’s desire to run for city council included this sentence: “‘Research indicates that social problems all begin with the school system,’ he said.” I wonder where he got this information.

As a retired Youngstown city school teacher, it has been my experience that the social problems we see in the schools are a direct reflection of what is going on in the home. In other words, if a student is having problems at school, there is usually something going on at home that is the root of the problem. As you may already know, if education is valued at home, the children are apt to do their best academically in the classroom. If education and the people who do the instructing of that education are respected at home, then the children are well behaved. My best students were the ones whose parents followed these precepts. The children who did not do well were the ones whose parents saw the teachers as baby sitters. They were the kids whose homework was never done, whose behavior was out of line and when conference time came along the parents never showed up.

I loved teaching, but often times the home situation compromised the success of my students. The first teachers are the parents. If children are read to instead of being propped up in front of the TV, they will be better readers and students. We need to encourage parents to be the first teachers of their children. We need to go into the homes of the children and help the parents to learn how to give their children the gift of learning. That is where we are failing the children of the city of Youngstown.

The teachers in Youngstown are working harder than the teachers of any of the surrounding districts. They have to work harder because the students’ backgrounds compromise their learning abilities and behavior. I congratulate the teachers of Youngstown for their steadfast and unwavering courage in the face of fiscal strife and failing test scores. They are the ones, like myself, who know that the social problems begin outside of school and not in the school itself.

Marcia A. Berry, Cortland