School Optional?

In the wake of the recent school shooting in Ohio, columnist and Baltimore City Schools Teacher, John Clayton Young teachers has begun to take a closer look at how reasonable or realistic it is to require all students to attend school in his March 12th Baltimore Sun article. Unsafe and unwelcoming environments are prevalent, and bullying has become commonplace, but Young insists that, “no matter the case, children are still required by law to be subjected to institutionalized education, no matter the cost.” This means that even if students feel angry, upset, uncomfortable, or even unsafe there is very little room for flexibility within laws. For some students, being forced to submit to the rigid structure of a school day could feel like prison, and the pressures of the social experience and unwelcome bullying could also feel unbearable. In a recent case the CEO of Baltimore City Public Schools, Dr. Alonzo wrote to the parent of an allegedly bullied child and insisted that the district would not take action against her as a parent for the student’s truancy because the issue of bullying had not been resolved. If we do require students to attend school, what measurable actions are we taking to ensure their safety? And should parents who fear for their student’s safety and wellbeing not be able to keep student’s home?

There are many policies about bullying, but in reality there is very little that has improved within the culture of our schools to demonstrate their effectiveness. Students still feel unsafe, violence in the name of “self-defense” still occurs, and students are still absent from school out of fear. Baltimore City has verbally asserted the anti-bullying stance, but there must be a critical change in the culture and the environments of our schools in order to make schools institutions of learning and collaboration, instead of places breeding fear, negativity, and violence.

If school were an environment were the students’ minds were consistently being pushed to their limits with new ideas and stretched with creativity, I would support our current laws. If schools focused on building culture and embraced difference among students while creating well-rounded citizens, I would completely understand why every student was required to attend, but the reality is that our schools are far from great institutions of learning. Our schools are struggling to produce proficient readers, writers, and mathematicians, so safety and educating the whole child has become secondary. Until we are able to recreate the structure of schools so that all students feel safe, welcome, and supported in learning we will continue to see a culture of violence and indifference towards learning. It is time that we rethink our constructs of education and the requirements we currently ask students to meet and the environments in which we ask them to do so. For now, parents should have every right to pull their children from school and explore other options if their needs are not being met because as a society we have yet to prove that our method of educating is effective.