Schools fail half of disadvantaged students!

A recent article in the Raleigh News & Observer pointed out the appalling statistic that about 52% of disadvantaged students -- defined as those on the free and reduced-cost lunch program -- will graduate. So 48% drop out or otherwise fail to graduate. This is spite of a "successful" diversity (= busing) program. (Schools can be successful even if their students aren't.)
I've been trying to pay attention to what the schools are doing about this massive problem. From quotes in the paper by school administrators and school board members, local and at state level, and plans and mission statements of individual schools and school systems, it sounds as though improved teaching is seen as the solution. To be sure, we need to get rid of incompetent teachers and upgrade the competencies of the others. And yes, we need more and better counselors, and better food in lunchrooms. Durham is even proposing to beef up the truant-officer program (though they call it something more fancy-sounding now).
But there's a problem with all of this. It may all be necessary, but it's not enough.
None of it addresses the basic problem: There are lots of kids, particularly in disadvantaged communities, who don't like going to school. Going to school for many is frustrating, humiliating, boring -- everything that does not build self-esteem, pride, sense of belonging and acceptance.
I haven't heard anyone talk lately about Maslow's Hierarchy, and some people have their quibbles with it, but it represents, in general, a useful concept and tool for studying what motivates us.
In case you've forgotten, Maslow's Hierarchy says that humans have a number (5 or 7, depending on how you divide things up) of levels of need, that work this way:
Most basic are the SURVIVAL needs, which must be met before we can focus on any higher-level needs. If you are cold or hungry (or you need to go to the bathroom), your mind is on that issue, and you will blank out almost anything else that is going on.
Next higher come SECURITY needs. If you're not desperately hungry, you will worry about physical safety. In the modern world, we worry about having insurance or losing our home and also things like being robbed or attacked on the street.
Next comes the relative luxury of SOCIAL needs. If I'm not hungry or frightened, I can focus on having friends and whether people like me.
And then come ESTEEM needs. Once I'm in a fairly good place with all these more basic needs, I can think about excelling, about competing, about becoming rich and famous.
And at the very top is SELF-ACTUALIZATION, a level many people -- trapped at lower levels -- never reach. This is the level where you think ethically, spiritually, creatively.
(This is a very brief overview. For more, go to Wikipedia or other on-line sources.)
Let's look now at a stereotypical disadvantaged student. Where is he on Maslow's hierarchy? The answer -- as with all of us -- will vary from hour to hour and day to day. But basically (not always) he has enough to eat and a place to sleep. He may have some safety issues -- how to avoid getting beat up by some of the bullies in his neighborhood. When he's not worried about those issues, he needs friends, a sense of connection with those around him. And here's where the school falls down. He may not see many of his fellow students -- particularly those from better-off neighborhoods -- as his friends, and teachers even less so. His best friends are likely to be in his neighborhood (and they are likely to make clear that the best way to be a friend is NOT to do well in school). And now, assuming he has some friends, he needs self-esteem -- he needs to be recognized as being good and competent and reliable. And here's where the school really falls down. In school, he feels dumb, looked down on, unable to keep up. Why try?
Now it's great -- and necessary -- to staff the schools with good teachers, but teachers are not really equipped to deal with this youngster's esteem issues. Their job is to teach, to motivate the somewhat lethargic by generating an enthusiasm for learning, but not to provide all the missing ingredients in the hostile youngster's psyche.
We need to think outside the box -- the box being the classroom. We need to provide alternatives to what the neighborhood provides, so that the hostile youngster can feel good about learning, instead of needing to turn to neighborhood influences that make him feel good only by not learning. Those influences are offering this youngster a way to reach the third or fourth level on Maslow's Hierarchy. School programs -- probably outside the classroom -- need to offer this youngster the same opportunity so that he can meet his higher-level needs in school instead of outside.
See my pieces on Project Opportunity for a discussion of one way this can be done.