Suit Sheds Light on School Makeup Courses Pt 1

This post is in reply to the St. Louis Post Dispatch's front page story a couple of weeks back about alternative schools particularly in the St. Louis Public Schools. First, the headline implies that these schools operate under the cover of darkness. Although I do not understand why ACE did not let a reporter observe their school, these are not secretive places. I work at such a school located in the affluent inner ring of suburbs of St. Louis. One may witness some off task behaviors but this is not unusual although it may seem more obvious because these schools are much smaller making observation of student behavior much easier.

The time limit of three hours is not suspect given the fact that most of the students are putting all of their focus in one or two classes via the computer. If you take away all of the teacher directions, lecture, discussions, lunch, P.E. and other activities at the regular high school then three hours is not too far off from actual focused learning time. Now, it is true that computer based schools do lack the enrichment activities of the regular school but my experience with students at our school is that they prefer it that way. After all, if a student is interested in these enrichment activities then they would not engage in behavior that leads them to be recommended for an alternative school.

The range of behavior that can lead to a placement in a computer based school is lack of motivation, fighting, truancy, possession of drugs, emotional issues, etc... However, lack of motivation is the root of all the various behaviors that lead a student into one of these schools. In my experience students who are suspended for fighting are focusing on their social lives more than they are focusing on their education. Therefore, the motivation to go to school is more for socializing than it is for education.

If the students from Soldan wanted their chemistry lab then that is where they should have been. The article is mute on what classes these two students were in, their grade point average, and their record of conduct. Their claim was that their rights were violated. HOGWASH! What about the rights of students who would like to go to a school to learn, free from disinterested students who would rather fight than learn the non violent history of Dr. Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement.

Behavior has consequences. You reap what you sow. The parents of these individuals need to let them work through the consequences of their behavior and LEARN something from it. Take advantage of the curriculum that is offered at ACE and LEARN. Malcolm X learned with a dictionary in a prison. Computer based courseware comes in many stripes and some of it can be quite good. We need these schools to catch the students who for one reason or another struggle in the regular school.

The future lawyers and their mentors from The Washington University Civil Justice Clinic have likely been successful students who didn't have a need for the stripped down learning of places like ACE. The students from Soldan could have been suspended out of school left to fall behind on credit. I would have liked to see the ST. Louis Public Schools fight them over this case but they have too many issues to let something like this divert their attention and resources.