People have brought up questions about the public school system these days and the students falling through the cracks. Students go to school to learn and do their best to be successful. Others go to school because they have to and just slip through the cracks. The question I am asking is what can we do to accommodate these students and help them to be successful? It goes beyond the school system and the teachers that teach these students, but as teachers and future teachers there has to be something done. Are these students just being lazy or not want to be successful? No, there are problems with their motivation and these students not relating to the material. It brings up questions like, “why are we learning this” or “what does this have to do with our lives.” Teachers these days need to find a way to motivate the unmotivated. Find ways to relate to these students and find something that they might be interested in. Do not let these students fall through the cracks. Most people do not know who Albert Cullum was but he was a teacher who found ways to motivate the unmotivated and would not let students be lazy and fall through. Instead of using the typical ways of giving quizzes and tests he used competitions, projects, group work and plays to help students learn. He used spelling bees to learn vocabulary words instead to the typical test. He used student plays to learn the story of Julius Caesar. I am using him as an example but these are the types of things that might help troubled students. Things need to be done these days to help these kids and it starts now.
James Meyer
Central Connecticut State University
