Stockton education is in trouble! In these past few years, we’ve seen hundreds of concerning acts across different schools in Stockton. From my perspective, the most common educational issues students are facing in schools are a lack of guidance, receiving the bare minimum from school leaders, and recovering from the year of distance learning. These problems are exacerbated by issues of safety and increased behavioral problems on school campuses.
As students try their best to navigate through this school year, many of them are not receiving the quality guidance they should be able to expect from academic counselors. As classroom sizes continue to grow larger, there is less time and value placed on an individual. Instead, students are spoken to in large groups, regardless of whether or not they are being given advice that applies to all of them. Counseling has become generalized to a small population, when it should be adjusted to meet the needs of each student depending on their own situations. This even ties into receiving the bare minimum, as the needs of many students are not met as they should be. A possible solution to this issue could be hiring more counselors to take on a smaller group size. This way, each student can be heard and attended to in a timely manner.
This year has also been one of recovering from our recent time in distance learning. Many students have said they don’t feel as if they’ve learned as much as they should have been, and even feel left behind. Though many students passed with flying colors and seem as if they’re doing good in school, it may be very likely they need additional review due to the lack of hands-on experience during this time. Many students have different learning styles, and though it may have sufficed in the moment, it can not be expected of them to have held onto the information they were deficiently taught. It may be helpful to run workshops within the school to assist those who further need it. Though many schools offer office hours and additional help outside of school hours, there don’t seem to be workshops specific to this problem. It should be normalized to return to past classrooms to refresh our memory on ideas we weren’t fully able to grasp at the time.
In addition to that, we’ve seen a wide range of behavioral problems this school year, whether it be lighting trash cans on fire, or anonymously bullying students on social media platforms. I’ve seen this take place at not only my school, but other schools as well. The unpredicted misbehavior of students breaks the common sense of community and only pushes those involved to feel uncomfortable and targeted. In these situations, it’s best to understand every student is different, and a form of discipline that works for one student, may not be as effective for another. It is crucial to continue spreading the importance of school safety, and to take the necessary measures when this safety is violated.
There are several other problems within our schools here in Stockton. It doesn’t end with these. We can continue to bring light to the problems we may not consider to be as obvious, and provide possible solutions in order to create a safer, more effective educational system. In this fellowship, we are committed to finding solutions, so stay tuned.
