Social Push Thesis

Everyday children wake up, go to school, and prepare to learn. Parents, place their trust in the Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS) in the hopes it will prepare their children for success in the future. For many of these children, school serves as the only safe place in the troubled world around them. A space to escape the violence and crime they witness daily. While we hope these children are instilled with an education that provides for a better life than the one they know now. The reality these children face is one that offers little opportunity for success. This is because a large majority of youth in Baltimore either drop out or get by on the social push; and for those lucky enough to graduate on merit, many will lack the …show more content…
They are the “no left behind” kids. These are kids who tend to repeat a grade, often more than once. Eventually, because of their age, they are given what is referred to as the “social push” forward. What is the social push might you ask? It is the school systems response to dealing with children who are technically too old to be in their current grade or school. Students who otherwise would not be academically eligible to advance, are pushed off and eventually out. In fact, many of the students in this population do not leave school on their own. They are “counseled” into leaving for alternative programs (Rosborough). Unfortunately, however, many of them never attend these alternatives thus never completing their education. Consequently, continuing to add to the number of young people pushed out of a system, undereducated, and unprepared for the world and challenges ahead of them. How can we expect students to strive for better, if all we do is help them sell themselves …show more content…
It has been very interesting as an adult learner, sitting next to this population in community college. These kids definitely serve as the poster children for a broken system. “Many state high school graduates cannot create a sentence from a fragment and can 't solve problems with fractions or long division. Some cannot add and subtract whole numbers (Mossburg)”. Yet, they were granted a high school diploma by the Baltimore City Public School System and sent off into the world with false hope. The challenges these children face and will face, are even bigger than we realize. A rather large subset of this population will most likely be required to remediate at least one or more courses before attending any sort of post-secondary education. Aside from lacking general education skills, these children also lack the necessary soft skills needed to be able to compete in the ever changing work force. They do not know how to write a resume, quantify skills, or even present themselves at an interview. Why are community colleges, having to serve as a bridge for students between high school and higher education? Furthermore, how do we get them prepared for the future when so many before us have already failed