With the recent release of the documentary Waiting for "Superman" there has been much talk about the lack of support for students within the school system. The film portrays the public education system as a place where the dreams of America's youth go to die. The mighty arm of the teachers union seemingly strangles the motivation and desire to succeed right out of our students' minds in its never-ending battle for power against the Department of Education. One answer, according to the film, is to make way for the charter school revolution. In schools where the teachers and administrators are free from the cruel bonds of the public education system, there must be a greater chance for students to reach their full academic potential, right?

As a high school teacher, I do occasionally have to deal with issues between my administrators and my union, but these events are few and far between and I have never felt that either of these two parties have had any meaningful impact on exactly how I chose to teach my students. Nor have I ever felt that the ultimate success or failure of my students has anything to do with the squabbling that occurs between the two rival factions. Rather, the most important thing in any of my students' lives, the one common motivator between students that succeed and students that fail, is the support and encouragement that they receive outside of school in their homes.

The public schools in New York City are in the midst of their mandated parent-teacher conference days, and the list of parents that attend the conferences offers an insight as to how well a student is performing academically. This is by no means an attempt to say that every student that has support at home will be successful, or that a student with no home support will be unsuccessful, only that in my experience the student that has someone at home that encourages them to do well and is willing to make an effort to see the child succeed will most likely fare far better than the student that does not have this built-in support system. It is not uncommon, after an afternoon of scattered conferences, to hear one of my coworkers say, "You never get to talk to the parents you need to talk to."

Although I called all of my students' homes multiple times, I was only able to arrange conference times for a little less than half of my student families. How can we expect students to take school seriously and be motivated to learn when the people closest to them treat education like some sort of cruel joke? To some, school is a place you have to go to if you don't want to go to jail, or if you have to get out of the house. School is where friends meet up and hang out, and getting an education takes a back seat. A student recently told me that she didn't want to go to school because her parents told her she was just going to end up selling drugs anyway, why waste her time?

When most teachers only see their students for roughly four to five hours each week it is imperative that the students be guided towards success from other sources. It really doesn't matter what goes on between the teachers union and the department of education if parents don't care about their child's education. Falling test scores and rising drop-out rates have less to do with what happens inside the school than what happens at home. I see this proven every single day when it is time to collect homework. The students that have someone at home asking about their homework, looking over their homework, caring about their homework are the students that will have a better understanding of the material being studied and the students that are setting up patterns and routines that will help them succeed later in life. The students that are allowed to skip school on rainy days, that are told school comes second, and that turn in homework that has more wrinkles than answers are those that are falling into the unfortunate trends highlighted by the film.

If we want to transform the way education is handled in America, then we need to stop pointing the finger of blame at the very people that work everyday to educate. It is time to take more than a casual look at the real reasons why we are finding more obstacles than answers in our pursuit of academic excellence, and start taking personal responsibility for the success of ourselves and our families.

