Education and Ethics

What did Clayton do wrong?
A couple of months ago, the Clayton District School in Atlanta, Georgia was the third in the country to loose accreditation. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools found unethical conduct among board members. Some of the board members were ultimately fired. For incompetence? Not quite. They intimidated staff to hire their friends and relatives. Details of the findings are found here.

There are countless implications with loosing accreditation. Already the school has lost over 2000 students. Of course parents are afraid of their children not getting the Hope Scholarship if they remain in the county.

I brought up the Clayton District School issue for two reasons; the unethical behavior of the board members and to show that Americans care about the education of their children. What then went wrong with most of the ballot issues on education this year? Most of them were not passed. It makes me wonder what is going to happen to many of the schools which were hoping for taxes to be increased so they can have a better education.

Where lies the future of American education?
During the summer, I worked with Envisionemi as faculty adviser and had the privilege of meeting many kids from almost all the states. The stories about their schools were similar; lack of educational materials, leaking roofs, unhygienic bathrooms, bad lunches and many more. If the parents in this country only worry about how much money they are paying and not what they will get in return—quality education for their kids. I don’t know what the future of this country will be like. I believe the future of any nation is in the education of its youth.

Having gone to school in an absolutely different country and continent, I thought the American system was perfect. The story is similar across the world. I attended and saw schools in pathetic conditions, but I thought they were due to lack of funding from our government or merely corruption. The American system is not any different. Those of you who have kids should be worried about everything except if you can afford private schools.

I can keep writing about this because education is my biggest passion. I wonder what Rob Jewel who used to teach here at Kent would think. His wife and son or is it a daughter are teachers too. I come from a family of teachers too so I decided to devote this post to education. It makes it easy for me to relate to the falling standards of education across the world and the laissez-faire attitude of people who should be concerned.

Is there anything like international ethics?
Back to the conduct of the Clayton school board. Some board members were found guilty others were not. But ethics or morality someone may say is common across the world. I beg to disagree. What appears to be unethical that is forcing staff to hire their relatives or friends may not be seen as a big deal in my country.  Not that people think is right for people to use their positions for their friends and family benefits, but people just think that you’ve got to know someone to get hired.
This article from the Atlanta Journal Constitution will not have made it to any newspaper in many parts of the world unless it was talking about a government official. Most people think it’s unethical for government officials to use their positions to influence hiring or firing. That is what my friend Foluke who used to be a journalist in Nigeria thinks.
Is ethics then the same across the world? Let me know what you think.