Jim Bagwell: Restore values of discipline, responsibility to our schools

Have schools changed in your lifetime? How many students were in your grammar school classes? It seems like ancient history, but my first grade class had 36 students. There was never a question of who controlled the classroom.

Mrs. Graham was soft spoken but wielded a mean ruler that often took more than one whack to get my attention. My dad had a simple rule that also took more than once to sink in. That rule was, "Whatever punishment I received at school was exactly half of what I got when I arrived home." The gist of this history lesson is my parents were involved and my responsibility was to learn.

Here we are today with what appears to me to be a different approach to education. I question that teachers have control of their classroom. I wonder if enough parents are involved in their children's education. One area that I do not wonder about is the motivation of the students to learn.

When I see the dropout rates that we are experiencing I know we have a crisis in our schools. I do not know all the reasons for these failures, and yes they are community failures, but I am wise enough to know we have absolutely no choice but to find a solution.

I am not an educator, but I know that failures in our education system drive other parts of our social system. As a law enforcement officer I soon learned that prisons were not filled with college graduates, nor was the welfare system loaded with people desiring more education. In the past several decades we have allowed a subculture to grow that depends on handouts and not self-reliance. This affects self-esteem and motivation.

It matters not if a great learning environment exists if the student is not motivated. In other countries a student that failed to learn would bring discredit to the family. In Nevada and the rest of our country there is no stigma attached to failure. A few underachieving students can disrupt and lower the achievements of the rest of the class.

I know I am dropping a near impossible gauntlet, but as a community it is time to get involved in our schools. Parents, you have got to motivate your child to learn. We have to start somewhere and with the new school year it's time to step up to our collective responsibilities. One small step in the right direction can lead to great change.

• Jim Bagwell of Carson City is a Vietnam veteran and graduate of the FBI National Academy who worked 31 years in law enforcement. He and his wife Lori own Charley's Grilled Subs.