(This editorial I had published in the March 17, 2000 issue of the Hammond Daily Star under the title "Measure Success by Amount of Effort." The article is not about how to measure success, though it is mentioned in there. It is about parents taking responsibility for a childs education. The paragraph breaks are those that were used in the newspaper, not what I used in my original essay. I'm not too fond of the way it is structured; I prefer my own structure. However, I felt that it would be more appropriate to restructure it based on the newspaper's choice. Please enjoy this paper, contemplate over it, and feel free to email me what you think about it. While it may not be my best work, it is the one I am most proud of because it was published.)

Dear Editor:

In the past decade the United States has seen plenty of tragedies happening around the schools in our nation. Many students have been killed or seriously injured because of violence, but still more have to deal with the emotional scars that comes with such tragedies. And still, there are more things that are wrong with our school systems, especially here in Louisiana.

Teachers are underpaid, students are being passed through grades when they are not really learning what they need for the next grade, and now there is a debate about whether the new LEAP test is going to improve the system or make it worse.

How do we fix the problems? How do we get violence out of our schools and how do we improve the state's (and the nation's) level of education?

First, parents must realize that our schools are not designed to provide a total education to any child. Most of a child's education should be done at home. I am not talking about academic education. That is by far not even close to being as important as teaching a child moral values and ethics.

A school's job is to teach a student academic knowledge and skills so that he can survive this world. A parent's job is to teach their children how to act respectfully, how to be disciplined, how to make reasonable, intelligent judgments, and any other things that have to deal with character. But most importantly, they have to teach their child what is right and what is wrong.

No school should ever have to worry about a gun being brought to school because parents should make sure that their child knows that a gun is a very dangerous weapon, and any gun in any house should be kept unloaded, in a very high place (separate from the ammunition), and with a lock on it.

Parents should try to spend a significant amount of meaningful time with their children (not just sitting there staring at the television, but talking and getting to know what is going on in their children's life). I know that in many families, including my own, it is very difficult for various reasons to take out that extra time, but it is very much necessary.

In today's society, success is measured by money or other numbers. We need to realize that success is not that at all. Success should be measured by how much effort is put into the task and this includes how much effort is put into making sure a child has a proper education at home. If this problem is solved it will be the first step to stopping school violence and many other problems.

Next, parents, schools, and students have to realize that our schools are not designed to force a child to learn. If a child is forced to learn, can he really get the full benefits of his education? There is no way. A student has to come to school with an open mind that is prepared to and motivated to learn. There are not many -- if any -- teachers that can motivate a person to learn something that he or she refuses to learn. This motivation must start at home. Parents need to encourage their children to learn more and to work to better themselves. It is true that motivation comes from within a person, but encouragement and a good example by one's parents helps out a lot.

Assuming that a child gets the proper motivation and education at home, the next step to improving our education system is to make sure that his or her teachers are doing their job. Schools must constantly be evaluating their teachers and the curriculum that those teachers are following.

If a teacher cannot present the material in a comprehensible way, then that teacher is not doing a good job. Teachers should look for fun, interesting, and hands on ways to teach whenever possible. They should not be focusing on making their students memorize lists that have no relevance, even though sometimes these lists are good to know and should be known. Students must be taught to think and not to memorize. The purpose of education is not so students can recite lists and speeches or to make high standardized test scores, but so that they can apply their full ability to live a full life. Students should be taught the relevance of events in history and apply the lesson to something of today. They should be taught critical thinking and how to deduce answers. Memorizing a formula for math is worthless if a student does not comprehend what it can be used for.

Education is worthless unless it can be applied to living life to the fullest. The hardest part is to make students realize that just about anything they learn can be applied to some aspect of life, even if they do not understand how.

The only way that our education system will ever improve is if society's values improve. We cannot educate anyone who does not care enough about his or her life, future, or other people to try to improve themselves. The biggest tragedy of today is not that violence has entered schools, but it is why violence has entered schools. The reason violence has entered schools is because those that bring it to schools (or on the streets or anywhere in society) are lacking some very important things that they need.

Everyone needs to feel loved and be able to give love. Everyone needs to be able to have faith in something or someone. Everyone needs to have hope for a better future. Everyone needs to have a purpose (or meaning) to their lives. And everyone needs to have a system of values (most people would say that a person needs God, who provides this basic system).

Anyone who lacks one of these will find a replacement for it through drugs and alcohol, sex, or some other unhealthy substitute, and this includes violence. That is the root cause for most all of our problems.

Davon Ferrara