To me, writing is a way of life. It is my dream, my passion,
and how I support my family.
One of the ways that I make money writing is by helping
others, and even though there are many levels to that writing structure, we’re
going to focus on two.
The first being
time. A lot of my business comes from people who don’t have time to do it
themselves. They have the ability to do it, but it’s the first thing that gets
pushed back in their day to day tasks. These are the people that realize that
they need help, and understand the value of time.
Writing, in todays world, is more important than ever. Verbal
communication has decreased, while written communication has increased.
Example…
I had a sit down meeting this morning with another business
person. The hour long meeting was great, and we did a lot of talking (verbal
communication).
The parts that are not seen…
All of the email threads back and forth over the last week
or two preparing for the meeting (written communication).
Researching the company through their different avenues
(website, social media, etc.) (written communication).
Thank you and follow-up communication after the meeting
(written communication).
And if the meeting was productive, there will be tons of
emails to follow in the future (written communication).
That is just one meeting.
Written communication is not going away…it is more and more
relevant every day.
Another example…
I recently went over my daughter’s phone records.
She averaged four phone calls per month, with an average of twenty
minutes of talking (not per call…per month…total).
However…
She averaged 1,500 texts per month (unfortunately we were
never able to harness any of that writing dedication into her homework).
Point being…writing
wins!
To get back to my first
point of people not having enough time is very much a reality. Writing is
so important, and used so often, that help is sometimes needed.
The second point
that I am going to focus on is a lot harder, and a lot more “touchy”.
That is…
Not knowing how (there are lots of levels and variations to
this; from literally not knowing how to write, to how to write a thesis, to how
to write a resume, etc., etc…the list could be endless).
This is where a majority of my writing skills and time come
into play; people that need help because they cannot do it on their own.
For ease I’m going to group all “not knowing how” people
into two groups…those who care and those who don’t care.
Those who care…
They want to learn, and so I take on a teacher like role. A
lot of the time they have skillsets in other areas, and don’t fully understand
how to transition to this other way of thinking or doing things. They are
engaged, ask a lot of questions, are passionate, and they care…
They just need help.
The other group is the complete opposite.
Those who don’t care…
This is where I see the education of individuals failing.
All people in the US have rights and access to schooling. The majority of
people I work with in this category dropped out of high school because they
didn’t like school, and because it was too hard.
Is that the fault of the student, the parents, the teacher,
the school, the education field…????
On a current list of developed countries with the highest
graduation rates, the US fell hard.
In fact, the only developed countries worse than America
were Spain, Sweden, Luxembourg, Chile, China, Mexico, and Turkey (we barely
beat out Spain and Sweden). (This is a list of countries whose students
graduate high school on their first attempt without being held back or
“flunking”).
According to PBS; however, the list is even more drastic
when you include all students (doesn’t matter if they were held back or not) who
graduated from high school in developed countries. In this case, the only
developed countries worse than America were Austria, Greece, Luxembourg,
Mexico, and Sweden.
In my home state of Washington, the high school graduation
rate is 76% (just less than the national average).
Again…whose fault is
that?
In my own home, that number is even lower, with a 50% high
school graduation rate.
Let’s look at my
household…
We have two kids/students; same environment, friends (in
general), upbringing, likes, dislikes.
The biggest difference is in caring.
Our oldest passed with a low D average in grades 6, 7, 9
(bumped up to a low D from a high F), and 10 (bumped up to a low D from a high
F).
Flunked grades 8 and 11 (lied about reasons why, but there
was no missed school).
Academically was not ready for the 12th grade,
but due to age (being too old to go to high school the following year) was
allowed to move into the 12th grade in an all or nothing attempt,
because there was no returning the next year. There was nothing to lose.
In football that’s
called a Hail Mary…
The student was in way over their head. Had no comprehension
of the work. Failing miserably.
So what did the student do?
Dropped out!
Did we fail as parents…as educators?
Well the numbers say that we did, but how much of that falls
on the student?
In this case, all of it fell on the student. There was help,
resources, punishments, incentives, and a constant push to move forward. There
was eleven different times where all past due homework was forgiven because
they couldn’t catch up, only to be back in the same boat a week later (all
eleven times).
The issue…
The student hated school, and said so every day. There was
no care.
But wait…
If you look at more than just the 50% graduation rate in our
home, you’ll notice that our youngest child accomplished a lot more.
Passing with an A average in grades 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12.
Skipped grades 10 and 11.
The kid is a genius in real life and on paper (can prove
it).
So is this what
America is like?
The numbers say one thing, but the reality is so much more
complex. There are students that are over-achievers, under-achievers, and
students who fall into the middle (there was no middle in our house).
The problem though…
Or at least one of the problems is that the “I don’t care” group
doesn’t take personal responsibility.
Back to my oldest…
Is still confused on why they were failing.
We can show why…
Zeros for undone assignments, did not show up for class
every day, badly written papers, no concept of math, plagiarism ( sometimes badly
plagiarized, which is just stupidly funny), cheating, not showing up for study
group, lying, and simply not doing the work.
Response…
The work I did do took me four times
longer than my brother, so I should have a higher grade than him.
My favorite is the plagiarism argument.
You can clearly see when something is poorly written (with a
history of poorly written materials), and then there is a really strong piece
with no references, embedded into the poorly written paper.
Clearly plagiarized…
Response…
Those are my own words from my
brain. I didn’t plagiarize.
Checklist time…
1.
Look in internet search history and find
websites not listed on reference page of assignment (most of the time we can
stop here).
2.
Type part of the passage into Google (this is a
hit and miss technique).
3.
Use a plagiarism checker (as a copywriter this
is a tool that me and my clients use all of the time).
Response after
verifying that there was plagiarism…
Those are my own words from my
brain. I didn’t plagiarize.
It’s easy to use my kids as examples, but that is because we
are the typical American family. These examples are things that I see every day
as a writer outside of my home. The examples may be different, but the
reasoning and justification are very real.
As a writer, as a
parent, as an educator…
Can I help people who don’t care?
Yes and no.
If you are a paying client, then yes. I will do whatever we
agree to with a fee reflecting those copywriting/writing services.
If you are a client that qualifies for our free services,
then no. Our free services include levels of support, education, and
understanding to help you succeed so that you won’t need us in the future. You
cannot reach your goals (or even set goals) if you don’t care.
So back to my title
question…
Is there a decline in our education system?
