How to help district

I am a recent graduate of Little Rock Central High School, and a freshman at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I am writing to express my concerns regarding the recent takeover of the Little Rock School District and its media coverage.

It is in my personal opinion that we are still placing temporary Band-Aids on serious wounds. If the state really wants to make a major difference in the performance of the students in any school district, then they will have to make permanent changes, not only with the employees of the district, but with the students and parents. How much parental involvement is there at the schools that are underachieving? It appears the schools that are the achievers in sports have parental support at the sports events and the students do very well. If parents were willing to come out and support the schools in the same fashion academically, the students would perform better in the classroom.

Another issue is respect. Respect is not a one-way street. Teachers cannot expect a student to automatically give respect to them if they are disrespectful to the students. I recently read an article on an experiment that tests if teacher-student relationships help performance; it was posted by NPR’s Morning Edition. The study followed kindergartners who had either close or distant relationships with their teachers, and found that students reminded of close relationships solved problems faster. Mutual respect and positive relationships matter between teachers and students.

If the state really wants to help, it is going to have to perform surgery instead of giving out Band-Aids. We all have to work together as a community in order to grow successfully, or someone will always be left behind. JONATHAN CARRUTH Little Rock