By Michel Leidermann

The Real Problem
Education Begins at Home

The real educational problem in Arkansas is not the run down schools or the teachers’ lack of effort to help their students who are struggling most, or that kids are not provided incentives to pass the necessary exams. The real problem is the lack of motivation to study; this motivation begins at home and is based in part by the example of motivation and expectations provided by the parents.

Parents are the most important influence in a child’s life. Children learn to socialize based on the socialization they experience with their parents. They also learn how to react to situations and how to obtain information from their parents. Therefore, parents, if you believe that your children are not becoming educated in the schools due to the lack of better buildings or bad teachers and other things of the sort, first see what your children are learning at home. It all begins there.

It Takes Two to Tango
The one who drinks is as guilty as the one who provides the drink

We are facing the worst mortgage crisis in our history and we generally blame the large
banking corporations and lenders for their insatiable desire to make money. But, could it be our own stupidity and ambition what makes us at fault?

By Michel Leidermann

In 2008 about 1,500 Latino students will graduate from high school in Arkansas according to the estimates made by the Interstate Commission on Higher Education. According to the report, Latinos comprise 5% of the graduates from public high schools in the state.

The number of Latino graduates is up because of their traditionally large families. That and the arrival of more immigrants will make Caucasian students the minority in secondary schools in the United States in a decade, while the number of African American students continues to decline.

The United States still does not understand that one of every five children is the child of immigrants. These numbers mean that Latinos will be the ones to fill the jobs left by retiring Baby Boomers; they will also be the ones to keep the United States competitive in the global economy.