August Wilson Interview

August Wilson was asked “How do you feel about schools and self education?” Wilson replied “The schools are horrible, and don’t teach anybody anything.” Today, schools are worse than ever. Schools, especially public schools were never deigned for the advanced student. They were often understaffed and unequipped with learning materials. As a result, the majority of students received a poor quality education, and this was only for the averages students. The more advanced, more intelligent student, such as August Wilson, often butted heads with his or her teacher. They were largely ignored because the advanced student was a minority and the average students demanded more attention. With the intelligent students being so advanced, most basic lessons and concepts did not hold their attention. The lack of attention caused the intelligent student to feel out casted and some end up dropping out like in August Wilson’s case. The public education system is horrible. Not only do the problems of the past still exists, low funding, lack of materials, over worked/underpaid teachers, but now we have more problems such as drugs, gang, and gun violence. The drop out rates is higher and the graduation rates are lower than ever, especially amongst public high schools. Greg Toppo of USA TODAY reports “Students in a handful of big-city school districts have a less than 50-50 chance of graduating from high school with their peers, and a few cities graduate far fewer than half each spring, according to research released on Tuesday. Fourteen urban school districts have on-time graduation rates lower than 50%; they include Detroit, Baltimore, New York, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Miami, Dallas, Denver and Houston. Among the nation's 50 largest districts, the study finds, three graduate fewer than 40%: Detroit (21.7%), Baltimore (38.5%) and New York City (38.9%).” Many large public schools are not having success teaching their young students.