Perhaps we should start with the differentiation that my high school Physics teacher always discussed. In his mind there was a difference between “Students” and “Pupils.”

“Student” has a root of “Study” in it. “Pupils” doesn’t and “Pupils” in his mind was the same as “Attendees.”

He used to point out that in Pennsylvania all are allowed to set foot on the campus of Pennsylvania State University but only “Students” can enroll.

Looking at the local paper, in State College, it would appear that things have changed since I graduated.

According to the writings of a former City Council member about 4 years ago the President of the University decided that the University had to be more “Student Friendly.”

The University doesn’t have any shortage of qualified applicants according to “Barron’s” (39,551 applied for 6500 seats) but this seemed like the “Nice” thing to do.

His first attempt was to ban 8:00 am classes as they were “Just too hard” to get up for. I am not sure what all else has been done, but this University, according to some rating organizations, has now become the “Number 1 Party School” and the town, State College, has become the state’s “Number 1 Party Town!”

According to the Councilman this has resulted in a marked increase in public drunkenness, indecent exposure, violence, and student deaths. We have seen similar such situations in Washington’s similar educational institution, WSU.

The councilman points out that “Partying” has gone from weekends only to events that now start on Wednesday. You might say an “Extended Weekend?”

Incidents that only used to occur on weekends are now happening starting on Wednesday. I would presume that Monday and Tuesday are “Recovery Days.”

Could it be that the high schools that they attended before entering Penn State were allowing them to adopt bad habits? Do these students think that they can hold down a job after graduation where work starts at 9:30 on Monday and Tuesday only?

What is relevance of this to Federal Way? Locally we now have an academy principal at our least successful academic high school who has decided to make kids attend “Saturday School” if they skip a class, or are even tardy!”

Can we then presume that this is only a problem in his academy? I hardly think so. It is reported that many students, after experiencing this lifestyle altering experience, have decided that a focus on attendance might be worthwhile.

Is that we have too many students who are allowed to be “Pupils” instead of “Students?”

Being a frequent Mall walker I can attest to the fact that some of our “Pupils” must have either got lost on the way to school, or got lost in the hallways of their schools, and ended up at the Mall.

Is school just “Too much pressure” for these kids, or have they figured out that there are no consequences for inappropriate behavior.

At one of the interviews for a new superintendent a wise citizen asked the candidate “What would you do with kids that have no interest in learning?” A better question might be “What can you get the community to do with kids that have no interest in learning?”

The candidate stated that “Without a high school diploma the future is not very bright,” paraphrased. A better answer might be “Without knowledge the future is not very bright.”

Washington State is 43rd in the nation in high school completion! The candidate stated that his school district had a graduation rate in excess of 95%.

Our district will admit to having only a 70% graduation rate, “Education Week” believes it is 45.7%! Clearly our minorities have a much lower graduation rates.

We are building a society with many on a very dismal path. Why? Is that we have decided that “It is too hard” to do otherwise? I think that this may be the case.

We no longer have community expectations that are understood by our citizens. One only has to look at the crime blotter for some pretty dramatic examples.

It is often said that in such matters solutions only come when there is a “Crisis.” This “Crisis” has been identified by people from all facets of the spectrum, but there hasn’t been the resolve to fix this yet. Why?

We would probably have to be “Judgmental” with a significant portion of our communities about child rearing. The costs of our reticence are escalating exponentially.

Prisons, courts, welfare are some of the major areas where costs have risen dramatically. If we look at those who are the beneficiaries of these programs, we see a group that has some pretty low educational levels. Why? Is it because we have been permissive about learning? I think so.