A communication problem
Dear editor:
There is a vast majority of diverse students in Hot Springs. A vast majority of these students are struggling with balancing school life, with their social lives and work schedules. Several cannot communicate appropriately due to coming from different countries of the world. Therefore, there are a lot of missed opportunities for them, and there should be much work done to help them outside of school.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hot Springs School District's student population consists of a 20 percent racial minority, less than half are Latino and Asian while the rest are black. Several Latino and Asian students still do not speak English. Several personal accounts include students asking other bilingual speaking students to translate for them during job interviews or other types of meetings. Many students who are in sports and are very talented have had situations where they miss unique opportunities and events due to lack of communication assistance with their work scheduling. One such instance would be the time a Latino sophomore playing for the Hot Springs Trojans left practice during a session with a college recruiter to go work. Several students are also struggling in class due to the simple fact of not being able to understand all of the teachers. There should be solutions to this growing everyday problem.
There are now apps online for students to access to pick up on a language quickly. A group of students from the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences, and the Arts recently developed an application for students to be able to find tutors, mentors, teachers and advisers to help them through their school work or other problems they are having. There should also be a citywide event for the community to come together to fix this problem. The motivation that other students have to help their peers should also be recognized. They are the ones that are working and helping the people and students who are struggling.
Many people need help in this city. Being able to communicate correctly should be something everyone should be able to do in order to continue to help even more people.
Said Angeles
Hot Springs
Low graduation rates
Dear editor:
When the state of Arkansas is looked at as a whole, it is a perfect example of imperfection; however, it also is the perfect platform for great improvement. The most impactful and urgent need to be corrected is the low graduation rates in this state.
If this issue of low graduation rates was fixed, then an increase in white collar jobs would bring more business into the state, thus bringing more money into the state.
The first step would be to identify the students that are "at-risk" of not graduating and giving them additional help. Some of the key indicators include attendance, GPA, and their transition to high school.
Additional help could be as simple as encouraging the student to have better relations with their teachers and peers. By having a better relationship with the people at school, they are given a reason to look forward to school and try harder. From this push, they would naturally increase in attendance and their GPA, leading to higher chances of graduating.
The consequences of this improvement of graduation rates would be more companies and businesses investing in Arkansas in order to take advantage of the talent from the graduates.
Victoria Hwang
Hot Springs
Editorial on 02/11/2019