I have been teaching for thirty-four years, at levels spanning middle school through graduate school, and from my perch I strongly applaud the sentiments of people who really want to improve the system.
Repeated analyses of the disturbing state of American education, notably as it relates to history/geography, science and math instruction, show us nothing either new or surprising.
Given the fact that the U.
S.
is one of the few nations on Earth without a national educational directive, the message will need to be heard for some time to come before appropriate action will follow.
The problems associated with any reformation of American education will depend on more than fixing the causes for high rates of grammar and high school teacher attrition.
Solutions will not be found in assigning more homework or starting "harder" classes.
Nor will annual standardized testing help anything except the income of testing companies.
The issue of malaise in the public schools is the hydra of our times, and though Heracles was able to slay his beast with the help of his nephew, the American school system's hydra will require considerably more teamwork.
Among the more formidable heads of the beast are these: 1)Public schools from K through 12 are largely run by amateurs.
School boards are made up of parents, and school administrators typically have limited classroom experience.
The real educational professionals, teachers, are largely ignored, overridden, or ostracized, but it is the classroom teacher that fingers point when Johnny can't read and Janie can't subtract.
But next time you hear about a Governor's or President's advisory group on education, look past the names of the famous and wealthy and ask instead, "what TEACHERS were present?"; 2)Grade inflation and lawsuits brought against professors over grades have devalued the entire grading system.
Far too many university graduates (as well as high school grads) simply do not have the knowledge or skills that a diploma should infer.
They see grades as things they purchase, not as representations of things they must earn; 3)Faculty at all levels face difficult uphill struggles.
A majority of community college instructors are part-timers who get few if any benefits, no office space, and the most undesirable class schedules.
Novice public school teachers similarly get the most difficult classes--often those with "problem" students--when these are precisely the classes that most require the presence of experienced, veteran teachers.
No wonder teacher attrition hovers around 50% by the fifth year in the profession; 4)Students are neither equivalent to each other nor products.
Reworking the ideal of egalitarianism would free up students and teachers to go with their strengths.
Not all students want, need, or will enter college, yet the vocational school is now a term from near antiquity.
In an effort to "leave no child behind," we are willing to accept two dangerous propositions: first, children are commodities that can be mass-educated into production line products, and second, there is no standard so low that it will be deemed unacceptable so long as it can be justified by claims that no child was shortchanged; 5)Forget about "education presidents" and similar vote-fishing hype; as long as schools are controlled locally, any effective change must also come from home.
Successful federal interventions, such as Title IX, were mainly about civil rights and social issues, not academic or vocational education.
The No Child Left Behind fiasco makes noises that appeal to voting parents, but lacks either qualitative substance nor funding to sustain its implementation; 6)Get teacher certification and licensing into an intelligent format.
As it stands now, many gifted academics reject teaching as much for all the pointless hoops through which they may jump as for the salaries.
Why can't a teacher certified in one state simply transfer credentials to another instead of taking yet another standardized test of teaching skills, content area, and such? The idea that a person with a Ph.
D.
in a field should need to pay to take a standardized test to see if he knows his subject is ludicrous.
Fixes must come from all levels, starting with parents and family, and extending to the schools from kindergarten on up.
Rarely mentioned in critiques of schools is the reality that very few science majors enter the grammar school teaching profession, yet we also know from volumes of research that grammar school-aged children are very interested in science.
Bolstering science in the early grades would go a long ways towards getting long-lasting interest in the subject into and through college.
Like Heracles, who was nearly rebuffed by the ghastly breath of the hydra, many veteran educators--particularly those in the classroom--fight a considerable battle against the bureaucratic and political nonsense that passes for educational reform.
Yet teachers, more than anyone, are the group most eager to see meaningful, intelligent reform instituted.
Perhaps before any more well meaning outsiders come up with still more plans, ideas, or initiatives, they should first consult some teachers.
Who knows, they might learn something!