I must be missing something in this
education argument. I mean, I keep
hearing about how our public school systems are failing our children. There is widespread finger-pointing going on
towards “under-performing” schools, with ultimatums being issued and threats of
de-certification thrown about. I hear
politicians grumble and rant on about A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y, pronounced
in that accusatory way guys in suits speaking into microphones have. The
objects of their scorn, the way I hear it, are primarily teachers. And the tone of their argument leads me to
believe that teachers are on trial
here.
Now, I understand that I have a tendency
to overcomplicate things. It’s been
pointed out to me. More than once. But this whole issue is much more involved
than we're choosing to make it. And
what aggravates me the most, what absolutely baffles me the most, is that I
never hear anyone mention parents in this debate.
Apparently,
it is the perception of the general public that it is solely the job of
teachers to educate our children. We
drop `em off, they educate `em. Teachers are viewed as hired hands in charge of our kids’
minds. We employ them to fill their
little heads with the mechanics and the aesthetics of learning. In the past several generations, we have
largely relegated to the schools the task of transforming the spoiled fruit of
our loins into motivated and directed little entities that appreciate knowledge
and understand the value of the education that they are getting for free.
The fact is though that education is not
free. There are strings attached. There
is a tacit agreement between parents and child and school. Parents agree to send their children to
school clean, well rested, fed and as well adjusted as someone their age, in
This Age, can be. Schools for their
part agree to present the material that the society believes is valuable and is
conducive to becoming a productive and creative member of society. Teachers present the building blocks, from
grade to grade, which are used to build higher and more complex intellectual
structures. If the presentation can be
made interesting, or even fun, so much the better. Homework is generally assigned.
This then comes back under the purview of parents, who are responsible
for overseeing its completion. The
students’ job is fairly straightforward--- respect themselves, respect others,
and do not get in the way of anyone else’s learning. There is an equal partnership formed that is informal but
binding. No one has a free ride here.
That’s the model anyway. In the real world, teachers are asked to be
disciplinarians, social workers, psychologist and off-duty policemen. It is a demanding profession. There is the
expectation that teachers can somehow cleanse the sins of the society. That they can take kids with no boundaries
and no family traditions of learning and transform them, without family
support, into high achievers. Those who
don’t know diddly-squat about classroom dynamics, but want to be perceived as
tough on incompetent teachers, are demanding we elevate our national standard
test scores.
As if poor test scores are strictly the
result of poor teaching. As if turning
the screws on teachers and administrators will raise the curve. Where are most of these poor test scores
anyway? You tell me the percentage of
educationally committed two-parent households there are in that number. What is the percentage of poor urban and
rural school districts in that number?
What are the expectations in those homes? What kind of controls and follow-ups are there? Our teachers are asked to improve the scores
of kids for whom even average academic performance is a negative
thing. If they show any interest in
school whatsoever, their peer status goes down. They can get beaten up for a good test score. Pardon me?
Who should be A-C-C-O-U-N-T-A-B-L-E here? I say, screw your own manicured thumbs down. There is blame aplenty here, and solutions
are vastly more complex than your yearly testing proposals.
And
where are those high scores, by the
way? Who’s acing these tests? Why, surprise, surprise! It’s kids from primarily Eastern cultures,
where traditions and familial expectations are strong, where respect for
learning and teachers is high. There is
ample evidence that respect for education and respect for teachers go hand in
hand with performance. Yet teachers in this culture are bottom feeders. Respect-wise, they are babysitters and
lesser bureaucrats. They are beggars
and pleaders, often working in run-down facilities, asking for more resources
to do their jobs effectively, holding bake sales and car washes. And who, except those born with a passion
for it, would want to teach. Low
pay. Low status. If it weren’t for summer vacations, we’d
have illegal immigrants doing it. If
you ask me (And no one ever does!), our priorities are skewed.
The whole premise of a participatory
Democracy is that the populace must be well educated, well informed and able to
make good choices. Without that, the
whole thing falls apart. Without that,
you have Gov. Jesse Ventura.
Let that be a lesson to us!
The
education of our children should be everyone’s first priority. Whether they have kids of their own or
not. For a purely selfish motive. Education is the key to the future of
business, the economy, our own safety and well-being. No altruism here. It is
the key to opportunity. And
opportunity, the ability to improve and better oneself, is the key to this
whole society. Therefore, the education of our children is our most important
task. Period! As a culture, we treat it like one of dozens of things we have to
do. Unh-unh. Not good enough!
To not recognize this is to ignore an evolutionary imperative. Our children, you see, are all we really
leave behind. Unless we invent
something darned important or assassinate somebody real famous, a hundred years
from now we will be mostly dust, third-hand memories and illegible names in a
file cabinet in the basement of some government warehouse. Our children are our legacy, our connection
to the future. Schools and teachers are but one leg of the tripod. To not be an active participant in that
school-parent-child partnership is to leave our Future to chance. To not oversee and fertilize and tend their
education is to miss the whole frigging existential point. It is true what they say. We are their first and most important
teacher.
Uncle
Duke