On Education
One of the many blessings that have come my way has been my good fortune in establishing real friendships with really conservative individuals. They keep me grounded, and aware of the common values that we share, despite our different approaches to philosophy, law, science, religion, education, and pretty much anything else that would seem to preclude affection and conversation.It is the friend who wrote “failed, failed, failed” about the welfare system who reminds me both explicitly and implicitly that we are not nearly as far about in our goals as I might think. We both want a just and inclusive society, and we are willing to acknowledge that there are varying routes that lead to the same place.
My friend is deeply concerned with the quality of education taking place in our public schools, and I can hardly argue that our educational system is a beacon to the world. Perhaps we recoil at different symptoms: I find the fact that 75% of Americans think creationism is a valid scientific explanation of the origins of life to be an appalling indictment of our schools. To me, this screams that our high schools are graduating young men and women who have no concept of the scientific method, and cannot tell the difference between a scientific theory supported by mountains of reproducible evidence, and an opinion offered at a cocktail party. This particular issue may not distress John quite so much, but he’s pretty alarmed that our high school seniors are fairly clueless when it comes to higher math.
John’s diagnosis is that students are putting more time into video games and mass media than they are into their studies and life experiences. My issues deal with scholastic structure and content. I don’t understand why we are still wedded to a 180 day school year, 6-1/2 hour school day, when the amount of knowledge necessary to succeed in a global economy grows exponentially by the minute. I am appalled that my second daughter was given the same geography text in 1996 that her sister was given in 1993, printed prior to the collapse of the Soviet Union. One detail that stands out is that asbestos was listed as Canada’s primary export.
The differences between us are significant: John’s solutions require better parenting and more self-discipline on the part of students. Mine require more money: more salaries and utility funds to support longer school hours, better textbooks, and instructional styles that complement the types of academic mastery necessary for survival in a computer and informational-dependent world.
The similarity is even more profound: We are both right. Lower wages and rising costs mean that two parents often hold three jobs between them just to meet the mortgage payments, and single parents may hold three jobs by themselves. Harried parents can often equal inattentive parents, who are happy that the kids are quiet and entertained. They know they should be insisting on greater help in the house, and less time with the game controls, but the energy to enforce this just isn’t there. Students arrive at school passive, unaware of their obligations to contribute to their own education, and unfamiliar with the discipline necessary to learn. All the textbooks and lab equipment and extended hours are of little use if the student can’t process the information. Despite my agreement that this has major impact on our educational system, I’m at a loss as to why the collective society (i.e., government) can do about it.
On the other hand, there are nuts and bolts ideas that can bring at least partial solutions. Schools need to adapt to the 21st century. The lecture method does not help anyone learn to build formulas into an Excel program. Repetition of basic math problems loses effectiveness if it cuts into time needed for understanding mathematical theory and how to use a graphing calculator to solve engineering problems (one of my pet peeves about the extended summer involves the necessity for 6-9 weeks of review at the beginning of each school year – what a waste of an already too-short year). Learning to write formula essays does not inspire critical thinking and analysis.
By bringing our various understandings to a common table, perhaps we can fashion solutions that address the multitude of problems facing an evolving society. Today we can work together on education; tomorrow, we can tackle the meaning of civil liberty and freedom.
I’ll let you know when we are ready to establish world peace.
posted by Lenore Wilson @ 6:39 AM
1 Comments:
Yes our American school system is failing. I believe that valid statistics show that our nation’s students are listed at the very bottom of the list of industrialized nations in terms of knowledge, skills and capabilities. How can our future citizens compete in a world economy when the rest of the world will be far better skilled?
Yes lack of money is part of the problem. Our teachers are paid less than garbage collectors and far less than the guys who lose your luggage at the airport.
Yes our families by in large fail to support and instill the value of learning within our children.
Yes our young adults fail, rooted in the expectation that they are entitled to everything but take little responsibility for making it happen.
Education should be about … learning how to learn … with the realization that learning is a part of the rest of our lives. Learning how to find information …learning how to critically evaluate information … learning how to compare/contrast information … whether that information is about science, politics or about the nature of God.
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