Educating the Educators
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are the only way to solve American education woes by Aaron Biterman. November 12, 2001 "Ms. Stanley, I don't think we should have to read Toni Morrison's Beloved because we cannot relate it back to ourselves," Greg said. Ms. Stanley just got through screaming at our class because no one was speaking about the book. It was an Advanced Placement English class, and Greg had thought that he could pave his own destiny better than the district curriculum. But he was shut down quickly. "You know, Greg, I really don't see what the problem is," Ms. Stanley replied. "We have to read this book, and it does relate to you, believe you me." Not wanting to argue with the determined teacher, the class gave in. Students began discussing the book, forced against their will, in order to please the teacher -- the very person who would determine their grade. The problem with the book was simple: We, as white, upper-class, suburban high school teenagers had a difficult time relating Beloved, the chronicles, trials, and struggles of an African-American family after the Civil War, to ourselves. But all of that was irrelevant to the teacher. All too often in America, students are shut down by the system that is supposed to be helping them succeed as individuals. Standardized curriculum and obedient conformity are the results of the mis-education of American youths. Even the political pundits agree that there is a massive problem in American education today, but some say the problem lies in the foundation of schooling (Botstein and Rose) and others in the daily routine of the classroom (Sizer and Lemann). None seem to agree on what the problems are, why they exist, and what the solutions should be. One reality remains, however: American education does not work because it stifles creativity and individual initiative in the areas of school foundation, educational standards, classroom instruction, compulsory education, and the poverty problem. However, this doesn't have to be the reality because our traditional, blind ideas about schooling don't need to be traditional anymore. It's vital to give children a chance to love learning, but the current school foundation doesn't send that message. The only way to send the message that learning is the most important element is if the system is changed to help students find their strengths and capitalize on them, rather than to punish them for their failures. If students must be grouped, they should be group by ability levels in specific subjects - not by age. Middle school should be terminated and high school should become the grades in between ages twelve and sixteen, just as Leon Botstein explains in Let Teenagers Try Adulthood. By age sixteen, young adults are ready to be taken seriously and "to develop" and enhance "the motivations" (121), according to Bostein, that will benefit them in their adult life. Grouping students by ability instead of age, thereby changing the very foundation of schools, will alleviate the boredom of students who are more advanced in certain areas and students who feel that they are wasting their time with insultingly basic material. It will also send the message that everyone has strengths and weaknesses. With regards to the movement for more standardized tests and national curricula, there is a single important myth that is brainwashed into teachers, parents, and administrators. The myth is that all students of normal intelligence are capable of mastering all of the concepts and facts in the public high school curriculum at the time they are presented. Adults today manage their everyday lives quite competently having never understood or long forgotten much of their public school curriculum. The solution is to end standardized curricula and tests altogether. Why? Because school teaches students to develop a multiple-choice mentality which may handicap their ability to think outside the box and explore new options in decision-making. There is not adequate time to comprehend the subject matter, but there is enough time for Johnny to memorize the material for his test the next day. Once the test is over, Johnny forgets the material. Nicholas Lemann agrees that there is a problem in the standards movement, but he disagrees with me on the solution. He wants to stop the current system of the "national elite" where "economic destinies" are assigned through "education and test scores" (132). However, Lemann thinks that the solution is to "diversify the elite through affirmative action," and, quite ironically, to "make them serve their country" (132). He skips from point to point within his article, denouncing tests while promoting "equal opportunity." His version of equal opportunity is affirmative action and protectionist economics, which stifles the lower class into a system of dependence. The answer is not to keep students down, as I believe Lemann's system would do. But, quite to the contrary, to lift students up by fostering hands on, project-based, learner-centered education to increase academic learning, caring, and achievement. In addition to the rigid testing standards that leave individual ideas behind to replace them with multiple choice, classroom instruction is heavily lacking in American schools. Schools are missing the mark on motivation, teaching and learning, evaluation, reform, and improvement. Since it is a student's own future that is at stake in the educational experience, why not let the student choose what to study? Greg most definitely knew what he wanted to gain from the AP English course he took, but Ms. Stanley didn't appear to either know or care what her students wanted to learn. The current system leaves little input for the student. Designing their own education will help students to discover their own talents and capabilities, and increase their motivation to succeed in their own chosen paths. Additionally, there is a problem with the "differing styles and expectations" (116) of each of a student's teachers, as Theodore Sizer notes correctly. Teacher style can either help or hinder student advancement and overall learning. If a student has a question about a particular lesson, or if a student wants to focus on a specific element of a lecture at the high school level - too bad. There is simply no time for a student to attempt to understand the daily lesson. There is not adequate time for questions and interests because teachers must move on in the curricula to assure that they're on track. "The subjects come at" students like "a kaleidoscope of worlds" (Sizer 117), and students are to pick everything launched at them. Then, after the material is thrown at them, teachers move on to the next topic - whether it be related to the prior one, or 180 degrees away from the from the topic just discussed. Additionally, children should not be forced to attend high school. In fact, no student should be mandated to attend school after elementary education. Students who are interested in their own futures would choose to attend school if it was not mandatory. Furthermore, society at large has highly underestimated the learning and understanding capacities of youth. If brought up correctly, by the sixth grade, children should clearly have an understanding as to whether or not they want to continue their education. The compulsory education system hurts those who are truly interested in learning because it forces teachers to spend time on discipline problems and those truly not interested in real learning. Because secondary education is compulsory, it is seen as undesirable - something which one must be forced to endure. Education is a precious commodity, and before it was made compulsory, students recognized its value. Children of ages past would gladly undergo great hardships in order to gain an education. It is only since it has been forced upon unwilling or unready children that it has become a daily grind - something to be endured or avoided. Even children who want to attend may find school is not a good environment for learning because of the many angry, disruptive, and sometimes violent kids who simply do not want to be there. In the status quo public school experience, students learn to do the least amount of work that will earn an acceptable grade. This attitude often lasts a lifetime. Finally, one of the most significant facts I have learned in education, supported by author Mike Rose in Crossing Boundaries, is that the system has utterly failed the minority population. By branding students whose backgrounds, personalities, or talents do not conform to the established curriculum as failures, schools hamper those students' chances of making successful use of the talents they do possess. Society fails to level the standards for different - mostly minority - students. For instance, due to a lack of a proper budget, some schools have rivers of water flowing along the floors into the halls and stairwells. In similar cases of improper funding, students possess no textbooks and perform few science laboratory experiments since schools do not have enough curricula for all of their students. Meanwhile, in my white-suburban high school in Brookfield, Wisconsin, students receive upgraded sports luxuries, wood-paneled libraries brimming with books, and excellent teachers whose average salaries reach up to $60,000 per year. Where whites have lavish pools, Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and a million other luxuries at their schools, minorities in the very same district have shortages on desks and textbooks, and they learn in disintegrating buildings with no heat and plumbing - buildings sometimes not even suitable for dogs. There are several ways to address the issues behind the minority problem: greater emphasis on treating whites and minorities equal, equal distribution of education funds, and enactment of charitable tax credits. One main problem with the current trend in education, according to Mike Rose, is to perceive and treat the poor as "different" (127) from the middle and upper classes. This tendency is the root cause behind most of the problems because if you treat people as inferiors, they begin to act as inferiors. Additionally, there is a disturbing inequitable allocation of tax dollars to fund schools and school districts in the United States. If teachers do not give minority children a sufficient education to lead healthy and productive lives, they will remain segregated in dwindling public schools that don't afford them the dignity, respect, and hope for a worthwhile future. These economic inequities are gross and inexcusable. Finally, on the issue of the minority problem, it's important to give money to solutions instead of institutions. People who give to poverty-fighting private organizations deserve to be rewarded for their contributions. Charitable tax credits are intended to increase the amount of private charitable contributions to organizations addressing poverty by providing a tax credit to individuals who give to these organizations. These same private organizations are the ones that help increase the livability for lower-income students. Let's face it, America: You are blinded by your school system, which is too broad, shallow, and conventional. The result is that the system has truly failed American students. When there is a constant feeling among youths that they're being torn from interesting material simply keep with the pace, isn't it obvious that the lack of real learning needs a solution - not in fifteen years, but right now? School foundation, educational standards, classroom instruction, the dynamics of the daily routine, and the poverty problem have only been addressed by those with traditional, boring, and bland thoughts on education. It's time for teachers, parents, and administrators to recognize what the students already know: School doesn't work because it stifles creativity and individual initiative and replaces it with standardized curricula and obedient conformity. Works Cited - Botstein, Leon. "Let Teenagers Try Adulthood." Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. New York: Longman, 2001. 119-121. - Lemann, Nicholas. "A Real Meritocracy." Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. 130-135. - Rose, Mike. "Crossing Boundaries." Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. 122-128. - Sizer, Theodore R. "What High School Is." Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading and Writing. Ed. Joseph Terry. 110-117. |
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