Rarely am I moved by anything I read in the media to blog about, but my personal inbox was rather lively today, all inspired by a simple link forwarded by a thoughtful, intelligent, and well educated family member. He sent this link: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122809533452168067.html
The link went to me and several other family members; a retired educator of over 30 years experience, a former teacher and counselor, who also ran a successful business for many years, a "born" teacher, who made it in the private sector, a former PTA president, and a college professor.
Predictably, the premise of the article is that our schools have failed. At what? We are bound by law that says we will educate every person who walks through our doors (This is a good thing, by the way!) No matter what problems a child comes in with, we must educate! If you have any "experience" (age), you know this wasn't always the case. If you don't have experience, perhaps you may remember the movie Forrest Gump and the sacrifices made by his mother to see that he was educated. Consider the barriers to meeting standards our students who come to us with no knowledge of the language have. Were the experiences Mr. Gerstner had at Chaminade High School (wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_V._Gerstner,_Jr.) reflective of any such challenges?
Do our schools need to improve? Certainly! Just as productive citizens should strive to improve every day. How? Mr. Gerstner seems to think class size has nothing to do with performance. Tell you what- Let Mr. Gerstner have a go with a class and let's see how he does with 5, 10, 15, 50, 500 or (what the heck?) 5000 students. He can even have an easy subject- Kindergarten. Ridiculous? No more so than his premise.
What about testing? When was the last time a C.E.O. took a test? When he was in school! Therein lies a problem. What is the measure of a successful education? I digress from the point at hand.
Abolish school districts and turn over control of schools to bureaucrats way the heck off in another city? I will certainly agree that there must be standards, but there are things that I need to know here in Marietta, Georgia that Mr. Gerstner simply need no knowledge of. I dare say he knows nothing of the values of my local community, nor I of his. Are the values of a community important in it's choosing the knowledge and method of a child's education? Certainly, as long as they are within a certain standard.
Mr. Gerstner says we should start with four subjects? No music, art, health or physical education? We put too little emphasis on these areas as is. We know that each of these are important to a well educated individual. Perhaps a little less time on learning useless trivia for national tests will give us a bit more time on things that help us grow our mind and become educated.
And that brings us back to the tests. A national test every three years can't even begin to help in the assessment and education of a child. Oh, I forgot- it's the schools' performance that will be published. (How does this help a child?) How about some performance tasks that are performed at various times (frequently) in a child's education? Or is that too much like the real world we live in?
As for merit pay, it has no hope. If you offer to pay someone more to teach someone who will score better on a test, they'll certainly want to do just that- go where someone will score better.
So what do we DO? First, let's get off our commission, roll up our sleeves and pitch in. I expect Mr. Gerstner would be welcome to pitch in at many public schools, once he passes our background checks. We have many people in our community who are turned away at the door for fear their real offer to help is only a cloak to an insidious desire to harm children. Let's find a way to let the community help!
Second, do away with national multiple choice tests. Design tasks that can be used to demonstrate competency in areas that we as a nation and local community deem critical. Evaluate the process the child uses to complete the process, as well as the product.
Third, restructure teacher contracts so that teachers are on contract for twelve months. Give them the time they need to rest and recuperate, but pay them while they go back to school to better themselves in the time students are off. Pay them for creating lesson plans, tasks, and task assessments, and even for teaching students who need it in the summer.
I've heard tools are rather important in a child's education.
One last thing- I'd like to thank my uncle for sharing this with me and provoking the thoughtful discussion between my cousin, aunts, and my wife. I'd love to have any of you guest post on my blog at anytime. If you'd like to hear what education was like a few years back, courtesy of G-Gran, you might want to have a listen at:
http://edtech.typepad.com/ed_tech_using_technology_/2006/05/interview_from_.html
