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System
Bling is no solution
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Dear Dr. Fournier: My seventh grader started this year in a brand-new school. As parents we felt, finally, that the school system had done something to better her education. Yet it took five weeks for her to receive worn-out textbooks. The teachers made do by assigning projects. Some did close to nothing because they don’t know the subject matter. The computers are not all set up yet. The science lab teacher has asked parents to pitch in with money. Only those with means, even modest, can comply. This leaves the rest to wonder if their children will receive a seventh grade education. Now school budgets are being cut! My daughter had all As and Bs on her first report card, which is meaningless. As a concerned parent, I know she learned almost nothing. I cannot afford a private school. Will my child be left out of the American dream because the public school she attends doesn’t have the money to educate her? |
The Assessment: There was a time when our public schools were a source of pride – the bedrock of American democracy. What has happened? Most Americans are right now wondering if their dream is vanishing before their eyes.
Approximately 23% of public school parents ask themselves if their children will be left out of an education, without which the American Dream is unattainable. It is not fair to surmise that the other 77 % are all that satisfied. The current economic decline has now refocused our attention on education yet I have been saying for years that we have a pointless attachment to an old model of teaching and until we are willing to let go of this attachment, the sad truth is that American education will continue to decline, even past the current crisis it is in. Yet, the mere idea of brand-new buildings enhances our expectations – just because they are new.
What To Do: Somehow, somewhere, someone decided that the shiny shell was more important than making sure – before it was built – that staffing the school with knowledgeable teachers was more important than the bling. We are in desperate need in this country of first having teachers who actually know what children need to learn without hamstringing them to textbooks. We should curtail construction spending while allotting precious budgeted monies to purchasing what is needed to educate children in a way that prepares them for the roles they will be playing fifteen years from now. What would that require? It would require reinventing school from the inside out.
Granted, your brand-new school is a disappointment, yet even if it came with all the bells and whistles money could buy, you would still be giving your daughter an education that will make her fit for employment in 1980 or thereabouts. Michelle Rhee, take notice.
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Rhee's Sisyphean Rock
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Dear Dr. Fournier: I’m reading a lot about Washington, D.C. School Chancellor, Michelle Rhee, especially since Obama won the election. What do you think about her and what she is doing (or not doing)? I live in Hagerstown, Maryland, which is close to Washington. |
The Assessment: We’re in an economic period that three generations – Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y – have never experienced. Only those left from the Greatest and Silent Generations know the despair and demise that came after a lavish, freewheeling, greedy period in this nation’s history called the Roaring Twenties. It was a time characterized by over-indebtedness and institutional malfeasance among other things. I’m of course referring to the ’29 Stock Market Crash and the Great Depression. Apparently, we have we learned nothing from history.
Here we are again. Over-indebtedness and government, institutional and business malfeasance have caused today’s economic crisis. Companies now must downsize if they are to survive. The repercussions of this new reality? Plenty of Americans are unemployed; more are soon-to-be unemployed. These people have lost or are about to lose their jobs, life savings, homes, plasma TVs, cars and everything else they worked so hard for, as we face this generation’s Great Depression.
What I think about Michelle Rhee is that with a looming Great Depression 2 on our hands, politicians are likely to not listen to the need to take a wrecking ball to the current education model. That means Ms. Rhee faces a near impossible battle to win, that of “fixing” the DC public school system.
What To Do: What worked at one time in this country’s history is an education model that not only transformed the United States, but it also brought about a completely different world. That model was created for the agricultural and industrial eras, ones we are far removed from yet we continue to educate our children based on the horse-and-buggy and the Model T mentality. This is the system Ms. Rhee is trying to fix and I want to bury it.
There are few of us in the battle for our children’s minds and hearts in hopes of educating them with new paradigms of thought. Instead, our children are growing up to become adults that shortly will end up at parents’ or someone’s doorstep cloaked in a pink slip.
Society is happy educating our children in these bling schools. I am not. Children educated in these schools will live a life of thin pockets carrying deadly plastic aplenty. Bling schools cannot fulfill parents’ and children’s hopes for an education that will make them competitive in the coming synergistic era.
This current economic meltdown has driven home one basic fact: greed and the bling life is a virus sapping at the economic foundation of this country. And our children come out of schools not knowing how to make change for a dollar without a machine’s help or an understanding of the value of that money, which, by the way, doesn’t buy happiness and can’t be earned by old paradigm educated children.
Ms. Rhee will not get far trying to fix bling schools. Instead, she must be bold and demand that we take the wrecking ball to our outdated education model, which is turning us into a nation of people with bankrupt minds, a bleak prospect for our future.
We must build a new education model, not try and resuscitate the dinosaur.
President-Elect Barack Obama has a mandate, if he desires to use it, to reinvent education in America so that we are assured of developing successful adults for 2020 and beyond. Ms. Rhee should demand he do so. Until she does, she will be no more than Sisyphus with her vouchers, charter schools and other band-aids.
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Grades don't reflect knowledge, only test questions
September 09, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: All Levels
Every year
since fifth grade my son’s straight A report cards
have declined. Last year he was a B to C and even D
(in math) student. He has no behavior problems, pays
attention, completes his work and does his homework
before any TV or play. He always hands in his work.
He just makes poor grades on his tests. Last year his
teacher had his class bring home all graded work
every Friday to correct mistakes and hand in the
corrected papers on Tuesday. Most of his errors were
careless errors that he could correct right away once
he saw what he did. The teacher was more than willing
to re-explain if he arrived early on Tuesday
mornings. I would take him in early and he never
complained. His grades do not reflect what he knows
yet I can’t scream, yell, or punish enough to get him
to stop losing points for what he already
knows.Read
more...
Examine block system to ensure benefits
August 26, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: Pre-School
| Elementary
School
I
have a grandchild in the 5th grade that now goes to a
block scheduled school. He is in one classroom much
longer, but after the initial lesson, his teacher
answers any questions then supervises students while
they sit quietly and do their assigned
homework. Doesn’t this seem like a much better
idea than actually sending home hours of
homework?Read
more...
Let development guide school decisions
July 29, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: Pre-School
My
daughter is almost three years old, and I am a
stay-at-home mom. Lately, I have been getting advice
from friends that my child should be in pre-school.
My friends say that children who don’t go to
pre-school will not be prepared for kindergarten. I
don’t want my child to be at a disadvantage early in
her life, but I also feel that the time we spend
together is important for her development. Will not
attending pre-school really hurt my daughter’s
educational future?Read
more...
Schools not teaching for the future? Start at home
June 03, 2008 12:00 PM Filed in: All Levels
I
have two children in school, and I am concerned that
they might not be receiving a well-rounded education.
In past columns, you discuss the importance of
preparing our children for a new global workforce,
and you emphasize how quickly our world is changing.
While this may be true, I am not sure that our
schools are adapting at the same pace. Some schools
are making small strides – and I hear much
philosophical talk about change – but I am not sure
that the implementation takes place. When looking
back on the past semester, I don’t see much evolution
in our school’s curriculum. Is there anything I can
do to enrich my children’s education and provide them
with the knowledge and skills they will need for the
ever-changing future?
Read more...
Read more...
