Published “My View”, Deseret News, Aug 16, 2010
MY VIEW
Recently, again we read (DesNews 4/11/10) John Florez’ laments that Utah public education does not get the “global economy”. He bemoans that the U.S. has only 14% of the world’s college graduates, that all the Utah legislature can do is “[defy] the Federal government” in education matters. Its time that we put to rest some of the popular phrases for pillorying our public schools.
A Global Economy as it relates to education, merely means a larger group of potential competitors for jobs or business. Mr. Florez thinks that “global economy” suddenly demands ingenuity, resourcefulness and initiative. Wrong! Those have always been in demand, and our supply of them developed through the public schools system, has helped make America Great.
It is popular to complain that: 1) china is graduating thousands more engineers than we are; 2) students in Europe and elsewhere surpass our kids in math proficiency, 3) We must have charter schools to re-invent public education, 4) we must have Federal intervention and funding for our public schools, 4) our students were/are a “Generation at Risk” - the gloomy U.S. Office of Education report.
Take these one at a time. Thousands of Chinese engineers: How many of these touted foreign degrees aren’t worth the paper they’re written on? U.S. teachers serving in China find the schools riddled with favoritism for kids of party bosses. My engineer son works for a microchip maker that finds its Japan-educated engineers cannot match the U. S. hires.
Our kids surpassed in math: Typically these tests measure all our high school kids against the selected-out college-bound kids in other countries. In Germany at abt age 13 kids test into a college-bound track or not. My math professor friend says the Asian kids memorize well, but can’t compare to the U.S. educated when original thinking is required. Charter Schools Some of these may do well, but they are simply re-inventing the wheel. Public schools began as neighborhood-organized, local schools and grew into school districts. If these charters are required to teach all comers, teach English as a second language and have loaded on them all the bells & whistles we demand of public schools they’ll become . . . public schools.
Federal Tests & Funding No Child Left Behind created monster problems. Congress’ meddling generates thousands of wasted hours of duplicate testing time, teaching-to-the-tests and paperwork. One size does not fit all, the genius of federalism gives us local ingenuity and design for problem solving. “
A Generation at Risk” That same publically educated generation addressed in the infamous report of the US Office of Education, is now (still) producing far more patents than ten times its numbers of foreign inventors. U.S. worker productivity ranks us far above nearly every other economy or nation. It is too bad that President Reagan failed in his plan to dismantle the U.S. Office of Education. As for Mr. Florez, it would indeed be refreshing if he could once go behind his favorite cover phrase (global economy) and articulate some form of logical reasoning about it. He and others think entrepreneurial types like Bill Gates should design our schools. Did Bill Gates even go to college? His version of a well-rounded college grad is probably a Microsoft employee. And he’s supposed to be expert in public education? We’re far better off to stick to the business of investing in, supporting, and improving our existing public school system, continuing the local control and funding that has succeeded so well, and leaving the nay sayers to their own doom and gloom.
NOTE: Mr.Beus is the father of twelve children educated in Utah public schools
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I believe what problems do exist with our education system, as good as it is, stem from two primary misperceptions about education: First, that there is one "golden standard" of education that, once found, will be the best educational philosophy across all social and economic bounds. What's best in Idaho is not best in inner-city Chicago. The second, and related, idea is that schools should be larger, not smaller. We forget that a quality education is not built by an administrator, it is built by a teacher. Many people go into teaching precisely because of the opportunity for additional learning, and the chance to make a difference in children's lives. If we foster this desire by allowing teachers a certain amount of latitude in the way they teach, instead of making them feel like slaves to the educational programs imposed by an administrator, we create a better education for our children. This is much easier to do when schools are smaller, and teachers don't just feel like cogs in a giant wheel. Unfortunately, most state governments treat schools like a giant liability, and most of their work involves making the "per capita" education in their state cheaper, not better. This means larger schools.
ReplyDeleteSmaller schools are better, and one size definitely does not fit all.