I am tired of politicians and their commentators using public education as a whipping boy. Thomas Sowell slung mud all over public schools in his June 7th editorial. He said, “If the schools waste precious time indoctrinating children instead of educating them, that’s the children’s problem and the country’s problem, but not the teacher’s problem.”
I disagree. It IS the teacher’s problem. Teachers are in charge of their classrooms, but writers like Mr. Sowell, who doesn’t know split peas from chile about what teaching is like in a public school classroom, is all to ready too flick spitwads at teachers. Those who are farthest from the classroom (politicians and commentators) seem to be the loudest critics, and you don’t hear nearly enough the other side of the story.
People want to talk about “bad teachers,” and there are a few, but for every one of those there are 10 more teachers out there working their absolute hardest to pull the absolute best out of their students. They don’t teach for the money, they teach for the kids.
However, public schools do need to change. The public school system was set up in an early 20th century industrialized world, and has resisted change ever since. Which means the schools are producing 21st century graduates ready for a 20th century workplace. Mr. Sowell was right that “American children lag behind children in other countries that spend far less per pupil than we do.” Other developed and developing countries are producing graduates ready for a 21st century world and are leaving us behind.
What do we do? Some have suggested private school vouchers or charter schools with mixed results. Who do we turn to? Ask the experts, not the politicians. Classroom teachers are the experts who work with students everyday, and know what they need. They have been using their best teaching strategies to teach this current generation of children in factory-shaped buildings with an assembly line of yearly grade levels with bells to tell us when learning starts and stops. We have have dynamic, creative teachers of all shapes, colors, and sizes that are still being stuffed into square, box-like classrooms preparing children for a workplace that is so diverse that some of the jobs they will have haven’t even been invented yet. Can you measure that on a bubblesheet achievement test?
Mr. Sowell asked “Why are teachers so bold?” I say they are not bold enough. Teachers need to reshape public education into a system that works for kids, not forcing kids to work for the system. This reshaping involves you too, public citizen. You have a stake in this, too. Teachers are the solution because they are the ones closest to the students. However, most are not forward enough to tell how schools should be unless you ask them because they are so busy taking care of their students. Don’t beat up on them. Ask them. They’ll tell you about the real problem and even offer some solutions.
James Sigler
President, Carl Junction Teachers Association
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