The State of Edikashun

In the news, we keep hearing about the deplorable state of public education in this country. Everyone complains about it, and most people agree that something needs to be done about it. Since I set up this site to be able to throw ideas about, I am going to throw a couple.

First off, I am not an expert. I am young, and I do not have a degree. Worst of all, I am a recent product of the public educational system. Frightening, that. But, I do have a few thoughts on the matter, scrambled and incomprehensible as they are.

Whether you think it is the governments job to provide education or not, it is here and unlikely to change in the near future. Thusly, what can be done to improve public education without upsetting the current funding system? Here are some of my ideas in no particular order.

- Teach real things. It does not matter how good a student or a teacher is if it just amounts to the modern equivalent of George Orwell’s Ministry of Information. I can not tell you how many hours of political indoctrination I have sat through in school. Those hours were completely wasted.

- Crossword puzzles, word searches and “group activities” are not a substitute for teaching. Teaching is not babysitting. Just because students are sitting quietly and are occupied with a task does not mean that they are learning anything. Busy work is just that. The point is to have the students learn, not jump through hoops.

- Some teachers can’t, or won’t, teach. Fire them. This is a simple principle. Teaching is a job. Teachers are employees. If an employee can not do, or refuses to do their job, they get fired.

- Some students can’t, or won’t, learn as fast as the rest. Don’t advance them with the rest. Notice, please, that I said “learn”. I did not say “jump through hoops”. Other students are quite bright. They should not be slowed down just so the rest can keep up. If a teacher cannot tell the difference, they really should not be teaching.

- Back up good teachers. Good teachers are few and far between. They need to be kept. The administrations (and parents) need to support them when they give poor grades to students that have not learned the subject matter. Schools are not day care. They are places of learning. Parents need to remember that their kids are not perfect. Sometimes, not always but sometimes, what the teacher tells you about them is true.

- Dump interschool athletics. School is not a sports club. There are plenty of other places for kids to get involved in competitive sports. Youth leagues abound. If funding is so tight, why is so much being spent on athletics?

- Some teachers are not adequately compensated. There is plenty of money there, but the way it is spent in education is less than effective.

- Grade inflation and self esteem grading do not help. Is it really good to have half of the school body on the honor roll, if they can hardly read properly?

- Finally, remember that the NEA is a union just like any other. It works to improve things for teachers, not for education. Just because they come up with a new batch of Kool-Aid does not mean we all have to drink it.

Anyway, this is just a short list of things that are possible on a purely local level. On a national level? Ideally, the federal government would not get involved in education. Since, however, they are, I really do like the idea of school vouchers. Get some competition in there for the public school system. Now, I know that a lot of people immediately scream “But that will just take money away from our already under funded school system!” That is patently false. As I said, the school system is not under funded, but they way the funds are spend is terribly wasteful.

Think about it a bit and throw some ideas around here. That is what this site is for!