By KEN WIBECAN
The failures of American education have been talked to death, yet there are few signs of progress. Our national penchant for throwing money at problems just doesn't work in this instance. Or might there be other reasons why we are having so much trouble with a problem that most industrialized nations have already solved?
The New Commission on the skills of the American workforce, "a bipartisan panel that included former cabinet secretaries and governors in addition to federal and state officials and business and civic leaders warned that unless improvements are made in the nation's public schools and colleges by 2021, a large number of jobs would be lost to countries including India and China, where workers are better educated" "" V. Dion Haynes, Washington Post 12/15/06.
It well might be that self-serving interests, corporate lobbying and bruised egos get in the way of creativity. Here are 10 questions, all of which must be answered before our educational system can improve.
1. "Why don't we take the politics out of education?" Elected school boards are frequently composed of amateurs without the latest knowledge of education theory and practices. Officials in charge of education must comprehend innovative methods and techniques that work. They might even want to empower school districts to sign contracts with professional companies and teachers to run our schools.
2. "What does owning property have to do with education?" The present method of funding (property tax) does not produce enough money and places an unfair burden on poor property owners and those living on fixed incomes "" particularly the elderly.
3. "Why don't we have year-round school?" It happens quite effectively in other countries. And, if you think about it, very few school-age youths are required to work on family farms during the summers these days.
4. "Whv do we still have tenure for teachers?" Let's eliminate the obsolete practice of tenure and subject teachers to the same evaluation procedures that all other workers experience on the job site.
5. "Whv not bring schools into the 21st centurv?" Right now, "kids spend much of their day as their great-grandparents once did: sitting in rows, listening to teachers lecture, scribbling notes by hand, reading from textbooks that are out of date by the time they are printed. A yawning chasm (with an emphasis on yawning) separates the world inside the schoolhouse from the world outside," says Claudia Wallis and Sonia Steptoe in "How To Bring Our Schools Out Qf The 20th Century." "" Time magazine 12/18/2006.
We live in a society in which our kids have computers, MP3 players, playstations, iPods, the Internet, cell phones that make movies, and many other technological innovations. Shouldn't our schools and educational methods reflect their world and make better use of these tools?
6. "Is it practical or even possible for schools to continue to provide income and health care for employees from the time they leave employment until the time they die?" These days, retirement can last more years than the original employment, and few school districts can afford it. Nobody knows how schools are supposed to acquire the funds to pay for current and future retirement and health-care obligations.
7. "Why don't schools put less emphasis on testing and memorization and more emphasis on creative and innovative skills?" Enough said!
8. Why doesn't teacher pay reflect their effectiveness? Master teachers must be rewarded by higher pay and ineffective teachers should be retrained or replaced without having to go through a lengthy, cumbersome process.
9. "Instead of taking religion out of the schools, why not add it to the curriculum?" A required course in comparative religion will help students understand the origin and practice of all religions and help dispel the myths, lies and misunderstandings that abound these days.
10. "Why not poll the students on what makes school so boring that many drop out?" For the most part, European students enjoy school, and there is no reason why American students can't do likewise. Let's conduct the same exit interviews for school drop-outs as we do for workers.
A nation that sent a human being to stroll on the moon can surely figure out how to educate their young people. A little creative thinking can go a long way. In a sane society, schools that fail in their mission "" both private and public "" would disappear while the good ones flourish. Either we make the difficult but necessary changes or we fall behind the rest of the world and complain about why Americans keep losing so many good jobs to foreign competition.
