Most adults find fault with how our high schools educate youths
Just 11 percent of Ohioans think that most high school students are being challenged by their schoolwork, according to results of an education survey released Monday.
And three-quarters of respondents said America's ability to compete on the world stage will be weakened if Ohio's high schools don't change within the next 25 years.
The results are from the Ohio portion of "Ready for the Real World? Americans Speak on High School Reform," a poll conducted in April for the Educational Testing Service of Princeton, N.J. The nonprofit Educational Testing Service develops, administers or scores the AP exams, the SAT, the Graduate Record Examination and almost 200 other tests.
"This is right in line with everything we know and see, particularly in our low-income and urban school districts and some of our rural districts," said Harold Brown, vice president for school improvement at the Cincinnati-based KnowledgeWorks Foundation, an education philanthropy.
I agree, high school is not as challenging as it used to be. As a product of public schools, I was challenged in high school, especially in areas of history and social sciences. Government my senior year was one of the more challenging classes. However, now, my sister comes home and talks about how easy her high school Government class is: "we learned it all in 8th grade." Part of this I place on the teacher, a clown coach who only has his job because daddy is the president of the school board. The other part I place on the system.
We have entrusted our educational system to people who make their living writing books and tests. The ETS cited above, they are a testing and textbook company. They not only administer the ACT, they administer the teaching tests as well. So, if teachers are not as challenging, then we need more tests, right? And who benefits? ETS.
ETS and the NEA have successfully dumbed down education. Instead of encouraging students to excel by promoting high standards, we succumb to the soft bigotry of low expectations. Students should be challenged, not spoonfed. They should be encouraged to think not taught what to think. However, that is what we are getting.
In science classes, we treat corporataions as bad, due to global warming and eco system talk. We do not consider the discoveries by pharmaceuticals. In government, we are taught about the crusading courts and their role in extending civil rights, and making law better; when that is not what they are supposed to do.
And why? The teachers unions claim it is because of these darn new standards and state tests. Well, instead of looking to ETS to do surveys, do them yourself. ETS does these surveys so they can then market new, "tougher" tests. The NEA goes hand in hand so they can advocate for even more money spent on education, namely to NEA friendly coffers, and administration.
We have gone from teaching the basics and building on them to a system focused on feelings and mutual adequacy over individual achievement. We teach to the middle, because we have grown so big.
Remember the 1970s? Bigger is better. WE should consolidate, because we will save money and have extra tax base. Well, that has worked out great, hasn't it? Now, we continue to have schools griping, except now they are griping because they are so big. HELLO! Who advocated for it? Teachers unions and administration.
The education system will continue to flounder as long as we go with the fix of the day, going with the junk psychology of the moment, like "Assertive Discipline", "Whole Language Approach," and other pop psychology measures aimed at being touchy feely instead of seeking competence and advancement.
School systems need to be divided up. Large schools produce lack of community identity, lack of connection to schools, and a general malaise. However, the small schools of choice approach is not the answer. Having a mega-school but then breaking it down into little college like schools of medicine and international studies only serves to destroy school cohesion and identity. The answer is in smaller, community based schools, period.
Also, teachers need to have good background, and be firmly rooted. My education was solidly in the Social Studies arena, with courses in Sociology, Psychology, Economics, Government/Politics, and of course, History of the World and the US. However, intstead of taking people with knowledge of content, we take in people with knowledge of method. So, we get all these touchy feely type teaching styles, but we end up learning the same basic knowledge as we did in fifth grade. Whatever happened to building blocks?
Part of that problem rests in the fact that the standards lack a firm cohesion of order. We have dabblings of this course, dabblings of that, all interspersed at different grades and ages. So, we end up teaching a hodgepodge rather than cohesive subjects. That is a huge problem, especially since many studies show students not able to thik so abstractly until they are in their late teens to early twenties, times when they are out of school and should have the fundamentals.
High school social studies should not be about learning about what the three branches of government are. That is first we review nonsense. High School government should be about discussing the foundations of the Constitution, the links between thought like Hobbes and Locke to the founders, and extrapolating the Constitution to today. That is what I tried to teach to my students, of course, I was told I should not be trying that, to stick to just the little stuff, because, I was simply employed in a rural district, where most of them would just be farmers anyway. My refusal to do so led eventually to my resignation, and my current lack of teaching employment. However, I stand behind my teaching. It is about raising the bar, not pushing students to barely clear the bar. I think more parents in Ohio look at what we are spending in all these pop culture fixes and such, and are seeing little bang for the buck. And they are speaking out. However, if one would have looked at the NEA's philosophy briefs the past decade or so, one would see what was coming.
I can only hope that this new poll and outrage will lead me to find a teaching position. I want to make students appreciate our system, to realize its faults, and to endeavor to live the dream of Smith, Winthrop, King, Reagan, Kennedy, and others. To inspire them through the challenging teaching of our past, connecting it to our present, to help prepare for the future. Sadly, we spend too much time with touchy feely sensitivity crap and the like to teach the subject matter. We spend too much time worrying over tests and teaching to them instead of just teaching. Now, the chickens are coming home to roost.
