Education Program-Rewritten Again-
The President is introducing a new education plan to replace the Bush No Child Left Behind effort. After all the years of programs to improve the standard of public school education the results have revealed several facts that have been hidden in the fog of political rhetoric,
Throwing money at education is not the answer. State governments have provided few answers to the plight of public schools and the Federal government has contributed less. The teachers unions have been the most successful organizations in affecting the educational system. Unfortunately the unions have not shown much interest in education. They have represented the financial interests of the teachers in a strong and productive manner and maybe that is the way it should be. Unions have as a basic activity the task of improving salaries and working conditions of their members.
There needs to be an entity somewhere that understands that education needs to have dedicated, intelligent teachers who have themselves been educated. A teacher that has studied how to teach history but hasn’t really studied history seems to lack an essential element needed to be a history teacher. That seems to be where improvement should start in the public schools. The teachers need to be educated first.
Fifty years after sitting in Miss Montgomery’s 8th grade English class I remember the challenge she presented in our hour with her every day. Everyone was not an A student but everyone n her 8th grade class was prepared for high school English. We wrote a 500 word paper almost every week. We memorized poetry and stood in front of the class reciting from memory. Miss Montgomery did not take nonsense or prisoners from the class. Egregious misbehavier and you were out of the class in a heartbeat with The Principal and parents involved in determining the conditions of parole and readmission to the class.
This happened very rarely because everyone knew why they were in Miss Montgomery’s class and it wasn’t for recess. This was pretty much the understanding we had with nearly all the teachers in my public school experience. They knew their subject and were determined that their pupils would know it before it was time to move on.
They were intelligent dedicated people committed to getting their pupils prepared for the next grade or challenge in their lives. I know there are many teachers out there in the Miss Montgomery mold but have extraneous issues that were not part of her teaching day.
The teachers unions are an important extraneous issue. The political force that they represent make that of the NRA look like a semi pro team. The Teachers unions represent one of ther greatest impediments to our children’s educational future.
The ink on the Obama proposal was not yet dry when Randi Weingarten gave her objection. Weingarten is president of the American Federation of Teachers.
Her dissenting point was that Obama in his plan was continuing to insist that teachers should be accountable for the results they produce. Weingarten has in the past called for schools to do more than teach. She has called for all the services that a student and family requires, be provided at the school. Medical and dental services as well as family counseling would be provided at school as well as a host of other activities in a Weingarten plan. I think that Miss Montgomery would look at Weingarten as being from another planet. Miss Montgomery and her colleagues were first accountable to themselves as to the results they produced. They were much more personally demanding than any of the programs to which Weingarten objects.
Before Miss M.or I would take Weingarten seriously as an educator I would give her a few questions to test the level of her education. The questions would be limited to what an 8th grader should know in my generation.
1. Where did the following originate and who was the author
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
2. How could Public Education use the theme of this rhyme to describe conditions today.
Answers
1.The Rime of the Ancient Mariner—Samuel Taylor Coleridge-1798
2.Year after year, year after year
Education stuck without breath nor motion
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean
Programs. Programs everywhere
While all the brains did shrink
Programs. Programs everywhere
But none to help a child to think
I remember well the hours I spent memorizing verses of Coleridge’s classic poem that can say much to us today.
I wonder it the Rime of the Ancient Mariner in 8th grade is part of the total services package that Weingarten and others feel that the public schools should provide.
We of course do not know if Obama is familiar with Coleridge since all of his school records have been hidden from public examination. We do not know what he studied, anywhere.
This Post was written with fond memories of teachers who struggled to make me passably literate and capable of some level of understanding what I was reading or hearing.
My thanks to: Miss Montgomery, Miss Dugan. Mr. Cylinder. Miss Fitzpatrick, Mrs. Elgin, Mr.Draper, Dr. Edwin Coddington. Dr. William W. Watt and Dr. Thomas who presented the greatest challenges for discovery, in his Survey of English Literature, remembered as the Mystery Hour by at least one former student..
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Buck,
The most poignant line in your post is, “out of the class in a heartbeat with The Principal and parents involved in determining the conditions of parole and readmission to the class”
I can tell you from experience that much of the problem is that parents have abdicated their responsibilities to the school, as has been requested by the AFT. The phrase “wait until I tell your parents” no longer has the impact that it had in your day or mine. Too often, if the parents do get involved, they go after the teacher rather than holding the child accountable for behavior.
To make matters worse, too often the teachers are not allowed to fail or hold back a child who is not performing to par. This is a directive from the school board and/or school administrators.
Good education requires accountability. It starts with the textbook publishers, and extends to the school board, school administrators, teachers, parents, and students. Take away the accountability from any one group and the system fails. While I am no fan of the unions, I can’t see throwing them under the bus while everyone else gets a pass.
Heath