By Professor Doom
Everyone knows
that the public schools have been failing, and failing hard, for years. Yes,
there are exceptional schools, but we need only look to the children of the
rich, or of the politicians (often the same people) to see that people with any
choice in the matter don’t send their kids to public schools.
A recent
resignation letter by a teacher in the public school system went viral. She
details what’s happening to teaching in the public school system. While I’m in
no position to argue with her, I do see some parallels to what’s going on in
higher education.
“POW”
--a special
ed student, socially promoted through the public school system, ended at my
community college. Although even the middle school material that is typical for
community college was wildly beyond his capabilities, after 7 years (and
special dispensation from admin desperate to have graduates), he finally
managed to get his 2 year degree. One day, in strange circumstances, he got
excited and punched me full in the face, with dozens of witnesses, including a
sub-Poo Bah. I argued against disciplinary action—the poor kid had enough
problems.
The teacher in
question has a graduate degree in “special needs” children, as strange a label
as there is. Each child is an individual, and thus each child has special needs,
in my opinion. I reckon the teacher would be inclined to agree with my point of
view to some extent:
My master’s
degree work focused on behavior disorders, so I can say with confidence that it
is not the children who are disordered. The disorder is in the system which
requires them to attempt curriculum and demonstrate behaviors far beyond what
is appropriate for their age. The disorder is in the system which bars teachers
from differentiating instruction meaningfully, which threatens disciplinary
action if they decide their students need a five minute break from a difficult
concept, or to extend a lesson which is exceptionally engaging. The disorder is
in a system which has decided that students and teachers must be regimented to
the minute and punished if they deviate. The disorder is in the system which
values the scores on wildly inappropriate assessments more than teaching
students in a meaningful and research based manner.
The intense
regimentation of the public schools has its echo in the “computer courses” that
are becoming ever more popular in higher education. Students all read the same
pages at the same time, take the same tests (all multiple choice, thanks to the
huge class sizes of higher education), and submit the same answers (again, a
multiple choice test, which also leads to even “A” students being nearly
incapable of writing anything). Even if it’s not all done on the computer,
“Scantron Test and PowerPoint” lectures are fairly common, where anyone capable
of reading can impersonate a professor, because all the professor does is read
the Powerpoint, and grading is automatic. The most popular type of course on
campus is the type where the students do absolutely nothing, but the previous
types are common enough.
Admin: “We’ve gathered the data, and we can show
that our numbers are a bit higher than before, so we’ve shown improvement.”
Me: “What’s
the level of significance?”
Admin:
“Huh?”
Me: “The
p-value, some indication that the difference between our numbers and whatever
standard you are using is meaningful, and not just chance variation.”
Admin: “I
have no idea what you’re talking about, and we don’t need to show that to the
accreditors.”
Me:
“Because they also have absolutely no training in statistics, research, or
anything related to legitimate research?”
--I didn’t
say that last line, but it was amazing how often I’d deal with an administrator
with a Ph.D., a research degree, that not only didn’t know anything about
research, but also didn’t believe anyone needed
to know anything about research in order to produce useful research.
What the teacher
here has missed is that the reason for the popularity of these strictly
regimented courses is the same whether it’s public school or higher education.
By converting courses into “one size fits all,” the need for experts, people
that actually know the subject, becomes irrelevant. Administrators and their
analogous bureaucrats in public education can make the classes infinitely
large, because the teacher serves no purpose, to the point that more teachers
can be removed. This frees up more money for administrative pay.
The
disorder is in the system which values the scores on wildly inappropriate
assessments more than teaching students in a meaningful and research based
manner.
I’ve mentioned before that Common Core
ignores science and will do great harm to small children as they’re
asked to do things beyond their capabilities. There’s a reason why we teach
little kids about using songs to learn the alphabet, about using fingers for
counting…Common Core abandons the wisdom of thousands of years of teaching
small children, abandons the knowledge of modern (real) science, and trades it
all in for a very cheap “one size fits all” system determined by (childless?)
bureaucrats that will work for almost nobody. The teacher explains:
Developmentally
appropriate practice is the bedrock upon which early childhood education best
practices are based, and has decades of empirical support behind it. However,
the new reforms not only disregard this research, they are actively forcing
teachers to engage in practices which are not only ineffective but actively
harmful to child development and the learning process.
The system of
being forced to hurt people is a little different in higher education:
Admin: “You
need use more group projects with your students.”
Me: “Study
after study shows group work hurts education, that the more time spent in group
work, the less the student learns on his own. Please don’t force this.”
Admin: “I’m
not forcing you, but I’ll deduct from your evaluation for unwillingness to use
group work.”
--Group
work isn’t “forced,” but faculty that refuse to hurt their students are
punished, as faculty with higher evaluations are the ones that get bonuses and
can move up the ladder.
The misery being
inflicted on our small children may not last as long as the misery of the
student loan scam, which puts our young people into a lifetime of debt…but it’s
misery all the same, as the teacher details:
They cry
with frustration as they are asked to attempt tasks well out of their zone of
proximal development. They cry as their hands shake trying to use an antiquated
computer mouse on a ten year old desktop computer which they have little
experience with, as the computer lab is always closed for testing. Their
shoulders slump with defeat as they are put in front of poorly written tests
that they cannot read, but must attempt. Their eyes fill with tears as they
hunt for letters they have only recently learned so that they can type in
responses with little hands which are too small to span the keyboard.
Bureaucrats in public schools don’t
care about crying children, any more than higher education administration cares
about hurting young adults. The latter is all about the money, and I reckon
public schools are much the same.
On June 8,
2015 my life changed when I gave birth to my daughter. I remember cradling her
in the hospital bed on our first night together and thinking, “In five years
you will be in kindergarten and will go to school with me.” That thought should
have brought me joy, but instead it brought dread. I will not subject my child
to this disordered system, and I can no longer in good conscience be a part of
it myself.
This is the
big flag for her, and there was a comparable flag for me, as I noticed that
none of my colleagues at the community college would send their kids to the
community college…some even showed disgust at the thought.
It’s all too common for workers at our fast
food places to refuse to put the food “made” there in their mouths; seeing as
these workers have no control over the quality of the fast food, and know full
well how foul most of it is, this is quite understandable. Our educational
systems are run the same way, with educators in no control of education. How is
it a wonder that what we call “education” is so disgusting now that the workers
in them are completely unwilling to put their kids in the system?
No comments:
Post a Comment