Towards a Partial and Provisional Theory of Educational Failure
I've posted some snappish things about America's educational problems, about its inherently problematic structure and economics, and about its crabbed pedagogical ideas -- but I have some ideas in mind that are much more essential than how we pay for it or assess it. I'm increasingly uncomfortable even with how we imagine its goals.
Let me start with an analogue in the form of physical health. Obesity has become more and more of a problem, even as the tools for fighting it have become more readily available. My monthly gym membership is $10. It's not luxurious, but it certainly offers anything I need to stay in shape. My grocery store offers more and more options every day. And for those who think those options are only in the packaged, unhealthy foods, think of what the produce section of a grocery store looked like when I was a child. Almost all lettuce was iceberg. I grew up thinking pears were pretty exotic fruits. The choice now is staggering, year-round.
But perhaps it is the very ease of it all that is almost like a poison pill.
As an educator, I was part of the debates at every level, from fighting for what I wanted in my classroom to being on the committee to look at Common Core standards before they were rolled out. And one of the themes I keep seeing is that we just need to make it easy for students to learn. Thus mathematics is boiled down to a few memorized algorithms, English classes strive to be increasingly accessible and relevant, as the buzzwords go. And testing has become focused on simply clearing the bar, which has become lower and lower. (As a side note, what is the percentage required to earn a GED? 40%. Let that sink in.)
And education has followed the trajectory of our waistlines -- we are as mentally flabby as we are physically. And I wonder how many educators it has occurred to that perhaps struggle and difficulty is where the reward lies, where the motivation students seem to lack might be found. We've systematically lowered expectations (especially in the inner city, where I taught) to the point where our message to students about academic achievement is patronizing and plodding.
At an academic conference a few years ago, I met a mathematician who said these words to me: "There is no mathematics being taught in American public schools." He was exaggerating for dramatic effect, but not by much. What we teach kids in math class is not investigation, the heart of developing an interest in the subject, but process. Follow these four easy steps, carry the one, and voila! No need to think or anything.
Wealthy school districts are not exempt from this problem. However, they have the money to offer enrichment over and above curriculum, to offer students other outlets to find real challenges. Urban schools, on the other hand, continue to shed arts, music, journalism, theater, debate, and other programs. How excited are you to eat at a restaurant where the menu has been emptied of any excitement, where only thin gruel is available. Wouldn't you be loath to show up? Wouldn't you rebel?
Public school students are children, but they aren't idiots. Perhaps their lack of maturity makes it all the easier to bail out when offered so little.
Let me start with an analogue in the form of physical health. Obesity has become more and more of a problem, even as the tools for fighting it have become more readily available. My monthly gym membership is $10. It's not luxurious, but it certainly offers anything I need to stay in shape. My grocery store offers more and more options every day. And for those who think those options are only in the packaged, unhealthy foods, think of what the produce section of a grocery store looked like when I was a child. Almost all lettuce was iceberg. I grew up thinking pears were pretty exotic fruits. The choice now is staggering, year-round.
But perhaps it is the very ease of it all that is almost like a poison pill.
As an educator, I was part of the debates at every level, from fighting for what I wanted in my classroom to being on the committee to look at Common Core standards before they were rolled out. And one of the themes I keep seeing is that we just need to make it easy for students to learn. Thus mathematics is boiled down to a few memorized algorithms, English classes strive to be increasingly accessible and relevant, as the buzzwords go. And testing has become focused on simply clearing the bar, which has become lower and lower. (As a side note, what is the percentage required to earn a GED? 40%. Let that sink in.)
And education has followed the trajectory of our waistlines -- we are as mentally flabby as we are physically. And I wonder how many educators it has occurred to that perhaps struggle and difficulty is where the reward lies, where the motivation students seem to lack might be found. We've systematically lowered expectations (especially in the inner city, where I taught) to the point where our message to students about academic achievement is patronizing and plodding.
At an academic conference a few years ago, I met a mathematician who said these words to me: "There is no mathematics being taught in American public schools." He was exaggerating for dramatic effect, but not by much. What we teach kids in math class is not investigation, the heart of developing an interest in the subject, but process. Follow these four easy steps, carry the one, and voila! No need to think or anything.
Wealthy school districts are not exempt from this problem. However, they have the money to offer enrichment over and above curriculum, to offer students other outlets to find real challenges. Urban schools, on the other hand, continue to shed arts, music, journalism, theater, debate, and other programs. How excited are you to eat at a restaurant where the menu has been emptied of any excitement, where only thin gruel is available. Wouldn't you be loath to show up? Wouldn't you rebel?
Public school students are children, but they aren't idiots. Perhaps their lack of maturity makes it all the easier to bail out when offered so little.
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