Rescuing our schools: Part 4, The New Paradigm

This the fourth of a four-part series on K-12 education reform.

It was an interesting, if discouraging, hour-long interview with our local city schools superintendent, a substantially important job because she administers K-12 education to the children of our 45,000-populous (and growing) community in Arizona. Not that she isn't a bright, or even brilliant administrator. She earned her spurs as a young teacher in Wyoming, back at the beginning of era I call the "Age of Aquarius" reform period, which I discussed in Parts 1 and 2 of this four-part series "Rescuing our Schools." And here she is a half-century later, wrestling with the creature of her design.

I really have no personal animus for her--in fact, I'm awed that she is able to daily find the energy--especially at her age--to deal with the schools under her supervision. It's not easy managing the near-chaos typical of most public schools in the U.S.A.

I hate to admit it, but she controlled my interview--she was determined not to brook negative talk about a "reformed" system she was, after all, along with her thousands of colleagues an, architect. But I did manage a couple of touchy questions, one of which was, "With all the teachers, substitutes and aides you have to hire each year, how do you attract and retain them, given the abominable salaries you pay?"

It was evident she was used dealing with this old question, because she had a ready answer: "Fortunately, we have a good source from the nearby military base--they need the employment, but most important, salaries are not the most important factor to any of my teachers . . . they do it because they love children." Anyone who actually buys into this spin is hopelessly naive and uninformed. A more accurate answer would have been: "They do it, because most of them can't do anything else." However, in my vision of the future of a reformed system is, it'd be O.K. for teachers in the future quality, reformed system to love children, but I'd hire them on the basis of demonstrating that they're stable, intelligent, and highly capable people whose bona fides would not include a college degree in education, but in an academic specialty (or practical experience) appropriate to their teaching assignments.

In part 3, I promised to outline my design for The New Paradigm. To fulfill that promise, I decided to rely on two main sources: My own e-mail to a friend and the excellent work of Bob Lavin of Portland, Maine; he's a blogger who writes under the pseudonym "Gnuteacher." Doing so will cut down the time I'd otherwise spend rewriting my own e-mail thoughts and trying to re-work the extensive and excellent work of Gnuteacher, with whom I agree to an iota.

First my email I wrote in response to the comments by Bill Cosby and Star Parker about education, which my pal forwarded to me. I quote myself:

How much longer are the Star Parkers and Bill Cosbys going to entertain us with their pen and paper, in order to motivate the blacks (and other minorities) as well as us, the WASP crackers? They write, and we all nod our heads in solemn agreement, but we continue to elect failed political retreads and hacks as well as wild-eyed congenital liars with no or impossible agendas. Then when nothing changes or social pressures grow so demanding and thus force our so- called leaders to react, we spend years bitching and moaning at the stupidity, irrelevance, etc. of our school boards and school administrators. Want a taste of real reform? Here's an outline, beginning with some background:

First, recognize what education is really all about. It isn't to make good,intelligent, contributing citizens or develop lifelong learners, or to help each individual develop their full potentials. No, its purpose continues to be to establish fixed habits of reaction to authority, to make conformists of our kids, to develop each person's eventual social role, but most of all to provide the "fodder" for industry to maintain a workforce in support of "free market" principles.

Things got really wild after Sputnik when the government captured education by throwing unlimited monies at the system to develop linguists, scientists and the necessary human infrastructure to keep up with the USSR in its technological advances (this spawned the 1958 Defense Education Act), allowing unlimited experimentation that the hippies glommed onto in pursuit of their vague, purposeless "Age of Aquarius." And today we're left with the school system that has picked up the disabled that used to be in private or government-run sanitariums; we adopted the stupid hippie notion that individual children know better than their teachers what they want to study; when forced to study a basic reading, writing, and arithmetic regimen, are coddled by Bush's No Child Left Behind which naturally devolves into teaching tests that, in good faith are designed to measure actual achievement.

So the beat goes on and reformers have no chance to institute real reform because education has become a monstrous, faceless bureaucracy that has captured America, its parents and its kids. If you're skeptical, just read what Bill Gates has said in recent months, and why he and hundreds of other businesses must seek "brain power" abroad. Just look at the appalling recent stats that nationally, 40% of kids do not graduate from high school! This is up from the traditional 25% the past couple decades. Things are in a f**king mess that constitutes a disaster which is undoing our society and is "dumbing down" (Bill Bennett's term) the nation. Little wonder that our country elects queers as governors, Bill Ney's and ex-fighter pilots who turn out to be parasites and crooks.

2. Here are my recommendations, which I'm certain will never see light of day until the country implodes completely after the governors lose their grip on the present social order:

(a) Re-examine the purpose of education, which, in a nutshell should be: To recognize that every kid isn't enabled with the same capacity. Some should be in an institutional setting with special education teachers and nurses, while others should be mechanics and people who build the society the brilliant engineers design, and are capable of leadership in industry, law and politics.

(b) Around these classes (yes, my dear, what horror--I'm advocating that the classless society goals of JFK and LBJ must be rooted out and respect for individuals' abilities planted in their place) a rebuilt education system, with minimal influence or interference by the federal government, whose limited role would be to return to local schools the tax money we, the people, have paid and are now demand its return--without strings attached. The second federal involvement would be to host temporary boards of active teachers recruited from the states whose task would be to develop standardized curricula. In so doing, we could (and should) dismiss 99 percent of bloated, useless Department of Education in Washington.

(c) Demand teachers who have IQs of at least 120 and whose training is in the specific areas of practicum designed to master early on the basic skills (the 3 R's) and then to engage, in specific courses according to the desired end goal, the capable kids, as per my definition above.

(d) To hell with education courses for teachers, but instead seek out 'real' people from society who are actual practitioners in their areas and make them either adjunct or permanent teachers, according to their stage of life and personal needs.
(e) Throw out all distractions in curricula and focus on the essentials of the particular skill set the kids are training in.

(f) Throw out all non-productive and "theoretical" pedagogical approaches and speak and write in plain, concrete terms.

(g) Throw out teachers with social or political agendas. No more "civics" classes that are being propagandized by maladaptive "teachers," and replaced by leader or ex-leaders in communities at local, state and federal levels--people who have actual experience in governing.

(h) Throw out all frills such as swimming pools, fancy gyms and spas, irrelevant infrastructure that do not answer the question: "Is it needed to learn the (now radically revised) curriculum.

(i) Re-educate the parents (and bar them from interfering with the reformed schools, on pain of having their kids ejected) who, being products of the abomination we've suffered for the past half-century, probably have no clue what constitutes a sound education.

(j) Encourage parents to install severe Internet filters that will end the kids' exposure to sex, violence, and kook social theories. TV for students would be programmed and filtered so as to only carry programs relating to and reinforcing their level of educational curricula--these could be "hard core" subjects as well as entertainment, as long as it related to the curricula.

(k) Allow the greatest flexibility in the establishment of private institutions and finally,

(l) Establish a voucher system wherein students could choose their school, public or private, in any location, that would offer the specific career-directing courses they've chosen according to their (tested) native abilities. This would be a good start.

Following are verbatim excerpts from Gnuteacher's "Manifesto":

GNUTEACHER'S MANIFESTO OF EDUCATION REFORM

Gnuteacher says of himself: I have been involved in "education" for the past 15 years. I have taught in public and private schools in the United States and abroad. I am NOT a certified teacher and I look with antipathy and derision upon those that are. I believe that we can reform our educational system quickly and at absolutely no cost if we have the will and desire to do so.

Organizational Structure:

1. Give more power to the individual schools, principals and teachers. Let them hire, fire and train their own staff.

2. Consult with others outside the field of Education and study the writings of professionals in their respective fields. For example:

Learning Organizations (Peter Senge)
Systems Theory (Margaret Wheatley)
Industrial Ecology (Tachi Kiuchi)
Media Ecology (Neil Postman)
Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner)
Innovation and the Future (Gary Hamel)

3. Establish Lesson Study Groups within schools. In the long haul for Education reform, Lesson Study is one key to success.

4. Reject Federal funding. There is nothing in the US Constitution that says the Federal government should have anything to do with state schools. Tell 'em "thanks but no thanks" when they try to give you money and you won't have to follow any of their stupid regulations.

5. Outlaw, abolish and starve out the teacher's unions. They are one of the main reasons for our current, rotten system.

6. Expect that schools will be open for 12 hours per day for community and student needs. We paid for them so let us in whenever we want.

7. Our schools should be models of a paperless society. There is no reason for the waste and repetition that our schools produce each and every year. If you can't access a computer in the 21st Century then a teacher should call you on the phone and tell you that Johnny is flunking her class.

Cultural / Metaphysical:

1. A dress code for Teachers. Have you seen the way these people dress? Take off those sweatpants and put on a tie and you will notice that the students will respect you just a little bit more especially if you put pants back on.

2. A Teacher code of conduct consisting of: honesty, personal responsibility, intellectual curiosity, industry, kindness, empathy and courage. Teachers should ride the school bus in the morning if they are on the route and stop cutting the lunch line.

3. Incentives for students based on performance. How about $10 for every "A"?

4. No homework, textbooks or detentions.

5. Music over the intercom in the morning.

6. Longer school day with meaningful activity hosted by volunteer Teachers. Don't let our children roam the streets until we get home from work.

7. A bonfire on the eve of the first day of school. A spiritual rebirth every year.

8. More field trips within 1 mile of school. Get out of school more often and explore the resources for learning within walking distance of your homeroom.

Curriculum:

1. Teach literacy, numeracy and civic understanding along with rhetoric, linguistics, media studies, seeing and memorizing.

2. Bring back art, music, dance and theatre if only after school.

3. Teach all subjects under these umbrella headings:
Inquiry and Expression
Math and Science
Philosophy and History
Literature and the Arts

Teachers:

1. Involved in a Lesson Study group.

2. Streamlined alternative certification for would-be Teachers. Too many good Teachers never make it into the classroom because of hurdles placed in their way. Private schools Teachers are not certified but they DO have a degree in a specific major other than "Education" and they usually score high on verbal aptitude tests.

3. Highest test scores and verbal aptitude tests as basis for hiring. Right now all you have to do is pass the Praxis test. We should hire only Teachers who have scored extremely high instead.

4. Trained in the Socratic Method.

5. Teachers must ask themselves three questions each day:
What am I going to help my students to learn today?
What is it good for? and...
How do I know?

6. Teachers should occasionally teach a class outside of their field. This not only keeps things interesting for the Teacher and students but it also reminds the Teacher what it is like to be a Learner again.

7. Teachers should talk less, ask only questions and always say "please" and "thank you".

If you want to know how the whole thing turns out, then get your copy of the Gnuteacher Education Manifesto when it comes off the presses. We'll let you know.

Footnote: The above material, written sometime in 2006, was accompanied by the following advisory: "The [complete] Gnuteacher Manifesto of Education Reform is complete and has been sent to the printers. Before it is ready for distribution we thought that we would share some of the ideas contained within this groundbreaking and monumental treatise on the causes of and solutions to the problems facing our public schools. You will notice that almost all of the ideas don't cost a dime and there is no good reason why they can't be implemented ASAP." However, I have been unable to find it in print and due to the lack of activity on Gnuteacher's blogsite, he may have become inactive sometime in 2006--at least he hasn't returned my e-mail inquiry asking for his O.K. to cite his material above. But I'm risking his wrath by citing it, especially in light of his encouraging e-mail to me in early 2006.