Nothing is so unequal as the equal treatment of unequal people. – Thomas Jefferson
Do you wonder why the government school system is so difficult to deal with or change, even though it is failing to educate our children Why are the school board and administrators and sometimes the teachers defensive and obtuse, even hostile toward your observations and wishes The reason is that the public school system does not belong to We the People and therefore we cannot control it. That’s right, the public does not own or operate the schools — the government does. The school system does not listen to us. More bluntly, the administrators don’t give a damn what parents want because they don’t work for us, they work for the state.
We must not confuse government with society or the public. Contrary to a common belief, we are not the government. The government has goals for its schools (read plans for our children) that are often exactly the opposite of the intentions and goals that parents have for their children. That basic conflict begins to explain why the answer that the schools give to parents and the public is so often, No.
Consider a few of the programs parents want, and the schools system’s response
Parents want ability grouping; but the system pushes leveling– one-size-fits-all classrooms of children who have varying abilities and interests. Parents want Gifted & Talented programs for bright kids; but the school wants Special Ed for the slow ones while ignoring the gifted. Parents want Phonics because it teaches kids how to read, while the schools preach Whole Language that teaches kids to guess at words with the hope – yes, the hope! — that children will somehow learn to read in spite of not being taught how.
Parents want assessments and grade levels to reflect learning, but instead the schools use bloated honor rolls and social promotion to create the illusion of learning regardless of the facts. Parents want teachers to be educated in their subjects (i.e., to have academic degrees andor pass rigorous tests); but public schools merely want teachers to be certified and unionized even though both qualifications are irrelevant at best. Parents seek honest achievement for their children; schools push self-esteem regardless of a child’s achievement.
Parents want openness and honesty from the schools; yet the schools operate as a culture of dishonesty and deception, according to Armand Fusco, Ed. D. author of School Corruption Betrayal of Children and the Public Trust. Parents want traditional schooling with factual content, useful knowledge, and consistent standards; but the schools offer progressivism with little content, fuzzy methods and virtually no standards. E.D. Hirsch, in his book, Cultural Literacy, argues that progressive ideas in the schools deprive all students of the knowledge required for citizenship and a decent life.
While parents want their children to learn academic subjects; the government has changed the schools’ purpose to social goals and approved attitudes, behaviors and opinions. The program is called Transformational Education or Outcome Based Education (OBE). Do we know who created No Child Left Behind (NCLB), OBE, Goals 2000, or the CAPT test, or why No. With them, the government is creating a docile populace with predictable views and habits, not individuals with a strong knowledge base who think for themselves. Is that what we want
Whenever a member of the public attempts to change any of the school policies, the school wars erupt, the bureaucratic walls go up, the spin and edu-babble go into high gear until the request is rejected and the proponent is discredited and disgraced.
Would any community create schools that systematically frustrate parents’ wishes as the government schools do Never. Yet, that is what we see month after month at school board meetings and in numberless encounters between parents and teachers. The system does not permit parental influence. Further, with NCLB and OBE, the federal government has usurped much of the states’ control until there is little left for local boards to decide. Government control is virtually complete — the people be damned.
Tags: ability grouping, bright kids, equal treatment, gifted parents, government school system, public school system, social promotion, special ed, talented programs, whole language