 |
Public Schools are the Backbone of Our Nation |
 |
I am not a public school teacher. My only experience with public school was my own experience as a student for twelve years (I skipped out on senior year). Most of this experience was, on the surface, negative: poor instruction, bigotry, bullying, a sterile and stagnant atmosphere, and pointless, arbitrary discipline were some of the main traits of the schools I attended. Despite all this, however, I remain convinced that I am a better person for having attended public school.
In some respects, my experience was unusual. Coming from a highly educated family meant that I never had to worry about whether school would give me the skills and tools necessary to succeed in life: my parents were always available to help me with homework, teach me a new word, suggest a book to read, or answer a question.
I hated most of school. Elementary school was boring, middle school torturous. In high school, I became more thoughtful - and as I questioned why we had to pledge allegiance to a flag, listen to corporate advertisements on television during homeroom time, and attend anti-drug lectures, I came to believe that schools existed to condition us as future workers, drones happy to serve as cogs in a corporate machine.
There are elements of truth in that interpretation. Mass public education in America was historically built on the “factory model” (originally from Alvin Toffler, The Third Wave [New York: Bantam Books, 1981, p. 29]):
Mass education taught basic reading, writing, and arithmetic, a bit of history and other subjects. This was the ‘overt curriculum.’ But beneath it lay an invisible or ‘covert curriculum’ that was far more basic. It consisted - and still does in most industrial nations - of three courses: one in punctuality, one in obedience, and one in rote, repetitive work. Factory labor demanded workers who showed up on time, especially assembly-line hands. It demanded workers who would take orders from a management hierarchy without questioning. And it demanded men and women prepared to slave away at machines or in offices, performing brutally repetitious operations.
I graduated from high school still convinced that I had barely escaped being “institutionalized.”
However, when I went away to college at Northwestern University (a private school), I came to appreciate the socialization I had undergone in public grammar school. In college we heard a lot about “diversity,” and saw a lot of valuable racial, ethnic, and national diversity. But there was relatively little economic diversity. In college I was surrounded by many people who came from the same class background as I did, and many others were from much wealthier backgrounds. Only a few were genuinely working class. In high school, on the other hand, I knew and hung out with kids who came from trailer parks, broken homes, and struggling families. I had friends with debilitating substance abuse problems, criminal records, and tough lives. The experience was invaluable, because without it I could have ended up completely sheltered.
I thank the public school system for bringing me into contact with such a broad spectrum of people. Public school taught me more about how to deal with people, and more about how our society works, than college ever did. If college is an escape from society, an initation ritual, public high school is a microcosm of the larger world, with all the pettiness and drama exposed. As I move into my adult life my time in high school continues to shape my understanding of people.
I remain suspicious of school vouchers, charter schools, and private high schools because I am afraid that these measures will deny our nation’s children the crucial opportunities for socialization that I had - opportunities that are vital not only for poor children, but for middle and upper class children as well. If there is any hope of leveling the playing field in our society, and bringing privileged children into contact with underprivileged people, it begins with education. Strengthening the public school system, then, strengthens our society and binds us closer together. Weakening it risks widening the cultural and economic gaps in our society, which in turn weakens us all.
How do we strengthen our public schools? I do not believe the answer begins with a greater emphasis on standards and accountability, though that may be part of the answer. Rather, I believe the answer begins with better training and more compelling incentives to attract and keep excellent teachers. Part of the responsibility, then, lies with institutions of higher education, whose training programs for public school teachers are often sloppy and ineffective. Stronger and more creative programs, incorporating features like longer apprenticeships, more hands-on training, and professors who are more connected with the schools themselves, will help create a more effective corps of teachers. Better pay, along with bonuses specifically for teachers who volunteer to serve in inner-city and rural areas, will help expand the teacher pool. Finally, it may be time for a deep examination of how we fund our public schools. Those who groan over tax increases miss the point - they can pay now to create a class of educated, creative, and well-socialized youth, or they can pay later when the check comes due when we watch our nation get surpassed by others who chose to value education more highly. Given that our population is continually growing in both size and complexity, our need for the public education system is not disappearing. Rather, it is more necessary than ever.
I’ve actually had the opposite experience. I went to a private high school (very white bread) and am now going to a public college, and I’m proud to say, that this campus is a vibrant and diverse (both racially and economically) example of young America. I myself am from a “working class” family and I value the opportunity to mix with all striations of our country for the next four years.
My experience was somewhat different, in that I went to public school as a child, but that public school was fairly rich and homogenous. It wasn’t until I began moving beyond my school social sphere in high school that I was able to experience more diversity on all levels.
I absolutely despised school. The only thing that made it bearable at all were activities in the Arts. Only two teachers in high school and one at university made school worthwhile. Otherwise, with the exception of learning how to read, write, and do mathematics, well, it was nearly a waste of my time. Most of what I learned (aside from what I learned from the teachers mentioned) came through my own curiousity which, fortunately, was not destoyed by school.
I disagree with you about what it takes to improve public schools. I think that the public school culture is the problem.
There is a culture in public schools of shallow assignments and busywork. I’m in high school, and all the time I see assignments that I thought I left behind in elementary school. I have to define lists of vocabulary words, write essays that the teacher dictates the structure of, and create craft projects. It’s rare to see a project that uses creativity.
Currently, only the best and smartest teachers teach differently. But if the institutional culture told teachers to assign deep assignments, then every teacher could teach well. It doesn’t take smarter teachers or better training. It takes a culture change.
I agree w/ what you are saying, but want to compare with my experience: I grew up in an upper-middle class suburb in PA, and the public schools were rich/white. I only encountered the exposure you describe when I switched to a poor Catholic high school closer to downtown. They had a mission of accepting anyone who wanted their kid to have a Catholic education. So I got to meet the poorer white kids from the sticks and the Puerto Rican and African American kids from the city.
Let me add to the “different experiences” roster and say that i was homeschooled as a child, all the way through high school (not religiously, thankfully) and comparing experiences with my friends who were in public school and friends who were both homeschooled and in public or private schools at different points, i feel my experience was the most enriching and beneficial. I was the only one who had regular interactions with many different age groups and demographics, especially with adults, and found myself better socialized and better prepared to communicate with people and actually deal with the real world, as opposed to the rigged, controlled situations found in institutions. unfortunately i’ve found that many adults who see their world through the high school filter of pettiness and drama are actually not well socialized, and generally do not interact on a mature level.
i also think citing diversity as a positive aspect of public school is misleading, considering that diversity differs by area rather than by institution. i think, maybe, that you are confusing diversity of area with diversity within the institution, since the institution itself only reflects the surrounding area.
the changes you propose are a a rosy ideal, and perhaps if we had those changes made parents would decide less often to send their children to private schools, or homeschool. tax increases aside, many reasons exist why those changes will most likely never get made and a good deal of them are administrative or exist within the local government itself and how it assigns budgets without concern as to whether it is doing a disservice to the students.
‘Public Schools are the Backbone of Our Nation’ is an interesting title. It’s true that they are, but only because public schools enforce a system in which children across the nation are forced to sit and listen to the same rhetoric: planting the seeds of a national identity. That’s what makes them the backbone of the nation.
Sounds good if you want everyone to be the same, but a good leader shouldn’t fit a mold. They have to be exceptional. Public schools keep leadership in the hands of the upper classes, since they are the only ones that can afford schools that teach what is really needed. They force the division of the classes.
I work as a high school teacher but, thankfully, I had many years working in industry and business before that.
My general take on high school education is that it trains you to be on time and do what you’re told. That’s the meat of it. The “real” education is in training you for a successful stint as a worker-drone - the perfect employee. The team player.
I agree with Jen in saying that public schools ensure a permanent underclass, but not because the rich kids get to go to schools where they are taught something different in class. What the rich kids get in their rich private schools is contacts. Contacts with the other rich kids whose parents are already in the power loop. And they will keep it there. With them. Not us.
The traditional public high school education is nothing short of a horror in what it really does to most young minds…but thankfully - not all.
I think The late great John Lennon got a huge part of it right with his song ” Working Class Hero “..
I often wondered as a youngster why I HAD to take Geography OR physics but not both or YOU WILL appear at and sit through Morning Assembly to be preached at and listen to a Christian service before classes began and YOU WILL take Religeous Knowledge as a subject even if you didn’t want to..
Even with very good passes in 8 subjects I was still steered towards an apprenticeship at British Steel Corporation / National Coal Board.. Talk about fodder for the ever hungry National Industry’s..
we get trained to succeed at losing, and accept it.
I think there are many good points made in the above article, but the conclusion that more money is the solution seems to fly in the face of the fact that the United States already spends 27 percent more money per student on average than Japan, 66 percent more than Germany, and 122 percent more than South Korea.
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19270
Interestingly, as I dug deeper I found this link on the statistics:
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/22/51/39317423.pdf
“…while teacher salaries appear high in absolute terms when compared with those in other countries, relative to GDP per capita teachers’ pay in the United States is among the lowest in OECD countries.”
“At the primary level teachers in the United States are required to teach 1 080 hours per year, which is more than in any other OECD country and considerably higher than the OECD average of 803 hours”
My tendency has been to cite the fact that we spend more per student that almost any other country, but looking deeper it seems there is a need for higher teacher salaries.
This looks like a good article I absolutely cannot read white text on a black background.
No offense, but where have you been?! As a wiser man than me or we (not Alvin Toffler) once put it (paraphrased)…….
The unstated purpose of public education is to raise students to a given level- and
cut them off right there.
Regardless of the advantages of ’socialization’, nothing is enough to obscure this unriding fact.
You might want to check out:
http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/
He was an award winning teacher who finally realized how US schools had been perverted from their orginal purpose.
He’s got alot of data and research to back it up too.
You can’t lump charter schools in with private schools and vouchers. Charter schools are *public* schools and many have greater diversity than their neighboring schools because they draw from multiple communities.
I live in a upper class, white bread town, and our school doesn’t have a fraction of the economic diversity that the nearby charter has.
As a student in public highschool I can honestly say that I am in school to prevent me from being an anti-social nerd. But have no interest in going to college due to my spawned hatred towards academia.
I don’t mean to link spam or anything, but it just happens that a few days ago I wrote about issues in the school system and a possible solution (skip to the last few paragraphs if its too long for you to read in full). I would very much be interested in your opinions on it.
http://kiafaldorius.blogspot.com/
If public school is the backbone of our nation, I think we have a nasty case of scoliosis.
I am actually doing social science research on political socialization in public schools and what I found out in my studies of the history of schools is that schools were NEVER meant to benefit ANYONE but the state, as in the UNITED STATES. Immigrants are socialized through public schools, and if not them directly, their children. School, even private schools, are not about making better thinkers, it is about making better citizens. The only real thinking is in research.
Ugly American: Thanks for the tip. I’ve accessed the site including Gatto’s Harper’s Magazine article “Against Schools”, and the illusion series on the Modern Makers of Education. (!)
It’s shocking to see my superficial nightmares expressed in a far more passionate and cogentl way. Now, what should I say- thanks? Well yes- thanks!
In regards to “I came to believe that schools existed to condition us as future workers, drones happy to serve as cogs in a corporate machine.”, see http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/underground/index.htm — a book written by a former teacher about this subject.
The public school system is fatally flawed, you have the worst elements of bloated, noncaring bureaucracy that only the government could create, combined with political correctness run amok and topped off with a healthy dose of corrupt American labor unions. Thankfully the majority of individual teachers and enough administrators keep the system from total collapse.
Charter schools are a good start, Vouchers are even better, the answer is most definitely NOT more money, no matter how much money you gave the public schools it would be squandered and education would be no better off.
1. School districts should be capped in size to no more than 1 or 2 high schools along with the Jr. High and Elementary schools that feed into that. This will reduce bureaucracy tremendously and allow districts to serve to the needs of their own local community.
2. A minimum of 25% of public school funding should be fed into voucher programs that parents could use to shop around to different schools (public or private). Competition will lead to excellence and efficiency.
3. Prevent forced union participation by teachers (let teachers decide if they want to be a part of the union AND the union collective bargaining)
4. Teacher performance measurement should not be based on standardized tests (at least not primarily), this will discourage the “teaching to the test” that many teachers are feeling pressured into by fiascos such as NCLB.
I agree entirely. I went to a public school in a very socioeconomically, racially, and religiously diverse town. The advantage of that wasn’t apparent to me until quite recently in life, when I first encountered people for whom *seeing* a black person is a notable event, and have simply never encountered a non-Christian.
I tend to shake my head at the debate over education in this country, as it seems to focus on bad solutions for the wrong problems - from NCLB to the various “voucher” proposals. Without turning this comment into a book though, I’ll just say you’re absolutely right - it has to begin with attracting and retaining the very best and brightest people to the teaching profession, which simply doesn’t and won’t happen with the current salaries. Schools will still have problems, and there are other things wrong with our educational model - but that will make the single biggest positive difference.
From today’s Washington Post Op-Ed:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/03/opinion/03ravitch.html?ex=1192075200 &en=fe0285c7657b065e&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Plenty of concise information on No Child Left Behind.
I teach in an inner city school obsessed with making Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) to meet NCLB requirements. We are in our third year of failing to meet this goal, so our school stands to be “reorganized” a.k.a. everyone fired, school dismantled and students shipped away. Yet, I’ve yet to get a straight answer: even if our school is so bad, where are the kids supposed to go?
Agreed. The solution to public schooling isn’t to be found in NCLB. It isn’t to allow some kind of “choice” with vouchers and such. The problem is more systemic, and it needs to be solved from a different angle.
It depends who your teachers are. The specific individuals teaching the class are the deciding factors, whether the school district is rich or poor, its students are wealthy or struggling, crime is low or rampant. I both remember and hated high school especially out of the elementary/middle/high school trifecta.
My U.S. History teacher was excellent. He challenged us to be critical of the news and the government, and to get involved in the community. I was always good at taking tests, but I never got the best of his class. He kept challenging me to go one further, even though I just wanted to ace the test and go home. He was a good man; and at the time I really didn’t appreciate it. But especially with events in the recent news, I’m glad I had Mr. Gerst’s class.
I had good teachers in other subjects too, but long story short you have to keep in mind that in the U.S. the syllabus and the structure of public school is imposed by legislation. The implicit reason for public school at all is that America once had a severe problem with child labor, and because of that labor, illiteracy. Because children had to work to help feed their families, they never learned to read, and were thus useless come election time, getting their politics thru word-of-mouth. Public school was intended to solve both problems, and by that low standard it has succeeded.
The current problem has to do with the job market. We keep kids in school well into adulthood now to keep them out of the job market, away from minimum wage jobs until a degree qualifies them for something with a future. Here, I agree with you: American children ARE institutionalised by the premise that you must go to college to be anyone of any signifigance. The real world is a hard, harsh place, and college is much softer and more forgiving. In that way, we have created generations of institutionalised citizens who can’t survive without being either in school or collecting a paycheck from a steady job. And that steady, progressive detachment from reality is somewhat sad. There’s more to life that a prestigious degree and an office with a window. If that were true, stock brokers with fancy degrees wouldn’t jump out their office window to their death when the DOW plunges to an all-time low.
What then is the solution? Maybe is has to do with those covert goal you spoke of. Besides raising robots and sheep, what better, do-able covert goals would be better for the internet age, beyond punctuality, obedience, and busywork?
If you want to see a Really Bad School System, come to Kau District on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Is da worst! brudda
It will give ya chicken skin.
Guess I’ll chime in, been meaning to check out this website for a while (shout out to Jason for being part of this). Anyway, I’ve never enjoyed school but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized how necessary it is. Sure, sometimes it creates unnecessary barriers to entry (menial jobs often require college degrees when there is really no reason for it) but all in all, I found my time in school to be incredibly useful.
I was a much better student in high school (public) than I was in college, largely because my parents made sure I did all my work and showed up on time every day, but it paid off in the end. I wound up at a great college that gave me access to world class facilities and professors (though some of those professors were far better thinkers than teachers). Only when I ended up at college did I realize the necessity of some classes that I thought were incredibly boring in high school.
For example, why should I care about Mesopotamia and the history of Ur? Turns out that an archaeology class on ancient empires drew up on a lot of the same history and my grounding in those histories were incredibly useful. The general arc of empires are often quite similar and deep insight into these histories (and micro-histories) can be helpful in examining current trends.
That’s just one of the hidden gems I discovered. Now that I’ve graduated from college and am planning to go to business school (graduate degrees = very necessary in certain fields), the contacts I made in college along with the cultural capital I’ve accumulated (i.e. knowing how to act in an office, having a top college on my resume) is proving to be invaluable.
So yes, I agree that public schools are the backbone of our nation. They provided the basis for my future (murky as it may be right now) and have done so for most people that I know. Sure, they need some fixing (and in some areas, a LOT of fixing) but if our kids are our future, then public education is the key to their futures.