Posted by Rick Denney on September 04, 2002 at 13:37:39:
In Reply to: In Defense of HS Teachers posted by Chuck Jackson on September 03, 2002 at 17:57:08:
Whew! Lots of stuff to dig into here. This is a long post--beware.
I am an engineer steeped in the systems concept of design. In that approach, we first define our needs, and from those flow requirements. The requirements drive the design, and then we test to make sure the product meets the requirements.
Let's follow this exercise for schooling of minor children. (Once they are old enough to vote, I think they are on their own as far as education is concerned, so college and vocational training aren't part of this.)
How I would define the needs:
1. Emerging adults able to inform themselves sufficiently to vote intelligently and responsibly.
2. Emerging adults who possess the mix of basic skills sufficient to form the basis for private job training or adult education.
The requirements that I think flow from these needs:
At the end of the schooling, the schooled should be able to--
1. Read newspapers and books and understand what is written.
2. Be able to express themselves effectively in the language of most people.
3. Know enough about history and government to...
3.1 Realize that most societal problems have in the past been faced and addressed, in ways that are sometimes effective and sometimes disastrous, and
3.2 Know who is responsible for what government function, and the limits of that responsibility.
4. Have enough of an exposure to culture to develop of sense of what is worth preserving, especially when those cultural studies also directly support reading and writing skills.
5. Perform the arithmetic and science needed to provide the basis for learning how to solve problems.
The design would therefore be:
1. An environment sufficient to allow the successful meeting of the requirements, managed in such a way to remove elements that prevent the meeting of the requirements.
This includes:
1.1 Books and tools sufficient to learn the material.
1.2 Teachers able to teach the material.
1.3 Sufficient discipline and administrative support for that discipline so that disruptive elements can be removed, permanently if necessary.
2. An endpoint: Once the requirements are met, the student is let loose having met society's requirements for education, and expected to make further progress on his or her own. Students may choose this endpoint when they reach the age where work is an alternative.
3. A focus on what is learned by each student rather than what is taught. This is true results-oriented education, not "outcome-based" education which is a perverse corruption of this approach.
4. A focus on excellence rather than adequacy, which must be tailored to each student. Not all students can be excellent at everything, but they should focus on being as excellent as they can be. A given student, like a given musical organization, will achieve some percentage of what is placed before them. If they are asked only to be adequate, they will be somewhat less than adequate.
5. Considerable reading of progressively challenging writings.
6. Considerable writing about progressively challenging ideas.
7. Considerable reading of history and government.
8. A requirement to learn some form of art.
And then we have testing:
1. Testing is not learning. You assign a book for the students to read, and then you test them to make sure they read it. The learning is in the book, not the test. That also means not teaching to the test. Testing is a verification and evaluation tool, not a teaching tool.
2. Tests must trace directly to the design and requirements, which trace to the needs. Tests that can't be explained by requirements and needs are not helpful.
3. Testing must separate the excellent from the good, in order to demonstrate the focus on excellence, and not just the adequate from the inadequate.
Now, here's how most people would follow this process, if they were really honest (or so it seems to me):
Needs:
1. A babysitting establishment for my kids so I can work and buy a better car (or, in a very few cases, tastier food), or so that I can watch TV and not be bothered by screaming kids.
2. An ethics training program.
3. A psychological therapy program.
4. A social engineering program for righting the wrongs of society, whatever those are this week.
5. A job-training program so my kids can support me when I get old (don't laugh--I quoted this directly from parents who were being smiled at by experts for being good parents).
6. But I don't want my kids knowing more than I do--my own self-esteem won't allow that.
7. A metric that tells us all is okay so we don't have to address these needs sanely.
8. Improve teacher salaries and job security
Requirements:
The students should...
1. Be kept off the streets and out of trouble for six to eight hours each day.
2. Students should know right and wrong.
3. Students should pass muster with psychologists.
4. People come out of schools all equal in every respect (this is "outcome-based" education)
5. Know how to play on the computer (because that's how they will be prepared for the job market, right?).
6. Not learn so much that they embarass their parents (or their friends) or make them feel inadequate (this is a major factor in many communities).
7. Take a test that confirms all is well.
8. Establish the belief that teaching requires a separate skill set unavailable to those who are merely experts in the subject material.
9. Establish the belief that teaching is too complex to be understood by non-teachers.
The design follows:
1. Classes should entertain students to keep them from sneaking out of school.
2. Ethics are learned out of a book written by an education professor.
3. Students are declared "ADD" or "depressed" with little provocation by marginally skilled psychologists and given drugs to manage behavior.
4. The best students are kept from excelling to keep them from being too much better than the poor students.
5. Students should have access to computers.
6. School districts should provide one book for each class, and teachers cannot require additional books for outside reading (because some might not be able to afford it). In some classes, the computer or the satellite television service can replace the book.
7. Allow students to dumb themselves down to the level expected of them.
8. A series of tests designed to "catch those being left behind" when in fact the goal is to make sure nearly everyone passes.
9. Require teachers to spend much more time learning education than subject material, and to have degrees in education rather than subjects being taught, and to be separately certified by the education establishment.
Testing:
1. Schools are rated by how many students stay out of jail.
2. Ethics are evaluated in terms of drug use, crime, and unwanted pregnancies.
3. Schools are evaluated by how many students receive pychological "benefits," and more is considered better.
4. Schools are rated by how many students in this week's important categories graduate.
5. Schools are rated by job placement.
6. Don't give tests that force students to do their best or to be evaluated by what is their best.
7. Testing that above all places a stamp of approval on the educational establishment.
8. Measure teacher performance in terms of certification and continuing education credits, instead of measurable peformance.
Everyone who buys into the second set of needs gets the results they have asked for. I'm amazed by the number of people who buy into several of these wrong-headed needs who place blame for general failure on those who support others of those wrong-headed needs. Parents and teachers are both quilty of placing this blame, but more importantly they are both guilty of buying into wrong-headed needs. Politicans do what they are told. We reap what we sow.
The good teachers are caught in the middle. They weren't given input into those needs, and so are trying to apply designs that don't trace back to the real needs and requirements that are in the heads of many parents, most politicians, most educators of educators, and above all social engineers who want to use education as a tool to create their idea of Utopia (which is a dominant influence in the NEA). This isolates the good teachers. No wonder they are frustrated.
Eventually, the good teachers will either be pushed out or beaten down. A few will be clever enough to subversively support the proper needs and requirements without running afoul of the wrong-heads, and these deserve the highest praise. But praise them quietly--their success lies in stealth.
Rick "who thinks the easiest problems are sometimes the hardest to solve" Denney