Saving Public Education

[velvetpage]

The Toronto Star has begun a series on this topic. The first article in the series is entitled Why Teachers Matter, and makes the case that training teachers well, paying them well, respecting them, and then letting them teach, is the best way to maximize the results of the teaching relationship. I tend to agree.

The second article strikes me as far more controversial, and I admit to arguing the same case while falling victim to it as a parent. It's called Too Many Choices and deals with school choice, and the end result of too much choice: to bring down the generic public education by removing the people most likely to insist that it be improved. I can attest to this on a personal level. French is important to me, and I teach it better than many and far better than it has traditionally been taught in Ontario, but as a parent, I didn't choose core French. Why? Because I want to be sure my kids learn French, and the advocacy required to make sure the core French system works to teach kids French just isn't there. Canadian Parents for French focuses its efforts almost exclusively on French Immersion and Extended French programs, while the core French programs that reach every kid languish in disrepair. If there were no French Immersion, would Core French be under pressure to actually teach kids to speak a second language? Probably - certainly more than it is now.

He also points out that private schools tend to perform exactly as well as public schools, and charter schools often fare worse, despite the hype associated with them in the States.

I'm looking forward to the next article; these ones were interesting and I agree far more than I disagree. Long-time readers of my blog will see many familiar themes.

x-posted to two teaching communities; sorry to those of you who see it twice.

Comments

[aelf.livejournal.com]

Speaking only on the U.S. system since that's the only one I have any experience with. I attended schools in several different states over my career, from top ranked to "get the kids out functionally literate." I don't have high regard for any of them.

I find it interesting that there are studies and statistics backing up private school vs public school performance, and the reporter mentions those. But what about studies and statistics about the *person* behind those scores?

I didn't send my child to private school because of my history of being bullied in school. I simply assumed that all schools allow and encourage bullying and my child was going to have to learn to kick the ass of several students and I was going to have to back her up every step of the way. But in sending her to private school, I've been astounded that so far there is absolutely no bullying. And I know this is not the case for her friends who go to the public school she would attend, and it's not the case for the summer programs she has attended which include students from that school. Having this experience now? Makes me even more reluctant to consider ever sending her to public school. This is anecdata, but now I wonder. Are there studies about stuff like this? I'm clearly too lazy to go look right now, but thought you might know!

So, why did I send her to private school? Smaller classes, which she need(ed ... I think she'd be fine in a class with 30 children now, but I also think she'll do better in her smaller classes). Daily extensive physical activity, which she needs. Other benefits were foreign language beginning in kindergarten, regular music and lab science also beginning in kindergarten, art beyond gluing macaroni to construction paper.

So, the author thinks that if she went to public school, I'd be agitating for those programs. I wouldn't. I'd deal with it in extra-curricular activities, because I know what a pointless waste of time it is to agitate for ANYTHING within the public school system - I'm a graduate of said system. It's a system with a profound disinterest in the students and their parents. Occasionally you get a bright spark of a teacher, rarer still a bright spark of an administrator, and you revel in that bright spark while you have it. The rest of the time, you deal with people who probably ought not be around other people, much less children.

I didn't used to be so bitter about my own educational experience. I figured school's what you make of it, everyone suffers, who cares. Then I encountered my daughter's school and I am sad for what I missed.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

My feeling, and it's supported by research, is that public, charter or private is not the deciding factor in school culture; the deciding factor is the principal and the teachers. A staff who act like a learning community and a team; a principal who facilitates that team and trusts them to do their jobs; a culture of high expectations for everyone; and a culture where everyone is built up and taught to interact positively; together will make a school that will give the kind of experience your daughter is getting. (And for the record, I'm glad for her sake and yours that she's getting it.)

At the moment, the American school system can't do a lot of that. It denegrates and blames its teachers for outcomes that aren't their fault. It constantly monitors them for behaviours that don't improve student learning anyway, and punishes them when they either don't do what they're supposed to or don't get the results they're supposed to - and since those are mutually exclusive items, they're being set up for failure. In short, it does everything in its power to eliminate teachers' autonomy and professionalism. Of course their schools are horrible. You can't treat people horribly and expect their best work.

The cultural change that needs to happen starts with how America treats its teachers. The problem is that recovering from the culture you've got is going to take years, probably decades. I can understand why parents like you decide to put their own children first and take them out of the system; it's your perogative to do so and your job to do the best for your child. But it is both a symptom and a contributing factor to the problem.

[aelf.livejournal.com]

Given my experience with the system, I'd say it's not open to being fixed. Parents aren't in any position to fix it either. Heck, parents can't even get on the school board - those are positions entirely appointed by the Governor, political payback.

I think the system has be pretty much completely torn down if it has any hope of improvement.