We can fix the schools we have or create the schools we need
By Tom Carroll
Fixing the schools we have won’t prepare today’s students for a 21st century world. Learning is no longer preparation for the job – it is the job. To meet the needs of today’s students and teachers it is time to transform our schools from teaching organizations into learning organizations.
I am the president of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, an organization that seeks to advocate for 21st century learning organizations. System accountability and high standards matter. But benchmarking schools on a narrow range of performance indicators won’t prepare students for success in a global knowledge economy.
To ensure that every child is genuinely prepared for 21st century college, work, and citizenship our schools must develop 21st century competencies that include:
1. Core Competencies: in language arts, reasoning, information literacy, mathematics, sciences, and social sciences;
2. Creative Competencies: including critical and innovative thinking, resourcefulness, collaborative problem solving, and creative expression in the arts;
3. Communication Competencies: in languages, digital media, social networking, and effective use of content creation technologies; and
4. Cultural Competencies: including cultural understanding, personal responsibility, adaptability and resilience, an ability to engage in productive teamwork, and active citizen participation.
Facilitating the mastery of these competencies is beyond the capacity of stand-alone teachers delivering text based instruction to passive students in self-contained classrooms. No teacher should be expected to do this job alone. Quality teaching is a team sport.
For decades we have attempted to manage school improvement with command-and-control, regulatory, prescriptive, or market-based incentives that too often treat teachers and students like the targets of change rather than the agents of change. Instead we need to empower those individuals to lead and shape the reinvention of their own learning organizations. We are inviting national leaders to join us in pledging to support four initiatives that are at the heart of building a 21st Century Education System:
1. Create 21st Century Learning Teams. It is time to develop schools where teamwork begins with mentored induction of new teachers into professional learning communities, composed of accomplished educators and expert resources, who sustain their continuous growth through collaborative professional development that is embedded in the day-to-day work of the school.
2. Create 21st Century Teaching Residencies. It is time to reinvent teacher preparation by replacing industrial-era job preparation approaches with 21st century workforce development strategies. Teaching Residencies embed teacher preparation and professional development in schools that are genuine learning organizations where educators continually develop their knowledge and skills to meet the needs of their students. In these residency programs, teachers function like other professionals whose preparation, practice, and career advancement are seamlessly aligned around a cohesive knowledge base that is focused on improved student learning.
3. Develop 21st Century Career Paths. It is time to re-imagine the teaching career to sustain the growth of educators over time. The tradition of hiring young teachers in their twenties and expecting them to do essentially the same job for the next thirty years is a thing of the past. New teachers should be inducted into a professional community of supportive educators who sustain their growth, recognize their accomplishments, and reward their performance. Teachers’ responsibilities should grow as their expertise deepens. Mastery of new knowledge and skills should open doors to expanded opportunities. This calls for the creation of new roles and opportunities that might include: teaching mentor, learning coach, content expert, learning network navigator, classroom manager, cognitive specialist, along with learning designers who manage the work of accomplished educators and experts in the field. These new roles should support intern and apprentice teachers who are developing their skills alongside more accomplished educators, and they should include opportunities for individuals (including those from other sectors) to serve in well-structured, short-term, part-time, and adjunct positions while they pursue other personal and professional opportunities.
4. Develop 21st Century Teaching Standards and Assessments for Learning as well as of Learning. It is time to augment industrial-era compliance assessments with capacity building assessments that fully embrace 21st century competencies. The heart of a learning organization is broken when goal-setting, planning, and evaluation are simply imposed from outside. Twenty-first century learning teams must actively engage in learner-centered assessment, reflection, and action that support a collaboratively built, widely shared professional knowledge base focused on improving school performance. We must nurture school cultures in which teachers, principals, students, and parents are rewarded for holding themselves professionally responsible and collectively accountable for improving achievement. These learning teams should use assessments that are valuable to them, not because they are linked to high-stakes consequences, but because they are used by teachers and students as essential tools to improve learning.
Every school needs good teachers. But schools don’t become great places to learn until those teachers join forces with their colleagues to improve student achievement beyond what any one of them can accomplish alone. In every sector of our economy, teamwork and continuous professional growth lead to multiple rewarding career paths.
It is time to replace the stand-alone teaching model with schools that are genuine learning organizations.
Tom Carroll is the President of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future.
I agree with many of the author’s initial premises: the demands of the workforce are changing, future workers will need to be more versitile, more adaptable, and more innovative.
We members of Generation Y can expect to have not two or three jobs in our lifetime - like our parents and grandparents did - but probably a dozen or more on average. We’ll not only change jobs more frequently, but we’ll probably change fields more frequently than they did.
That said, this is the New Republicans blog, and while Tom Carroll suggestions are all great, they’re trouble to me in the respect that they all begin with the words “Create” or “Develop”.
Mr. Carroll was very wise to leave the “how” part out. That’s up to us to figure out. That’s the power of the crowd.
The Federal Government is not going to solve the problems Mr. Carroll pointed out. In fact, the more the Federal Government gets involved, whether its a Republican or a Democrat holding the Office of the Presidence, the worse they’ll make it. Before we were born, there was a time when it was part of the Republican platform to abolish the Department of Education. To suggest this now would be premature, but ultimately I don’t believe a large US Department of Education should be necessary. Rather, I believe a small, agile USDoE that works with each State’s DoE would be far better.
And on the smaller scale, more public school districts should embrace “open enrollment”. States and districts should embrace vouchers systems to allow competition between the public, private, and parocial schools. Schools should reject unwise tenure policies that put adult’s jobs over the children’s education.
If we CAN create the schools we need, it will almost certainly start with at least one school which does these great things.
Which school is that?
I’m missing concrete examples of schools which have embraced one or more of these ideas and have demonstrated that when this theory is practiced, the real practice is better than the real gov’t schools (not really ‘public’). (Could they be worse? not hardly, but I can imagine….)
Also missing is the relationship of teachers to parents. One of the biggest reasons to support vouchers is to get parents at least involved in the active decision about which school to send their kids to; implicitly why.
Where vouchers are honestly tried, there are real examples of them doing better than the non-voucher gov’t schools. Not perfect, but better.
I fear that supporting the above type of theory, perhaps an ‘ideal’, meanst the perfect becomes a substitute enemy of the good vouchers.
I disagree that it’s an advantage to omit the ‘how.’ In fact, that’s the whole problem. The comment above on assuming the ideal with no plan to get there is on point. I would argue that a major shortcoming of this position is that even though it has plenty of flowery rhetoric designed to appeal to every interest group in education, it decries all of the mechanisms for enacting this change (command and control, regulatory, and market-based plans).
Instead of imagining a perfect world with no ideas on how to get there, we should focus on how we can provide incentives to the agents of change in the education community to do the hard work of actually getting the job done. Even if you take a perfect vision and force feed it through a bureaucracy, you’ll come out with garbage and leave our bankrupt education system even more strained. The only viable solution is market based approaches–it’s the only way that these objectives can spring up organically and, eventually, be realized. Vouchers, for instance…
“Vouchers, for instance…”
If one allows private schools to pick and choose who they take, and if private schools don’t have to take the poorest of the poor, then you’re driving up the cost of public education.
As I have said elsewhere in this site vouchers only make sense in a “Swedish-style” system: Private schools that accept vouchers (and public schools) have to
1) Accept first come/first serve
2) Accept the voucher as complete payment
This allows for a completly level playing field and creates true competition.
The Federal Government needs to get out of education. Each state can then apply different theories to educate their students. Fifty competing models should vastly improve the overall education system.
Edit:
“I am the president of the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future, an organization that seeks an industrial-era solution to factory-era problems” was a misstatement and was edited appropriately.
1) I think it would be a mistake to adopt several new sets of competencies when we aren’t even able to achieve success in the basics first.
2) Several of the areas listed aren’t the responsibility of the schools to teach, but of the parents and the community: social networking, cultural understanding, and active citizen participation. Plus the government can’t teach in these areas without taking stands for and against specific religious creeds and philosophies.
3) Innovative thinking, resourcefulness and creative expression in the arts are all completely subjective and dependent upon the strengths and thought patterns of the individual. So there’s no way to teach them (and more importantly grade them) without arbitrarily declaring one person’s way of doing things more worthwhile than another person’s way of doing things.
4) I love the idea of teaching critical thinking and a citizen’s role in government.
I believe that if a school does a good job of teaching the basics - reading and writing, math, the sciences, plus classic and critical thought - the student will have the tools they need to be able to adapt and specialize from there.
tom and ted have both accurately pointed out the real problem with the system, in my opinion. the failure of the national education system can be directly attributed to the failure of parents to be accountable for their childrens’ educations, and to a greater degree, their lives in general.
there’s no point in inflating the tires if there’s no gas in the car…
No question that it comes down to the parents. In my city we have one ethnic group that absolutely requires dedicated scholarship from its children. Anything else is simply unthinkable to them. And in schools where that group predominates, the test scores are astonishing. These aren’t wealthy people, generally, and the school facilities themselves are rather worse than average. Even to say “parents” might be misleading, since grandparents, aunts & uncles and siblings are all involved. It’s marvelous to observe.
I would posit that in a majority of familie’s parent’s aren’t involved in education because they don’t feel they need to be. After all, they’re already paying thousands of dollars in taxes for education.
I just wonder how much more time they would have to spend with their children if the overall tax rate was closer to 5% or 10% like it was early last century instead of being 30% (actually 40% after you add State and local taxes!) like it is now.
“I would posit that in a majority of familie’s parent’s aren’t involved in education because they don’t feel they need to be. After all, they’re already paying thousands of dollars in taxes for education. ”
Sounds to me like you either don’t have children in school or go to very bad schools.
My experience, along with my wife’s experience as a teacher, says differently. Parents are asked to be very involved in the education. They are encouraged to volunteer. “Would you please work with your child on …”
There are a whole host of reasons they don’t. Some include:
they know less than the kid on the subject
the child has learning disabilities or behavioral issues they can’t “deal” with
They are a single parent working 2 jobs, or even working only one job but in the evening
They are litterally messed up (drugs…)
They don’t have the support framework others do (e.g., their grandparents don’t live with them and help take care of the kids while they work a lot of hours)
I have not know a single person who says “I’m not going to help my child because I pay taxes.” Have you?
I believe it happens at a much lower level. An unpublished list in people’s heads when they think about caring for their kids. “OK, meals, check. Something to do before and after school, check. Allowance, taken care of. Education, lemme see, I need to see how she’s doing in math but besides that handled. Clothing…”
And I believe part of the reason parents don’t have more time to be concerned about things like their children’s education is because they’re scrambling to pay for their 40% tax burden. As well as trying to pay for a house in spite of the Federal Reserve created housing bubble. And a deliberate government policy of inflation. Etc.
“And I believe part of the reason parents don’t have more time to be concerned about things like their children’s education is because they’re scrambling to pay for their 40% tax burden.”
But there is data to counteract this view. There is a high correlation between income and parental help. For schools in poverty level areas, the amount of help from adults is generally less.
Now, those at poverty levels have a much lower tax burden; in fact, some pay no tax and even get money from the government.
I would suggest you talk to some educators that have worked in poverty schools. I would also suggest you read some books on generational poverty.
Hmmm. Yes, I suppose I could care more about whether my children learn and prosper, but the care & feeding of my indignation over how much I’m taxed completely takes priority, as it does for all right-thinking Americans.
Mr. Carroll,
A couple quick questions: Do you believe the education model presented by programs like Teach for America is viable? Do you think similar programs should be developed throughout the country? Also, are there any specific parts of European and Asian education systems that we should try to mimic in the U.S.?
fyi, I’m writing a short thesis on America’s post-secondary education compared to those of Europe and Asia.
I’m merely asserting, and correctly I think, that public education contributes more towards parental apathy than towards parental invovlement.
And because legislatively the AFT holds a virtual monopoly on education our students aren’t getting nearly as much for their parent’s buck as they would with school competition.
“I’m merely asserting, and correctly I think, that public education contributes more towards parental apathy than towards parental invovlement[sic].
And because legislatively the AFT holds a virtual monopoly on education our students aren’t getting nearly as much for their parent’s buck as they would with school competition.”
Pulling data out of the Management Information and Assessment Software System are we?
Ever have any thought that teachers are underpaid? Pay teachers like software engineers, demand excellence, and the union will disappear. Pay them crap like now and they will form unions to protect themselves.
“This calls for the creation of new roles and opportunities that might include: teaching mentor, learning coach, content expert, learning network navigator, classroom manager, cognitive specialist, along with learning designers who manage the work of accomplished educators and experts in the field.”
Most of the teachers I know (my wife included) are worried about their positions being eliminated because of current budget situations. I’m wondering who’s going to pay the salaries for all these new positions.
““This calls for the creation of new roles and opportunities that might include: teaching mentor, learning coach, content expert, learning network navigator, classroom manager, cognitive specialist, along with learning designers who manage the work of accomplished educators and experts in the field.”
Most of the teachers I know (my wife included) are worried about their positions being eliminated because of current budget situations. I’m wondering who’s going to pay the salaries for all these new positions.”
I believe Obama proposed funding to help keep current teachers employed, but it was stripped out during negotiation with Republicans.
@ Austin
Here’s my short and dirty on where education is and needs to go.
1) Admit that not everyone needs a four year college education and let high school reflect that truth.
2) Let a school focus on classsics and citizenship.
3) Free the states to experiment.
3-B) Stop the Fed involvement and cut our taxes by 96Billion dollars
4) Choice is buy in–give parents a choice
5) Allow high schools to preemptively graduate students at 15
6) I like aspects of the German model. The Indian model results in a suicide spike after the 8th grade exams.
7) Allow teachers to compete for a wage which reflects their schooling or only require them to have an associates degree. Most teaching reflects classroom management rather than content knowledge.
8) When comparing the US programs with foreign programs, adjust for heterogenous students, greater numbers of ESLs and the US current unwillingness to track students. Compare apples to apples.
The truth is that a generation ago kids were lumped together in a classroom, freely exposed to peanut butter and living without Ritalin, and they learned to read, write, do arithmetic, a little American history and civics, and eventually graduated to a job, family, and real life. Today, not so much.
If I asked any of you posting here whether you could take 25 kids, with a budget of $15,000 per kid per annum, and successfully teach them the above, I doubt many would say no, they couldn’t. Well, your public schools cannot. The best systems fail to graduate 15 pct of a class year cadre. The worst urban systems graduate many fewer than half.
The real solution to education is to dismantle the public schools, redirect their resources back to the families and tax payers, and deal honestly with the fact that much of this is due to derelict parents and their spawn. Let’s start with tax credits for home schoolers, parochial and private schoolers, and anyone not attending public schools. No vouchers - no government middlemen needed.
I believe Obama proposed funding to help keep current teachers employed, but it was stripped out during negotiation with Republicans
I have no doubt you are correct; there is little that a trillion dollar porkfest would not fund.
I have no problem paying teachers like software engineers, provided it is an open market that pays them. If the supply of good teachers is such that higher pay is required to fill the need, wonderful. There is not, of course, an open market for teachers; and if there were, I suspect that the supply would be ample for the demand.
The federal government should not be “funding” the hiring of teachers, unless they are somehow federal employees.
There are many…likely a large majority…of public schools that do their job well. There are many…a large minority…that do not. I see no problem with allowing those that do not to fail, by allowing parents to determine where their education tax dollars are spent.
Very well put Brian!
I agree that not all students are cut out for college, and everyone including politicians, should realize this. I think there could certainly be more emphasis put on non-college/vocational stuff at the high school level for these kids. School curriculums could be tweaked for sure. I think children who do not master basic skills, should be kept in the grade level for as long as it takes.
Overall, I’ve been pleased with the public education that my 3 children received in this country, and we’ve lived in a half dozen different states. I’m not convinced that the problem is with the teachers and the schools, and I don’t think throwing huge amounts of money into the educational system, is going to take the place of a concerned parent. The winning equation is Student plus Teacher plus Parent.
As for teacher salary, I’m torn. Everyone always believes that they should be paid more for what they do. Teachers have a challenging job, but they also work daylight hours, get holidays, and summers off for the most part. There’s something to be said for that quality of life, and you don’t get that with many occupations. I like the free market approach–the supply demand thing for salaries.
“Teachers have a challenging job, but they also work daylight hours, get holidays, and summers off for the most part.”
Here in WA state, most elementary school teachers work a lot of extra hours, as much as 70 per week. That’s part of the reason we have 50% turnover in first year teachers. In terms of summers, they typically only get about one month off. School lasts until mid to late June, and the teachers have to do some clean up. In August, they have to start preping for the next school year.
Response to Timetheos
If your state’s elementary school teachers are working 70 hours a week, I’m sure the salaries will eventually have to go up, in order to attract and keep them. I personally have not known any elementary teachers who approach 70 hour work weeks myself, but it’s common knowledge that they put in more than the 6- 7 hour school day. Comparing schoolteacher pay and work conditions to my own former career, and my husbands present career however, it’s still a nice deal.
School teacher pay and unions—I thought unions were “invented” to give lowly workers some bargaining chips with big bad companies who were taking advantage of them. I’m still not sure I understand why government workers need unions, since there is not a “profits going into a CEO’s pocket” kind of issue here. Again, supply and demand should dictate the salary. I believe that state and local governments who do the bulk of the funding for schools, should have the authority on teachers’ employment in general, and not President Obama who benefitted from NEA support during the election.
The proposed solution in this article seems to be top heavy with management. If there is money available for something like that, I believe it should go into better teacher/student ratios in the classroom.
“If your state’s elementary school teachers are working 70 hours a week, I’m sure the salaries will eventually have to go up, in order to attract and keep them.”
Again, that is why we have huge turnover for first year teachers. It’s a secret that neither the school districts or Colleges speak about, because they rely on “suckering” people in.
“Comparing schoolteacher pay and work conditions to my own former career, and my husbands present career however, it’s still a nice deal.” I’m a software developer, and usually my wife puts in more hours.
“School teacher pay and unions—I thought unions were “invented” to give lowly workers some bargaining chips with big bad companies who were taking advantage of them.” Yep, and some governors try to screw over state employees because they try to run the state like a corporation. Problem is, the goal of a state is to provide service, not make a profit. Rather than trying to hire the best teachers, they generally try to hire the cheapest.
“I believe that state and local governments who do the bulk of the funding for schools, should have the authority on teachers’ employment in general…”
And they do. Teacher pay, and the amount of support staff (which can affect teacher work hours) can vary quite radically from state to state.
“The proposed solution in this article seems to be top heavy with management. If there is money available for something like that, I believe it should go into better teacher/student ratios in the classroom.”
Ironically, almost every type of organization, whether corporation, military, or government, do not handle structure changes well. When corporations lay off, they then to keep managers and let go those that actually do work. When the military cuts it budget, it cuts staffing but holds on to expensive projects. When government cuts at the state level, education is usually among the heavist hit.
In our state, there was an initiative passed to increase taxes to improve teacher/student ratios in the classroom. Similar action was done for teacher salaries. People were pissed because the current Democratic governor didn’t do it anywways. Unfortunately, no one wanted the Republican that ran against her because they knew from his past voting record that he would be even worse for education.
Ultimately, people don’t want to pay what it takes for real education of ALL American students, including the disadvantage/disabled (that can cost several times more than normal to educate). They have visions of going to this fictional grand and glorious past, not realizing that not everyone was educated back then.
“The winning equation is Student plus Teacher plus Parent.”
That’s exactly why we need to dismantle public education and encourage various educational vehicles to form and spread as parents, students and teachers dedicate their talents to the ultimate product: A productive citizen.
Not long ago communities, religious and secular, created schools, hired simpatico teachers, and set the curriculum. Too many school systems are educational factories, run like production lines, hobbled by rules and “zero tolerance”, and driven by “educators” and unionists. It’s past time to go back to the future and again create productive citizens.
“That’s exactly why we need to dismantle public education and encourage various educational vehicles to form and spread as parents, students and teachers dedicate their talents to the ultimate product: A productive citizen.
Not long ago communities, religious and secular, created schools, hired simpatico teachers, and set the curriculum. Too many school systems are educational factories, run like production lines, hobbled by rules and “zero tolerance”, and driven by “educators” and unionists. It’s past time to go back to the future and again create productive citizens.”
Unfortunately, this is predicated on the assumption that all three of those parties share such a goal.
In my personal experience, I have to sympathize with my wife when she tells me that less than a third of her students’ caregivers will show up for a conference, answer a note or a phone call, or even bother to initial the weekly communications she sends home. At the early childhood level, parental involvement is paramount, and is unfortunately lacking. No amount of funding, vouchers, charter schools, or free-market education competition can make a derelict parent care.
The underlying issue is cultural. When parents care about education and instill that priority in thier children, those children do well.
Seems like many of you are assuming parents are lazy, derelict, bad, for not attending conferences, school events, etc. This claim is merely a naive stereotype. Wake up and realize not all children have parents or parents with enough time in their day to be there for their children.
What will happen to these helpless children when we dismantle public education- a program that exists to provide a minimum level of education for all children?
Arguing for the dismantling of public education will never create a national party- but rather a fringe movement that the majority of Americans will dismiss as ignorant.
RJE–How is it that Asian Americans seem to be able to do this? Seems to me that it is a choice.
Theophilus,
Working racial stereotypes does not help the Republican cause. This site is for new ideas.
Your words remind me of another Republican who recently wrote: “How can 2,000,000 blacks get into Washington, DC in 1 day in sub zero temps when 200,000 couldn’t get out of New Orleans in 85 degree temps with four days notice?”
No surprise that the only place Republicans retain legitimacy is in the old slave states. That is not a sustainable strategy.
Quit trying to destroy government programs and instead work to make them better. Maybe then you will win back the respect of citizens who depend on the government for their livelihoods- which is everybody.
Thoephilus,
1) you may want to do some research on generational poverty
2) It’s not a real choice for the children
3) Not all Asian Americans are able to do this, nor are all whites nor all blacks nor all…
RJE asked a very good question: What will happen to these helpless children when we dismantle public education- a program that exists to provide a minimum level of education for all children?
Furthermore, he is correct on this “Arguing for the dismantling of public education will never create a national party- but rather a fringe movement that the majority of Americans will dismiss as ignorant.”
Have you ever seen the polling and voting on education? While many people think it has issues, the last thing the majority wants is for it to be dismantled. In fact, if they thought that more of the money was going to the teachers/students, they would gladly pay MORE.
Q. “What will happen to these helpless children when we dismantle public education- a program that exists to provide a minimum level of education for all children?”
A. As near as I can tell, if we follow Thomas Jefferson’s vision, they’ll wind up in a federally subsidized, competitive private schooling system which provides a much better education for about half the money.
Still misunderstanding Jefferson, Ted?
“but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle”
So Jefferson says that at least some of the schools have to be public.
Even if you were correct, they couldn’t be religious schools given Jefferson’s thoughts on Church and State.
“competitive private schooling system which provides a much better education for about half the money” I went to Catholic schools, and I can’t say that my education was better than the public schools. In fact, I would say it was on par, if somewhat behind (e.g., the music program was a joke) what was offered to my friends at public schools in the burbs.
Actually you’re only quoting the last half of Jefferson’s sentence. His actual statement was:
“Education is here placed among the articles of public care, not that it would be proposed to take its ordinary branches out of the hands of private enterprise, which manages so much better all the concerns to which it is equal; but a public institution can alone supply those sciences which, though rarely called for, are yet necessary to complete the circle”
(Emphasis added)
If you want to take Jefferson literally, that means a private school system with government providing chemicals and scaffolding for the science classes where there’s no practical way for a town to acquire them.
Note what I said: “So Jefferson says that at least some of the schools have to be public.” That implies there are some private.
“that means a private school system with government providing chemicals and scaffolding for the science classes where there’s no practical way for a town to acquire them.”
No, it means both public and private schools.
@RJE–Why don’t we see what the Asian Americans have done right and implement that?
I do not appreciate you implying any sort of racist tact on my part or on the Republican Party. I am not denigrating any segment of society. I am holding up a particularly strong element of this society which has overcome significant obstacles and recommending that we identify their formula to their success and emulate it. Why you interpret that as denigration is more a commentary on what you expect to find than any position I hold.
“Maybe then you will win back the respect of citizens who depend on the government for their livelihoods- which is everybody.” Let’s end our dependence on the government.
@Tim–Jefferson said “rarely.” Let’s do that.
Generational poverty is successive choices made by said generations. Why don’t you research how people have managed to overcome that poverty and promote that?
Theophilus has it right; there’s no faux pas in naming Asian-American educational values as laudable. I see it with my own eyes every single day. Not just “parents” but extended family place huge value on scholastic success — and unspeakable shame upon doing less than your best. It begins well before kindergarten, too. Those parents and grandparents don’t wait for any government program, and aren’t discouraged by taxation (as an earlier poster suggested) from ensuring that their children succeed. No one had to suggest “no child left behind” as a concept. Of COURSE mainstream America can learn from their example; it’s long overdue.
“I do not appreciate you implying any sort of racist tact on my part or on the Republican Party…”
As has been discussed in other threads on this site, Republicans have a history with racism ala the Southern Strategy and various current events (the latest little dust-up has Italian-Americans up in arms: http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/rep-eric-cantor-sends-out-anti-italian-) Thus it’s probably best to avoid cultural stereotyping.
I find it best to generally avoid racial stereotyping because it is a land-mine; few know the context of the situation.
“Theophilus has it right; there’s no faux pas in naming Asian-American educational values as laudable.”
I am a white American, but even though I am a gaijin, I have long term exposure to Asian culture (I took Japanese and Chinese martial arts for several years, I used to work in an Asian market, I have several friends that are Japanese, I’ve read several books on Buddhism, my wife studied the Japanese educational system…). I am certainly no expert as Asian cultures vary and it is different being raised outside a cultural framework, but I think I can offer some insights.
Please remember folks: I’m speaking in some generalities and I mean to insult no one. I apologize in advance if I do.
The intersection of all this is that there is a cultural framework behind things such as “doing well in school”. Given various religions (e.g. Buddhism, Hinduism, Confucism) and cultural trends, a strong emphasis on reincarnation and hierarchy (caste) leads to a general feeling of “knowing who I am”. Especially going back to older times, you can think of it as “My grandfather was a master tapestry maker, my father is a master tapestry maker, and I will be master tapestry maker. I know my place in the universe. All I have to do is what is expected of me, and there will be peace.” This can lead to great feelings of security, but many Westerners would find it chafing. Westerners, especially Americans have a more dynamic, everyone for themselves attitude, which has its own benefits and problems.
I would suggest people read “Thoughts without a Thinker: Psychotherapy From A Buddhist Perspective” for a discussion of difference in Asian and Western culture and how it affects psychological make up.
Thus, given that there is a framework around cultural beliefs and actions, it is nigh impossible to say “just be like them”.
“@Tim–Jefferson said “rarely.” Let’s do that.”
Sure. I’m up for it, but if we are going to have private schools and mandated education for all children, there are going to have to be some rules, such as the Swedish voucher rules.
”Generational poverty is successive choices made by said generations.”
Nice quio, now please try learning about it.
”Why don’t you research how people have managed to overcome that poverty and promote that?” Books on generational poverty typically include that in the discussion. It often involves a strong positive role model outside of the family. Even so, children are a combination of nature and nuture, and there are statistical odds when looking at society. Given a certain situation with a certain history, a percentage of people will take certain actions. So for generational poverty, some break out, but many stay not understanding a different path is possible. This is part of the meaning of “the sins of the father will be passed down generations”. Furthermore, extreme poverty affects diet which affects behavior and learning capability. While much of this extreme no longer exists in the US, there are pockets of it.
Theophilus,
I think you do not understand the reality of our world and have danced around spouting arguments based on racial stereotypes: ignorant.
I ask again, for your sake, since you don’t seem to want to address reality: “what will happen to helpless children when we dismantle public education- a program that exists to provide a minimum level of education for all children?”
Everyone:
In RE: Clay Brooks
No school will ever compensate for uninvolved parenting, especially within a community that does not value education. That’s not the point. The fact is that “public education” requires parents to turn their kids over to a politicized system that currently borders on political indoctrination, and which forces parents to generally pay substantial tuition and other penalties to escape. IF the goal is truly education, then tax credits to those who unburden the public system is the least we can do to allow such choice.
Re: Russell James Edwards - ““What will happen to helpless children when we dismantle public education- a program that exists to provide a minimum level of education for all children?”
What is happening to the majority of kids whose families are forced to battle the political elements of public education, or who simply surrender to the politicization of curricula? The “helpless” get all sorts of help, from Head Start to free or subsidized meals. The rest get what’s doled out to them until they assume the added costs of alternative education. Public education is far beyond and well outside simply providing “a minimum level of education for all children.”
Brian,
The politicization of curricula? Yeah- BIG problem there that needs addressing immediately!
You and David Horowitz keep chasing those windmills into oblivion…
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