Cheating Our Kids
Did you watch the ABC-TV 20/20 special Stupid in America: How We Cheat Our Kids last Friday night? John Stossel's report on the failure of the public education system in the U.S. was a real eye-opener for me. I knew things were bad, but I wasn't fully aware of how miserable our school system is when compared to those of other developed countries.
A couple of things in the show really struck me. One was the teacher's unions' complete rejection of competition in the form of vouchers, which would allow education money to follow a student to the school of their choice. There is no logical reason to be against vouchers except that it frightens the teachers and administrators because they might actually be held accountable for their work performance. Basically, in this country you can be a terrible teacher and keep your job. A bad accountant? Fired. A bad mechanic? Fired. But a teacher is only fired if they break a law... Maybe. Depends on which law they break, I guess.
I'm almost completely convinced that home-schooling is the best thing we can do for our children. My son is bored at school, even with several advanced classes. He is ignored by the teacher because she's busy with the troublemakers and those kids who are falling behind. I don't see the value in him sitting in a classroom reading to himself, or filling out a workbook page, when he could be doing so much more at home.
In the 20/20 program, John Stossel interviewed the first lady of South Carolina, Jenny Sanford, who said something that impressed me: "I get one shot at it. If I don't pay very close attention to how my boys are educated, then I've lost an opportunity to make them the best they can be in this world." Guess where her boys are educated? Private school.
You can watch clips from the 20/20 show here.
A couple of things in the show really struck me. One was the teacher's unions' complete rejection of competition in the form of vouchers, which would allow education money to follow a student to the school of their choice. There is no logical reason to be against vouchers except that it frightens the teachers and administrators because they might actually be held accountable for their work performance. Basically, in this country you can be a terrible teacher and keep your job. A bad accountant? Fired. A bad mechanic? Fired. But a teacher is only fired if they break a law... Maybe. Depends on which law they break, I guess.
I'm almost completely convinced that home-schooling is the best thing we can do for our children. My son is bored at school, even with several advanced classes. He is ignored by the teacher because she's busy with the troublemakers and those kids who are falling behind. I don't see the value in him sitting in a classroom reading to himself, or filling out a workbook page, when he could be doing so much more at home.
In the 20/20 program, John Stossel interviewed the first lady of South Carolina, Jenny Sanford, who said something that impressed me: "I get one shot at it. If I don't pay very close attention to how my boys are educated, then I've lost an opportunity to make them the best they can be in this world." Guess where her boys are educated? Private school.
You can watch clips from the 20/20 show here.
Permalink posted by Phil at 11:04 PM
6 Comments:
Phil, my mom watched that show -- I didn't -- and I think for the first time she understands what I've been talking about for 33 years. I started complaining about these problems when I was 9.
I went to private Catholic skool from 1st -8th grade, then public highskool.
Can't really say that the education I received from the public skool was horribly lacking by comparison to the private skool, but that was back in the late 70's and early 80's.
The wife is a teacher, so she witnesses first hand which teachers/skool/systems are just not getting their job done. Not to say that parents are innocent lambs in this problem. It's negligent parents, lacking the ability to raise their kids, that create those little creatans who take away resources and time from the kids who WANT to learn.
I wish is was simply a case of blaming teachers - they do hold a piece of the responsibility - but so do the parents. Teachers in the past had to educate us - teachers today have to RAISE the kids, not just expand their minds.
Shannon
I didn't catch the 20/20 episode, but I have read a lot about it in the edu-blogosphere. Also, I'm a college professor and so I get the end product of a lot of public education around here.
Instead of outright homeschooling (which I have nothing against) I think that giving parents meaningful choices about how to educate their kids will introduce a level of competition into education that will do it a lot of good. This may mean vouchers, which I also have nothing against. But meaningful choice might also be effected by a broader proliferation of charter schools.
Charters seem to offer the most desirable middle ground between innovation and choice on the one hand and protection of public schools on the other hand. I don't think it's necessarily time to abandon public schools -- I'm a K-12+college public school product myself and I feel like I got a great education -- but it is time to introduce accountability and give parents the options (and money) to educate their kids some other way if they don't like what their public schools offer.
But even charters raise the hackles of the teachers' unions and leftists. The faculty in the education department at my school totally rejected an idea I had for working with charter school math programs because, in their words, "charters take money away from the public schools". So closed-minded... we have a long way to go.
Phil,
Although I don't get to watch 20/20 often, Stossel's usually right on the money. Public schooling has a lot of problems, and teachers' unions aren't helping solve them. Most teachers work very hard, but the unions protect the worst, the weakest of the pack, and therefore make the entire profession weaker.
I sympathize with your situation. Since private school is a pricy option, I'd recommend getting your kids into the Charter Academy asap. Home schooling will develop kids academically, but they often end up lacking in social skills. I have a friend who jokingly refers to home school kids as "socially retarded," because they don't learn how to interact very well with other kids their age. So they end up getting a much better book education at home, but end up being less well-rounded.
At any rate, teachers' unions have gotten preoccupied with defending teachers' interests without fully considering the wider impact on schools and school districts, and therefore, the kids. For instance, I'm always struck by the fact that when teachers strike, the schools close and the kids lose out on learning. The kids get lost in the wash sometimes, and that's too bad.
Hey Phil -
I commented on this subject on one of your previous posts - 'the book I read', back in December. You may not have seen the comment, as I made it a few weeks after your original post.
Anyway, in it I said that we are a new homeschooling family (the kids just left school in October) after having thought about it for years. We have two sons who were both at Hayden Meadows, in kindergarden and 5th grade. At this point, after three months at home, I can't say enough about homeschooling. Making the decision is the hardest part, but now that we have jumped off that cliff, we have lots of days where we say 'don't you just LOVE homeschooling?!'
The great thing about where you and I live is that there is a huge homeschooling community here, including a group that meets at skate plaza once a month, and a group that offers co-op classes. There are tons of resources on the net, including lots of articles that will both encourage, and reassure you. One name you might want to google (if you haven't already heard of him) is John Taylor Gotto.
Good luck with your decision.
Stevie is right about there being a huge homeschooling community in this area. Your kids don't have to be "socially retarted". I was homeschooled and I think I turned out pretty normal. But that's because my parents kept us kids socially active. Sure, there are plenty of homeschoolers in this area that fit that stereotypical mold of what everyone thinks of when they hear "homeschooler", but that doesn't mean that you have to start making all of your children's clothes and keep them at home all of the time. Just keep them involved in things that they enjoy. Homeschooling is definitely not for everyone but is a good choice for many.
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