Reform or Conform
Written by Dan Salzwedel
During my five decades of experiencing the educational system in many different roles, I have had the opportunity to observe all aspects of the process, including numerous efforts toward reforming what appears to be wrong with our system. From the time we begin training people who feel called to the profession, to faculty and service gatherings, to observations of teaching at all levels, to the excitement of meeting that class the very first day, I’ve witnessed every facet of the teaching profession. I know about the origins of our educational system; from its roots in Grecian education and culture 2,100 years ago, and how it evolved into the now European-influenced system of education in the 1700s that our founding fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin used as the basis for forming the American educational system. We know the three purposes of education they had in mind, which to this day serve as the principal foundation for public education as we know it: 1. Prepare our young to understand and actively participate in our American system of governance. 2. Prepare our young to understand and actively involve themselves in our American system of achievement (free enterprise; i.e. capitalism and success as a concept). 3. Prepare our young for war-our American system of defense-not just by knowing the best way to fire projectiles at one another, but by being willing to stand and fight for freedom and the liberties that we enjoy; to defend the ideology of our great nation and those charter principles it was founded upon. I know that our children are our future, and teaching our youth what we know is a debt we owe to the next generation. I also know that adherence to these principles depends on teaching our children not just facts and figures, but a sense of morals/ethics/character. It means granting them the right and giving them the opportunity to fail or succeed on their own merit. It means teaching them that no matter what their pursuit, every behavior, good or bad, has consequences, and they must learn to accept those consequences. This was why interscholastic activities were started in the schools, to develop the students’ character and morality while developing physically with exercise. A well-rounded student has a sound mind and a sound heart in a sound body. But gradually, over the course of the last fifty years or so, while observing the various facets of the teaching profession, I’ve witnessed a slow but steady decline in the quality of the educational system. Little by little, measures are introduced into the system to reform it, make it better. Bit by bit, we began handcuffing the teachers with legislation designed to cushion the students from failure and ease the burden of their mistakes. Corporal punishment-spanking-misbehaving students, which once was just as OK in school as it was at home, began to be frowned upon. After all, we wouldn’t want to traumatize the student, or emotionally scar him or her for life, would we? Expelling students who exhibited inappropriate behavior, or failing students who didn’t satisfy educational requirements, would only serve to deprive those students of the education they’re entitled to, and potentially harm their self-esteem. Students who couldn’t afford to go to school (which is an absurdity in and of itself in our country) or buy their own lunch were entitled to do so without having to earn the money, so programs like the Free and Reduced Lunch came into being, to an entitlement mindset that has permeated every aspect of our system.
But are we reforming the system, or conforming to the desires of a well-meaning but misinformed segment of the population; a society that is also learning that it’s not ok to fail (trophies for everyone), that consequences for bad behavior, such as illegal immigration, will go unpunished and perhaps even rewarded with free schooling, healthcare, and other assistance? A society in which a single mother is rewarded for having multiple children out of wedlock, even though studies show “nuclear” families tend to be better environments for proper child-rearing? A society in which adults have learned not to have a conscience or feel guilty when they did something wrong; especially if they got away with it without suffering any consequences? A society in which local responsibility for education is subjugated under the authority of the federal government, leading to laws such as No Child Left Behind? A society in which students see the “reforms” being enacted around them, and rather than learning that character counts, learn instead how to manipulate the system for their own benefit? Starting in the seventies, eighties, and nineties, and continuing into today, education-bashing has become a national, state, and local pastime. Many of the areas that people view as wrong with education proper are more the result of reformation movements, individuals within our society who fail to feel the consequences of deviant behavior, and our inability to stand for principles by which our system was originally established. The finger-pointing (rhetorically) continues, and is one of the most “precious industries” of our time. That is, people who make money off the misery of others, individually or collectively. The family, which once was the starting point of the modeling of good behaviors, is now monitored and told how to parent. Children see the divorce of responsibility that local authority has on education, and see how the modern framework of behavioral expectations and social constructions was framed in the absence of parental responsibility before, during, and after a child is brought into this world, making the conundrum even more difficult to deal with as an educational institution. I saw by attempting to solve societal ills through the public educational process, we’ve deluded, substituted, politicized, litigated, and changed significantly those principles that have guided productivity in our past to accommodate a very few. Further, our inability to deal with failure by cushioning the consequences has opened up sores within the system that have not, and will not, ever be successfully addressed in our formal education system. Education is a fluid activity; one in which you continually navigate through a forest of information that gets thicker by the year. One of the basic principles of educational success in those institutions that still retain and celebrate those values briefly alluded to, is the fact we’re in the business of consequential learning. That is, for every behavior there is a consequence; whether it’s good, bad, or indifferent, it’s basic to the learning process. For example, if I choose not to listen to someone during the course of the class, the value, obviously, is that I place something else there as more important. The failure to listen, to harbor common courtesies, to be respectful to adults or people who may be superior in the learning process, to have a thirst to learn, among other basic needs and principles for general education to succeed, are paramount to the institution’s success. Right now, we spend more time in trying to achieve order within a classroom than we actually do teaching; and most of that lies on the lap of poorly-prepared parents for that role and their inability to take responsibility or deal with the consequence, if you will, of their child’s inability to learn.
Behavioral expectations have got to increase from the outset. Having spent a considerable part of my career in athletics and activities, and frankly one of the reasons why a significant majority of those people who participate voluntarily in that arena for learning are successful, is the fact that they understand consequences. If I fail to execute (in football) a block, I’m letting somebody else down. We don’t succeed in the end, if I don’t do what my job is. If I fail a note, or I fail a stanza, in a concert, the performance of the entire band/orchestra is viewed as somewhat negligible, at best. If I fail to prepare for a lesson, for a sporting activity, if I don’t practice in advance of a concert, I’ll not realize success by any definition. All of which are an inherent part of the educational process and further substantiated the importance and understanding that character is a prerequisite; learning and reinforcing good character is a prerequisite to achieving knowledge in any form. So where does this lead us? Well, the following bullet points are all areas that will generally require resolution prior to any reform movement being successful.
One: We need to place more responsibility on the parents for the behavior of their own children within the school. Parents only have two responsibilities (as it relates to going out in public or in a particular school): to prepare the child to learn, and teach the child how to behave. Regardless of what their interests are outside of school, the scholastic institution is not responsible for babysitting your child. If he or she chooses not to learn, listen, behave, or conform to acceptable standards of behavior, including appropriate attire, language, conduct, then they should be at home, under your tutelage, until they in fact learn and understand how to do so appropriately. Note-if this means a child will start school later than the standard set at five years old, then so be it.
Two: Litigation in general education is, for the most part, frivolous, and more a representation of people who fail to honor their responsibilities at home-as it’s a child’s responsibility to learn, not to teach.
Three: Tort reform, and immunity, for most cases within the educational framework, to eliminate the unworthy costs associated with the court system to satisfy individual needs, and place them in the category of being frivolous, including activities, has to be accomplished. In years past, education was immune from the parasite mentality perpetuated by the entitlement mindset to litigate rather than resolve problems in many cases with the intent to become a lottery winner or rationalize their own shortcomings away. For the most part, litigating in education has become a prospecting tool for attorneys, serving no real purpose other than robbing instructional monies and neutering the people we want to control the students. There is no research to show that having the ability to sue a school or its personnel has demonstrably improved instruction, safety, or character.
Four: Limit labor unions and their influence within the teaching profession. It’s necessary to restrict placing systemic parameters on success by handcuffing those within the workplace with limited work hours and penalizing devotion to the ultimate responsibility of teaching children. No more tenure (at any level), or save havens for people to go to for respite. All need to be accountable for their own performance, and evaluated based on their performance and the progress made by qualified students at periodic intervals. Role modeling and academic advancements must be criteria for retention as well as advancement.
Five: Hold administrators responsible, through our local boards of education, to the principles and standards by which they’re supposed to accomplish learning in the first place, as alluded to in prior paragraphs. No tenure, no obligatory procedures or processes to place a child into social promotion, or, by the courts, obligating a child to be in school when he or she has failed to meet a norm or an expectation behaviorally in or out of school. We have far too many safeguards in the workplace, and have systemically limited our professional ability to perform.
Six: Hold professionals more responsible as role models. There should be no restrictions as to the behavioral expectations in or out of their place of employment. Teachers, educators, regardless of the role within the institutional framework, must be the epitome of good role models in every conceivable way. We can’t conduct ourselves in a “sometimes” basis and at four o’clock, similar to a factory position, decide that we’re going to leave our morality and affirmative behavior on a coat rack while we do something that might be illicit, inappropriate, or simply not of good example to people who we’re attempting to influence. Again, the aim of education is not of knowledge first, but of character; and you have to be what you want others to see at all times.