Only Community Leaders Can Save Our Schools

rantrave.com ^ | Feb. 2, 2013 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

In 2007 Bill Gates said the public schools are a threat to the nation’s survival. They’re that bad.

It’s important that community leaders of all kinds (but especially business executives) become involved in fixing what must be called a crisis.

Your community needs you. It’s easy to help. Here’s how, in four steps:

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I: START WITH A CLEAN INTELLECTUAL SLATE

Public schools have been sinking into mediocrity for 70+ years. Statistics trend ever downward. Why?

Let’s confront the obvious. The people at the top are grossly incompetent. Or their philosophy dictates that leducation’s true goal is leveling (i.e., dumbing down). Either way, it’s prudent to replace the so-called experts who created all this decline and misery.

In short, start fresh. Re-examine what went wrong. Re-imagine what is possible. Find your own experts and your own answers.

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II: TRUST ONLY THOSE WITH A RECORD OF SUCCESS

Every city has three reservoirs of educational wisdom. Talk to these people:

1) People who manage private schools.

2) Those in charge of good parochial schools.

3) Homeschooling parents. (Note: homeschoolers have to spend all day at the kitchen table teaching. They don’t waste time on methods that don’t work.)

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III: SELECT ONLY THE BEST APPROACHES

Investigate. Find out what goals and methods are used by the most successsful schools. Embrace only those methods!

You’re a VIP. People will answer your questions. What theories, what approaches, what curricula are mentioned again...and again?

In a few hours, you’ll know for yourself what works and doesn’t work.

(Here is a preview of what you’ll probably learn...)

BAD METHODS OFTEN FOUND IN BAD SCHOOLS:

Sight Words

High-Frequency Words

Reform Math (12 varieties)

Constructivism

Cooperative Learning

Self-Esteem

Fuzziness

Whole Words

Dolch Words

Social Studies

Guessing

Relevance

Multiculturalism

No Memorization

Pretend Critical Thinking

Disorderly Schools

Permissive About Cheating

Just a few of these ideas, used relentlessly, can cripple any school.

GOOD METHODS TYPICALLY EMBRACED BY GOOD SCHOOLS

The 3 R’s

Basics

Phonics

Arithmetic

Cursive Handwriting

Mastery

Facts

Knowledge

Academics

Aesop’s Fables

Geography

Literature

General Science

History

Second Language

Homework

Proper Spelling

Accuracy

Promptness

Real Critical Thinking

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IV: PUT ON THE PRESSURE

The blueprint for success is simple: use only good methods. When in doubt, do what good schools do.

Praise and promote those methods. Spotlight successful schools.

Conversely, explain and criticize what bad schools do. Publish their scores. Name their principals. Laugh at their fads and foolishness.

Accept no excuses. When big organizations produce bad results, the top people should be replaced.

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SUMMARY: public education, throughout the 20th century, was debased to achieve political goals. It’s time to say goodbye to all that.

The best schools around the country, and throughout history, have done much the same things. Kids learn reading, writing and arithmetic. From there they go on to geography, history, science, literature, and the arts.

We need to enforce the popular will, which surely desires substantive education, not indoctrination, for every child.

The problem is that the official leaders in education are like viruses in a computer; nothing works right with them around. We need new leaders, in every community, to reclaim the public schools.

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RELATED READING--

WHAT NOT TO DO: “56: Top 10 Worst Ideas in Education” http://www.improve-education.org/id83.html

WHAT TO DO: “A Bill of Rights for Students 2013” http://www.improve-education.org/id90.html

[setha]

That presumes that the demand isn't already being distorted by a supply of guest workers. It may make him feel good, but it won't do any good if people see that it is a losing proposition to go in a field that sends more to guest workers than not. If Gates wants more people in the US to take up high-skill fields, a top interest would be to remove the distortions related to guest workers.

His (or Ballmer's) interest(on the large scale) is having the least free, lowest cost hire that can fulfill the demands of the company. Microsoft doesn't care how well educated they are as long as they follow that trend on the large scale.

[SoftballMominVA]

Lotta good thoughts in that article. And it does indeed echo what I’ve thought for ages - the community, not just the teachers, need to be involved. I think people in the homeschooling community have great ideas about curriculum and teaching methods and I wish they would share at their local school level and insist that they school board use sounder based books, etc.

[Mmmike]

For a serious conversation to take place, you would have to slow down enough to explicitly state your belief that school as an institution must continue to exist as it has, and that it's only the operational details that need to change. Then a serious back-and-forth could begin.

Until you can brace yourself and be **that** frank, the painstaking, details you've provided so far as suggestions are beside the point.

Some of us, myself included, believe that "public schooling" has built-in operational problems which translate into the death of a "free" country by the destruction of its philosophy and culture. If you will be honest with yourself, you can imagine that we don't care much to talk about the latest flavors-of-the-month in educationist circles.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Wintertime says: “work toward complete privatization of universal K-12 schooling in this nation.”

Great!!! Go for it!!! IN THE MEANTIME, I think we need to get the last-remaining smart practical people involved in education. That’s all I said. Basically, if everyone who self-identifies as a conservative or a Republican got involved in the local schools, you could change things, maybe even quickly.

(One thing that people may not realize is the degree to which the local newspaper has completely sold out. They used to advocate for the parents, now they advocate for the NEA.

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Thanks for many smart comments.

[SunkenCiv]

Note: this topic is from 2/09/201. Thanks BruceDeitrickPrice.