The Status Quo Fights the Status Quo
Human behavior tends to be pretty predictable. When confronted with a problem or a situation, we usually search through existing information or experience in order to find solutions. We try to see how something fits into our world view. This becomes a problem in that we are constantly trying to solve new problems with old solutions. Hence the phrase, the status quo.
True innovations and inventions come from individuals who look outside of existing knowledge and experience in order to solve problems. The greatest minds in history were those who looked at the world from a completely different perspective. This isn’t happening in the arena of public education-in fact, the very people who claim to be trying to reform the status quo are creating even bigger problems because they are looking for solutions from existing institutions, rather than looking for something different.
Some educational reformers look to the business model as a method of improving public education. In their eyes, the business model works well for private industry, so why wouldn’t it work for education? The answer to this question is pretty simple: schools are not businesses. Schools will never be businesses because education and knowledge are not commodities that can be measured by the stock market.
Schools are in fact, very unique places. They are not hospitals. They are not churches. They are not banks. They are places where we place our young for the purpose of providing care and knowledge. This is a unique situation and it necessitates a unique approach.
The other type of educational reformers (or deformers as some might call them) are those like the individuals pictured above. These reformers are worse than the first group because they possess even less powers of invention.
The Joel Kleins and Michelle Rhees of this country have decided that our public school system is fine. The problem lies with those who work within the system. Rather than fix broken institutions, these “reformers” have decided that the solution is to restaff them. In their minds, our public school system worked well for years. The fact that it’s not working now must be the fault of the people who work there. Change the people, change the system.
It doesn’t work this way.
Our public school system isn’t working today, because our children are different. The children who attend our schools are not the same children who attended school 20 years ago. Society is different. Families are different. Our economy is different. Technology is different. What worked for a very different society does not work now.
Friends of mine who are at the end of the boomer generation tell stories of 40 kids to a class in some suburban neighborhoods. Some remember having to put desks in the hallway. By all accounts, things were relatively quiet considering those numbers. Still, they were very different kids.
Throwing large amounts of kids into one room for a short period of time, ringing a bell and moving them on doesn’t work anymore. This factory-style schooling might have been effective when people actually could hope to find a factory job and support their families, but the world has changed.
Today’s children enter school with very different needs than many of us had. Divorce is much more common as is single parenting. Children are exposed to incredible amounts of crap through television at a very early age. My niece talks about things that I had no clue about when I was her age.
Many parents are also raising their children differently. When I was young, we were taught to be obedient to all adults at all times. We didn’t ask questions, we just did what we were told. This, of course, has proven to be a problem, as more and more adults have proven themselves to be less than trustworthy, but in the schools, we’re still using the model of-I’m the adult, you’re the child. You need to listen and follow my rules. In fact, our school model is dependent upon the assumption that these behaviors are in place. If the behaviors aren’t there, how can the model work?
We also have to think about the explosions in technology. Three year old children are using computers. Kids have instant access to information that would have taken us a lot longer to obtain. Their attention span is shorter- they are learning differently. How can a teacher expect to move at such a pace? It’s impossible.
The world of today is incredibly different from the world in which our school system was created. Why then are we using the same system to educate our children?
The ability to meet the needs of today’s children will require a very different approach. Let’s face it, society is not likely to change back. True school reform is going to take creative and innovative planning. We need a completely new approach. We need the best minds to be working towards solving this dilemma.
The bozos in the picture at the top of this post are not the ones to do this.
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Comments
It’s interesting to note how quickly we can organize and invade a country, yet we can’t change our school system.
It’s bull crap.
We don’t agree on everything (or most things), but there are times where the writers on this blog definitely hit the nail on the head (i.e. did you get the memo?).
I’m working hard on what I think is a completely different way of looking at the school systems. It can be frustrating, but I’m glad to hear people crying out for real innovation. It reminds me to work harder, even when people dismiss me and don’t return my emails.
Carols last blog post..Talk of Status Quo Part 2
[...] students from learning. However these problems, these problems are the result of a bigger problem: lack of evolution and a lack of [...]
I don’t think the system every worked for many kids. It didn’t in the 50’s and beyond and as neighborhood demographics changed so did the schools. I went to Thomas Jefferson HS in east NY in Brooklyn and most kids did not go on to college and there were quite a few drop outs. I remember ads telling kids not to drop out.
My friend went to school in Bay Ridge – all white – and she said she was one of 2 or 3 in her classes that went on to college.
It was these failures of the schools that created the movement especially in the blacl community for community control of the schools which precipitated the ‘68 strike. Did things improve in the 70’s? Not at all, especially after the rape of the school system in the mid 70’s after the financial crisis.
Then came the crack epidemic.
It never ends.
Norms last blog post..Hebrew Language charter School in Brooklyn
I think that as the student population changed, expectations did as well-which is the subject for a whole other post.
[...] The Chancellor’s New Clothes tells us that the public school system isn’t working today, because our children are different. [...]
You know, I have been thinking about this for sometime. The purpose of education is no longer the same as it was when our parents went to school or even when I did. The education system that we have now is stale and obsolete. Even more so, the role of the teacher has changed. The problem seems to be, however, that no one wants to admit that and no one wants to do the work necessary to revamp the system so that it can work.