by Lawrence Wilson MD
Two prominent economists were recently asked what is the greatest challenge facing America. Both agreed it is not the budget deficit or health care, but the decline of the American public school system. Costs are higher and academic performance lower than most other industrialized nations. Also, dropout rates in some areas reach 20-30%. I will divide the discussion of our schools into three parts: 1) outside influences, 2) philosophies and methods, and 3) an inflexible structure.
OUTSIDE INFLUENCES
The problems of the school system come from within and from outside the system. An important outside factor is the breakdown of the family. Even in two-parent homes, both parents often work and less time is spent with children. The school system then must substitute or compensate for less parental attention.
A second outside factor is the deterioration of values in the general society. Traditional values emphasized hard work, discipline, delayed gratification and critical thinking. These are essential for good education. Newer 'values' include political correctness, emphasizing self-esteem over performance and "value-free" education.
A third outside factor straining and competing with the schools are new technologies, especially television, video and computer games. These are potentially powerful learning tools. However, since they have not been incorporated into the education system for the most part, they become a diversion and temptation for children.
A fourth outside influence is worsening health of American children. One out of every five children today is diagnosed with a learning disorder and most are placed on Ritalin or similar medication. While ADHD and learning disorders may be over diagnosed, and are in some areas, there is no question that many children are not well. They are exhausted, have trouble concentrating and many other problems. My experience as a physician is they are nutritional depleted and toxic. Most are born this way because mothers are toxic and depleted.
A fifth outside factor is poverty or deprivation of any kind. I mention it mainly because some would make it a major issue. It is true that many children grow up in poor homes. However, poverty has been around for a long time, long before our present school problems developed. In the past, however, families were stronger and values were stronger. Poverty is unfortunate, but cannot be held responsible for school problems.
The breakdown of the family and traditional values, new technology, poor health and new economic realities present powerful challenges to our educational system. Clearly, new models and systems are needed. Some changes are simple, like keeping the schools open until 6 PM for the convenience of working parents. Other changes are far more difficult because they challenge long-accepted ways of doing things.
TEACHING METHODS AND PHILOSOPHY
Teaching methods and philosophy in schools have changed little for the past century. Methods that we ought to question are:
1. A highly authoritarian system that forces children to learn at a pace, a place, a time, and in an order determined by the teacher's convenience. Classrooms may be good for some children, but not for others. At one time it was the only way to do things. But this is no longer true. Perhaps, as John Dewey suggested, learning should be more active. Maybe apprenticeship would be best for some children. Perhaps some children should have a 'home learning center' consisting of a computer and certain hook-ups. The important point is that the present monolithic system offers little room for these options. Change occurs ever so slowly.
2. Rewarding uncreative behavior. The child who gets the best grade is generally the one who can repeat like a parrot what the teacher says. Those who think independently and creatively are often punished for their independence. Yet creative, independent thinking is critical to modern society.
3. A negative reinforcement system. Present grading systems label children as "C" students, or even failures. In fact, there is no failure. Some children learn faster than others. Some learn differently than others. Negative reinforcement through grading may be fine for some, but is harmful for many. It also sets up a reward system for learning that does not help students to be self-motivated.
4. A focus on physical and intellectual, but not spiritual development. Physical and intellectual development are stressed in school. Other aspects of an individual, particularly spiritual aspects, are ignored. It is not enough just to be trained for a job.
J. Krishnamurti wrote a small book entitled Education and the Significance of Life. He stated that the purpose of education is to help a person find that which he or she truly loves to do. This does not mean children don't need to learn trades to earn a living. However, trades and occupations come naturally if one is permitted to find what he enjoys doing. The present system has a hidden presumption - that if children did what they liked, they would not become productive members of society. So we force children to learn at the teacher's convenience, whether or not the child has any interest. Again, it is little wonder that many rebel against the system and stop learning altogether.
J. Krishnamurti also pointed out that change would not come until the teachers themselves change their attitudes and expectations of the children. This is another often-overlooked aspect of the problem. He also discusses the importance of the character of the teachers. Book learning is not enough for teachers or children. Some express this idea as an excessive focus on the head, and little emphasis on the heart.
A deeper aspect to spiritual education has to do with explaining to children their true nature as spiritual beings having an earth experience. They are not just numbers in a system, or raw material to be molded by the culture. Each is a unique manifestation of the creatorÃs love in physical form. Ever since the 1970s, all references to religion and spirituality were forced out of the public schools. This, I believe, has contributed greatly to the decay of the public school system. No amount of money or testing will compensate for it.
AN INFLEXIBLE STRUCTUREThe most critical problem in education is its structure. The public school system is a unionized, government monopoly. This is the least flexible structure imaginable.
Let us understand this very well. A monopoly in business terms means there is little meaningful competition. This means there is little real incentive to change and modernize in any fashion.
A government monopoly is the worst kind of monopoly for at least three reasons:
1) A government-financed system means that the money flows in, no matter how poor the school performance. So there is little incentive to change anything. In private business, if your performance drops, people go elsewhere with their business.
2) Funds are collected by force. This means that If you don’t want to support the school system with your tax dollars, you will go to jail. You can pay for your child to go to private school, but you still must support the public system. Once again, in private business situations, if you don’t like what is going on, you may take your money and give it to someone else who you feel can do a better job.
3) Competition is often effectively stifled by law. In private business you can often go off and start your own business fairly easily. But try starting your own school. First, you must compete with the government-subsidized school. This means you must charge people the full price, much more than the totally subsidized public school. Even if you the money issue somehow with scholarships or just having rich parents, often there are hundreds of regulations that you must meet, or you will not be granted permission or later, accreditation by the state tfor our school. Thank God in America one can still home school, getting around a few of these problems.
4) Funding and therefore control of the public schools are not in the hands of the consumers of education - parents and children. This should be obvious, but it bears saying. Whoever funds a school will control what is taught and how it is done, and much more. So having a government system automatically transfers power and authority away from parents and their children’s needs and hands it to a “education bureaucracy” that often cares more for the status quo than for the children’s well-being. It also weakens the family unit and alienates most parents, who are not willing to put up with long, tedious school board meetings and other bureaucratic insanity.
The Teacher’s Union. Speaking of special interest groups, teachers are unionized. This entrenches the school monopoly much more. The reason is that the union benefits from the status quo, more or less, and is terribly threatened by change that would test the teachers more or worse, replace teachers with machines or other systems such as apprenticeships.
In fairness, unions could be a force for positive change. In practice, this rarely happens. The union becomes a political haven for people who like the status quo and they block change. They also have millions of dollars of union dues to spend lobbying the government to prevent change. So the union is usually a very conservative force. That is ironic, since unions tend to vote democratic and give thousands of dollars to democratic political candidates. They claim to speak for “the people”, but it is a very select group of people, in this case the public school teachers. In reality, they lobby against the best interests of the majority of the people, in this case the children of America and most other developed nations.
The results of all the above are:
* Change is very slow, no matter what is promised. There is simply little incentive to change.
* Schools are not primarily accountable to their clients - the pupils and their families. Too often, vocal minorities, distant boards or unions control policies and funding.
* Layers of bureaucracy arise that are extremely expensive and insulate schools further from change.
* The system discriminates against the poor. The wealthy can send their children to private schools. The poor have no choice.
The only way to fix the structure of education is to return control to parents in the form of school choice. I doubt there will be much constructive change otherwise. An excellent book about deregulation of education, loaded with statistics and excellent reasoning, is Deschooling Society by Ivan Illich. This is an older book, but well worth looking for.
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