Education Reform—NOT!
Surely, I'm not the only person who finds the current debate on education reform a bit disingenuous. For the most part, the reform proposals seem to spring from a set of common--and terribly wrong--premises. Children come to school as passive vessels, waiting to be filled with knowledge. Schools are simply "knowledge factories" where the "teacher-worker" processes the children to fill them with the approved knowledge. Quality is assessed by testing the finished product, and when the results are not acceptable, the product gets reworked (summer school or held back) and perhaps the workers (the teachers) get punished. If there is enough bad product over a long enough time, maybe with the whole factory (the school) gets "re-engineered."
What a crock!
Every child is a unique human being, with a unique portfolio of abilities, interests, experiences, knowledge, skills, health, cultural perspective, expectations, and family situation. Children are veritable learning machines. Watch how fast they pick up the latest video game, learn to ride a bicycle, or learn a foreign language. When these learning machines appear to be failing to learn in school, we must be willing to question everything, including the assumption that public education, as currently constituted, is a viable process.
Isn't it self-evident that if every child must have exactly the same "educational experience," and we want most of them to succeed, then the experience will be destructive for many of them? "Exactly the same" means that everywhere across the state of Georgia, students get exactly the same instruction on exactly the same topics in exactly the same manner. Clearly, on any given day, most children will either be bored silly, or stressed beyond their readiness. Personally, I'd bet on bored silly, because of the requirement that most succeed. Does this promote learning and a passion for learning, or does it breed contempt for "school" and for the processes of "education?"
What's the alternative? It is to make the educational experience much more personal, more tailored to the abilities, preparation, readiness, and interests of the individual child.