If I were King

I responded to a post asking what changes I would make for our education system. This topic is near and dear to my heart and interestingly rather timely as I was asked yesterday if I would have any interest returning to teaching.

Let us just say, “it’s complicated.” Answer: Sort of, kinda, maybe, yes. I wish, but probably not.

Here’s my answer to what I would do if I were king. Feel free to add your two cents.

Oh God, as a former teacher, I would be hated (by politicians).

I would call for: A stricter but fairer curriculum, stop watering down standards, more US history classes, our country's history has too much to be covered in one year, even two years is hardly enough, AND no white washing our past.

If the past six years have taught us anything, a whole lot of Americans slept through their high school history, civics and government classes. Remember the adage “those who fail to learn the mistakes of our past are doomed to repeat them?”

More English and communication classes. Too many kids today cannot write and spell to save their lives. Have you ever seen a grammar book from the 19th century? From the mid-20th century? Even I might find some of those lessons difficult.

More practical classes for those who are not interested in college track. While some would say the arts are not important, they are. For some, the arts and athletics are the magnet keeping our students engaged.

Is home economics still taught? Living skills math (some of us who took the required algebra have not once used it in real life)?

Science, science, science, foreign languages. Folks, we are not keeping up with the world!

I know this is an unpopular idea, but maybe a longer school year would be beneficial... a year round schedule with staggered breaks every three months. Just ask teachers how much review they have to do at the beginning of every school year. In some cases, why not a fifth year?

It's an old tireless debate but more pay for the teachers. Smaller classes, smaller schools. Education is not cheap and the government needs to stop trying to do school on the cheap.

Universal standards. It is ridiculous to think each state must reinvent the wheel. Kids are kids no matter where they live. English lit in Indiana should be the same as in Texas. And US History damn well best be taught the same in the north as the south. Again, NO whitewashing!

You may not like it, but this country has a past that hardly lives up to the ideals we claim it does.

Get parents more involved but let's also remember educators are there for a reason and in most cases should not be the victims of backseat quarterbacking.

Parents, you have a choice. If you don’t like the curriculum, home school your children or send them to a school in which you share common values. But do not try to inflict your values on an entire school who might disagree with you. Remembering the old adage about dating someone where things just aren't working out. If you say, "it's not you. It's me." Believe me, generally speaking, it is you.

Sadly, we need safer schools. Bullying may not be a new phenomena but it has risen to a level where student suicides are up, up, up and our schools in many cases have not risen to the challenge of rooting it out.

Many of our children are caught in a catch-22. They want to go to school, they are afraid to go to school. Students cannot learn if they are scared for their lives.

Students also cannot learn if their basic needs at home are not being met. Our poorer students wonder from where their next meal might come… or if they even have a home to come to.

A child who worries about their lives after school will not be focused on their classroom lives in school.

Students, again, cannot learn if the hierarchy of needs outside the school are not being met.

Is this our schools’ job to fret over? Yes and no but we as a people must stop arguing over who is important and who is not. Easy answer: all of our children are important.

Having said that, I would be remiss if I did not mention protecting our gay, lesbian, transgender children. Gender issues must be protected at all cost.

You may notice I did not mention prayer in school. It is not a school’s to do so; it is not a teacher’s job either. You may not infer this being hostile to religion. Quite the opposite, in fact. Whose religious values are we to teach? It’s all or none and something tells me a good lot of Christians are not going to like Islam being promoted or visa versa.

Stop testing so damned much. It’s gotten so bad that even if teachers claim they are not, they really are teaching to the test (especially if their salary is tied to the results). That’s kinda like shuffling a deck of cards but putting them in the order you want them to be. Word up, testing is not the best predictor of success!

Let's face it, the best practices of our education system needs a mixture of old standards and new. I believe our nation needs to implement a program beyond the scale and scope of the Manhattan Project. If we truly believe our children are our future it’s time to put our money where our mouth is.

What do you think?

20Tonya Randall, Dennis Malloy and 18 others

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