Please watch in preparation for class on Wednesday, March 10. Are schools for assimilation?
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Jim and Jane Langholz
Dr. James Langholz
- Associate Professor of Education, Luther College
- Decorah, Iowa, langhoja@luther.edu, United States
- This is my 33rd year in education. Prior to beginning at Luther, I was an elementary teacher, guidance counselor and principal. My wife, Jane, works as a media specialist in the North Winneshiek and Decorah Schools. My oldest son, Nathan, is a graduate student at UCLA and my youngest son, Ben, is a senior at St. Olaf College.
4 comments:
Wow! So what does this mean for politics? Can politics do anything other than "make rules?" What about making rules that prevent "making rules?" What role can politics effectively play (if any) in education?
Yes, the questions would become 1) Can we legislate and make rules for "Being Kind", or for "Being Flexible", of for "Ignoring Rules When They Don't Make Sense?" (I once had a teacher who refused to break up a fight in the hallway because it was his "prep time" as defined by the master contract). If we can't does that make these less important? 2) Or how about being creative (see the next TED Talks clip on the blog)? Can we regularize or standardized or legislate the nature and frequency of being creative? Or where has creativity gone in the minds of politicians? 3) Or how about those other "21st Century Skills" you read and wrote about last semester to include "collaboration", "problem solving" etc? Can we make a rule to get teachers to collaborate? But, if we can't get teachers to collaborate, can we operate effectively as a school regardless of what the data might tells us?
Can politics play an effective role in education? Yes. The politicians have a couple of primary roles. 1) Find a way to attract and retain the very brightest, the very best, the most creative teachers to the world of education. This would include providing world class facilities, providing the best possible resources, limiting the total number of students teachers see each day (I would suggest in the 80-90 student/day range in the high school, maximize elem./m.s. size to 20) and by providing a livable wage (this part I don't think is all that big of an issue, honestly, at least in most schools). 2) Stay out of their way and the way of the schools to take care of student needs. 3) Figure out a way to get rid of teachers who aren't carrying their end of the log. (since this is a tricky one, we could start with #1 and #2 and plug away at #3 as we go).
I truly believe that the focus on restructuring, micromanaging the curriculum, the discussion of state/national standards, Iowa Core, standard testing, benchmarks, etc......is a distraction from addressing the fact that "school reform" is very costly, it will require a rethinking of the national agenda, and "redistributing the wealth" is not an appealing idea to those who have wealth and they think they "earned it." Politicians avoid this discussion at all costs because it may result in getting ousted from office by those who control the wealth.
OK....that's my rank for the morning. Thanks for providing the prompt for getting me writing.
Jim
Ok, so if its not about making rules, essentially, politics is the science of money-distributing then, right? In the end, the best thing politics can do for the U.S. education system is to distribute lots of money equally to all schools and try to refrain from micromanaging as much as possible. Right?
My quick answer to your question is "Yes" that is what politics could best do. If $$$=power, and we want to develop an education system based on equity and equal opportunity, then it seems that a fair and equitable distribution of finances is a good place to start. The government has the power to do that.
Second, I believe that reorganizing school districts (does Iowa really need 346 districts? Winneshiek Co. has 4 districts for less than 3000 students with nearly $500,000 in supt. salaries alone not to mention of the unnecessary additional costs like 4 football teams, 4 marching bands, 4 bus managers, etc. etc. with the rural communities continuing to decline in numbers of children needing an education.
Third, the government could cut out all AEAs for a huge savings with little disturbance in ed quality for most students.
So.....on the larger scale, politics could address waste, unnecessary expenditures, how additional taxes could be redistributed country-wide (I mean, seriously, couldn't we do without a few F-15s, an aircraft carrier or two, a smaller nuclear arsenal....at least, until we get enough funds going for decent schools and effective teachers for all students?) So....I say, have politicians stick with $$$, distribution of $$$ across the board, large scale laws (anti-descrimination, Union laws, safety issues, etc.) and leave the rest to the best qualified teachers the country can find and support.
RIGHT??!!!That might be a stretch!! Who knows.....I just know that the most aggressive government attempt at legislating improvement in learning of students across the USA (NCLB) is being viewed as a large scale failure and now Obama and Duncan are doing more of the same except on a larger scale? Remember when I talked about beating the dead horse in ed psych......
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