BFTP: Create better schools by creating better societies
Sunday, December 1, 2013 at 05:34AM A weekend Blue Skunk "feature" will be a revision of an old post. I'm calling this BFTP: Blast from the Past. Original post December 1, 2008. Our district has made huge strides in getting kids ready for kindergarten - through community, not just school, efforts. When communities change, the effectiveness of their schools change. Are we just school-reform advocates - or are we participating in making our communities a better places as well?
If you want to change the world, change the world of a child. Pat Schroeder
I've always believed that one can create a better society by better educating the members of that society. I still do. But I wonder if the reverse isn't just as true and important: the only way we will create better schools is by first creating a better society. (OK, so I know this is not a new concept, but we are all entitled to our own little epiphanies.)
The Gates Foundation tackled school improvement head on by working to create small, project-based schools in areas of high poverty that focused on relevance. Didn't work.
It's time to try the alternative approach well-expressed by Kevin Riley on his El Milagro blog where he recommended these "school improvement" efforts to [then] President-elect Obama:
1. Provide health care for all of my students [at his charter school] to address the scourge of childhood obesity, diabetes, and poor nutrition;
2. Ensure that every child has access to comprehensive eye exams and appropriate interventions when they are struggling just to see– let alone to read;
3. Ensure that every child has regular dental checkups and access to highly qualified dentists so that my students’ baby teeth aren’t rotting in their heads;
4. Provide the funding support and infrastructure so that all of my students can attend preschool like the affluent kids do;
5. Create a way for every child in America to have a laptop and access to the Internet so that poor children aren’t pushed further behind by the technology divide that favors their more affluent counterparts;
6. Divert the 10 billion dollars we are currently spending every month in Iraq and re-invest in the modernization and construction of state-of-the-art school buildings in every community in America;
7. Guarantee a college education of the highest quality for all children so they are motivated to apply themselves academically;
8. Eliminate unemployment so that the parents of my students can properly provide the basic necessities for their children-food, clothing shelter;
9. Significantly raise the minimum wage so that our parents are not forever struggling against the tide…fighting the unwinnable battle to stay ahead of a runaway economy and its stunning indifference to the working poor…
And… let’s see… I guess this is a big one…
10. Eliminate politically motivated accountability systems that, for the most part, test our students’ ability to test while ignoring all of their other assets: like their creativity and their critical thinking and problem solving and communication skills; and their proficiency with technology and their ability to speak in multiple languages or lead others or serve their community…”
Eight of the ten suggestions Mr. Riley makes are fixes to society, not schools. And I bet each suggestion would actually make a genuine improvement in how well kids do in school.
I would riff a bit on Riley's tenth suggestion:
"Make all state and national tests be "value-added" rather than "normed." Let's work on getting the personal best from each child, rather than continue to sort the winners from the losers."
What is the one suggestion you would make to the incoming Secretary of Education that would actually have a chance of improving education for all kids?
How sad that Obama in the past five years has kept with the test-mania started in the Bush administration. It's one thing to be disappointed in the political party one doesn't support; it's worse to be disappointed in one that one has.
Reader Comments (2)
My suggestion is closely related to number 8 or 9. I wish every student were provided soap, shampoo, toothpaste, and laundry detergent (and a place to use those items!) So many students have only one or two outfits that never get washed -- they STINK. And lets face it, no matter how hard you try, when you are near them you can't wait to get away. It's sad....
Hi Annette,
And the older the child gets, the more difficult it is for them as well. Tough to keep hygienic when living in a car.
Doug