Education

I'm worried about the state of education in the US.  I've written about it before, here and for newspapers.  And, from some of what I saw this past week, I think many of the bad things I feared are occurring.

I had occasion to attend a curriculum night/open house at the local high school.  Oh, the teachers and other staff were very nice, etc.  But as I left each and every class, I felt it growing.  "It?"  Yes, "it" is the sense that we are creating educational assembly lines.  (No doubt many, esp in the schools would disagree--for many reasons.)  Teachers seem to be robots, if not as people, at least as teachers.  And students are minions ( NO NO, not the movie.  I took the kids to see it and I thought it was rotten, one of the very worse I've ever seen.  Yet, it was worthwhile--the kids liked it and I was with the kids.)

Each class had an agenda--this, this, and this.  There was no room for that.  Everything seemed to be geared up for, you guessed it, the state tests.  It seemed there was no room for creativity in the classroom, no room for teachers to, perhaps, spend extra time on their specialties.  Guidelines and timelines seemed to rule everything.

And what point of "pride" did the principal show to parents at the beginning?  Again, you guessed it--test scores.

I was astounded that the first semester, for instance, of World History "covered" prehistory all the up through the 18th Century!!!!!!  Where is the room to study the Greeks and the Romans and what they gave to our Western Civilization?  Where is the time to study (and enjoy) the art of the Renaissance?  When can teachers teach in any depth, which is the real study of history?  I noted that some of the key "benchmarks" (I dislike that term!) involved Ancient China, 13th Century Africa, and the Mongols.  So, touching upon them steals from time focusing on the Greeks and Romans and the Enlightenment.....?  But what does a piece of mung know?

I don't think I'm conveying clearly enough my feeling of "assembly line education" that I had as I left the building.  Regardless, that feeling has been hammering on me for three days.  It's not a good feeling to have.  I guess we can thank our politicians and corporate-types.  And let's not forget to thank the education establishment for turning out such lousy products that the politicians and corporate-types stepped in.