CHAPTER 10
LEARNING LESSONS OUR SCHOOLS CAN'T TEACH
LEARNING LESSONS OUR SCHOOLS CAN'T TEACH
At the turn of the century, horses were still the mainstay of the transportation industry. Today, automobiles and planes take us all over the world. Most of our great-grandparents remember using Rockefeller's kerosene to light their homes. Today, electricity and natural gas provide light, heat, and power for innumerable appliances. Just a few generations ago, infectious disease was the most frequent cause of death. Today, most bacterial plagues are effectively controlled with antibiotic treatment. In most areas of our lives, radical progress has been made over the past century. Unfortunately, education is one of those rare exceptions. In the early 1900s, our great-grandparents trudged off to the neighborhood school. For the better part of the day, the teacher stood in front of the class, chalk in hand, to expound on lessons contained in the school books. To-day, our children might ride a bus to their neighborhood school, but once there, every-thing is very similar to the way it was for our great-grandparents. For the better part of the day, the teacher stands in front of the class, chalk in hand, to expound on the lessons contained in the school books. The facilities are newer and the curriculum includes some ad-ditional subjects, but the teaching methods have changed little. The cost of doing things the same old way, however, has skyrocketed. Only national defense consumes more of our taxes than the public school system. (1) In spite of this great expenditure, a survey on education finds the United States "A Nation at Risk." (2) Almost 25% of our high school students do not graduate, and another 25% have too few academic qualifications to be placed in a job or college program. (3) Even those in the top 50% of their graduating class frequently find themselves classified as unskilled labor. After a 25-year decline in scholastic aptitude tests (SATs), (4) our best and brightest compare unfavorably to students from other nations. (5) Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised. Af-ter all, our grade school and high school educations are examples of Fourth Layer ag-gression. The educational system is basically an exclusive monopoly (Second Layer aggres-sion). All schools, even private ones, must meet the requirements of the accreditation (licensing) boards. Such boards usually dictate the core curriculum, the list of acceptable textbooks, and the educational standards for teachers. (6) High prices, low quality, and lack of innovation are hallmarks of licensing laws, especially exclusive ones that create monopolies. Education is heavily subsidized by taxes (Third Layer aggression). Subsidies cause waste, especially when services are provided by the government. Public schools consume twice as many dollars in operating costs as do private ones. (7) The amount of money spent per pupil, however, does not significantly affect educational quality. (8) The real waste is not money, however, but the minds of our children. A poor education means fewer skills with which to create wealth. As always, aggression breeds poverty. School-age children are forced at gun-point, if necessary
to attend a licensed school (Fourth Layer aggression). Because we want all
children to get a good education, we view tuition-free public schools and
mandatory attendance as a way to ensure that neglectful parents are not
allowed to deny their children this valuable asset. As always, aggression
gives us results we'd rather not have. Specifically, Fourth Layer aggression
allow others to control the way we think about our world, just as it allows
an elite group to control our finances (Chapter 9: Banking on Aggression). Parents had a variety of schools from which to choose,
especially among institutions that were not restricted by conditions attached
to state support. Some schools prepared students for the university and
some taught the trades. Some schools provided a broad-based education, while
others focused on a particular area of expertise. Private tutoring was available
for those unable to attend ordinary day school. The marketplace ecosystem,
free from aggression, quickly adapted to consumer needs. Parents voted with
their dollars to support the educators who served them best. In this way,
parents determined both the content and process by which their children
would be educated. Many immigrants had come to the United States to escape this holier-than-thou attitude. In spite of the additional financial burden, impoverished immigrants made great sacrifices to educate their children as they saw fit rather than send them to inexpensive or even free public schools. Catholics saw the public schools as vehicles for Protestant propaganda and established parochial schools; German immigrants sent their children to private institutions when the public ones refused to teach them in German as well as in English. Immigrants who preferred that their children be taught in their native tongue and learn about their Old World heritage opted for private or parochial schools that catered to their preferences. (14) The willingness of poor parents to send their children to private instead of public school tells us how highly they valued education, specifically, education that reflected their belief system and culture. Many people had come to the United States for a chance to pull themselves away from the poverty trap spun by Europe's guild-style licensing laws and other forms of aggression. Perhaps they didn't want their children in schools that were created by the kind of aggression from which they had recently fled. Perhaps they feared that schools built on aggression would teach aggression. If that seems farfetched, consider your own education. As you've read through the past few chapters, have you been saying to yourself, "That's not the way my teachers told me the world worked"? Can you imagine a school system that is funded by taxation hiring a teacher who equated taxation with theft? Such a teacher would be unlikely to seek a job in the public school system in the first place. Obviously then, public school teachers are highly likely to believe that selfish others are the cause of war and poverty and that altering their behavior at gunpoint, if necessary is justified even noble. From this perspective, children will be taught that first-strike force, fraud, or theft is acceptable as long as it's for a good cause. An obvious underlying assumption of this philosophy is that the ends are not influenced by the means used to obtain them. To parents with an enlightened view of how the world works, this is analogous to teaching their child that 2 + 2 = 5! Unfortunately, these are the beliefs that are being propagated. These are the beliefs that are keeping us from a world of peace and plenty. We interpret facts according to our world view. If our interpretation is correct, we will do the things that take us to our goal. We will be able to create peace and plenty in our hearts, our families, our communities, and our world. If our interpretation is faulty, we will create problems instead of solving them. No wonder parents who wanted the best for their children were willing to make great sacrifices to send them to a school that would complement their home instruction! The immigrants not only wanted their children instructed according to their faith and culture, they wanted their children to develop readily marketable technical skills. Since school boards were drawn from the upper class and professional groups, curricula tended to be geared toward a liberal arts education as preparation for college. (15) Those who could not afford to pay public school taxes and private school tuition sometimes opted for informal instruction in the trades or home schooling. Some immigrant children worked because their families needed their support. (16) Today, our society is wealthy enough that child labor is usually unnecessary, but this was not true in the 1800s. Immigrant children, especially those on farms, contributed substantially to their family's financial well-being. When the family's financial condition improved, the level of the children's education did too. (17) This pat-tern suggests that rather than being "exploitation," child labor was a matter of necessity and was dispensed with as soon as possible. Since schooling was not compulsory, children could mix work and school as necessary to strike a balance between creating enough wealth to survive and learning long-range wealth- creating strategies in school. Of course, working was also a form of education. It gave the child experience, skills, and accountability training. Employers look for experience. By forbidding children to work, we deny them an excellent educational opportunity. Compulsory school attendance made it more difficult for children to obtain work experience. Children were less available for learning a trade or obtaining employment when they had to be in school for many months each year. Without the ability to mix work and school, private education became less affordable. Private education was an option only for children with parents wealthy enough to pay for private school tuition in addition to the taxes that supported free public schools. As always, when we sow the seeds of aggression, we reap the bitter fruit. The reformers were successful in getting education by aggression but the results have not been what they desired. Because children are required by law to be in school, the public institutions find themselves saddled with some individuals who have little motivation to learn. Although these children can be disruptive, sometimes even violent, expelling them is not a legal option. As attendance has risen, so has theft, drugs, and violence perpetrated by students unmotivated by the curriculum. (18) As attendance has increased, SAT scores have declined (Figure 10.1), suggesting that keeping problem students in school adversely affects learning for other students. In response to schools that cannot educate or even guarantee student safety, many parents have chosen to keep their children out of schools and teach them at home. In many states, home schooling is legal only if a state-certified teacher is instructing. Parents without certification have been fined or jailed for home schooling, even when the education has been progressing well. The Amish have been persecuted as well. These closely knit rural communities shun modern technology and embrace a simple, non-violent way of life. They found that standard curricula encouraged a materialistic and violent perspective that was incongruent with their spiritual beliefs. Certified teachers were ill-equipped to teach the Amish children the values the community cherished. In addition, certified teachers were more expensive than their Amish counterparts.
Reprinted with permission of the National Center for Policy AnalysisThe Amish believe secondary education should consist of learning agricultural and domestic skills, rather than the liberal arts and science. Instead of honoring their choice, aggression is used to herd their children into the schools of "the one best system." While we deplore historical references to the persecution of early scientists, such as Galileo, we feel comfortable in dictating the choices of those who prefer a life without technology. If the Amish tried to force our children to learn their ways, we'd be appalled; yet we feel justified in doing to them what we don't want done to us. Of course, well-to-do parents needn't worry about persecution or home schooling or even paying private school tuition in addition to school taxes. They congregate in expensive neighborhoods where only "their kind" can afford to live. Their local public schools cater to their values. Indeed, the suburban public schools have become more exclusive than the private ones. (19) On the other side of the tracks, parents too poor to move from the ghetto shudder at the prospect of sending their children to neighborhood public schools where violence prevails and learning is difficult. Through their rents, they pay a large portion of their income for the property taxes that support schools they dare not send their children to. Instead, they've started to enroll their children in the local parish or independent neighborhood schools even if they have to pay tuition with their welfare checks! (20) As a result, the proportion of minorities in private schools increased from the early 1970s to the early 1980s, even though tuition costs continued to rise. (21) In the late 1970s, more private school students came from families in which the parents earned between $5,000 and $10,000 a year than from families with incomes of $25,000 or better. (22) The minorities and low-income families are not the only ones choosing private education for their children, however. Public school teachers, who ought to be best informed, are twice as likely as the rest of the population to send their children to private schools! (23) Obviously, parents choosing private schools do so for reasons other than their religious beliefs or their concern for their children's safety. Public schools are doing such a poor job of teaching students, that many children are being sent to private after-school learning centers, (24) which were virtually non-existent a generation ago. Private schools nationwide are much more successful at teaching students than public schools are. This difference was obvious to me even as a high school student. Students from the Catholic schools took a higher proportion of awards at the Science Fair than public school students did. A 1987 study found the reason: parents can choose to take their children and their dollars elsewhere if schools don't meet their standards. (25) One innovative private institution charges less than half of the dollars consumed by the public system, even though it caters to students who are about to drop out of school. Using computer technology and a low student to teacher ratio, the school boasts an 85% graduation rate. (26) The founder of this school is a former public school teacher who just couldn't convince the bureaucracy to try something new. The secret behind the success of private schools is less
aggression. Parents are not forced at gunpoint, if necessary to send their
children to the neighborhood public school. Instead, they can remove their
child if they are not satisfied with the educational content or process
and can enroll them elsewhere. Removing even a tiny amount of aggression
from public education has a beneficial effect. For example, public schools
in Harlem were encouraged to each take on an individual specialty, one emphasizing
science and math, another encouraging the performing arts, and still another
providing special attention for those with learning difficulties. Parents
could choose which school their child would attend. If things didn't work,
they could move to another. Schools had to either perform or lose their
clientele. The results are impressive. Before "choice," only 15%
of the district's students read at grade level; now 64% make the grade.
(27) Similar results have been reported in other areas of the country. (28)
No wonder the poor and the minorities are the strongest supporters of educational
choice that is engendered by less aggression. (29) If such a little freedom from aggression goes such a long way, what might we expect if we were willing to forgo it altogether? If we honored our neighbor's choice, what educational heights could we aspire? Let's try to imagine what a successful school might look like if education were totally deregulated (i.e., completely free from aggression). Quest, Inc., might be such a school. Larger than most high schools before deregulation, it's still expanding to accommodate the large number of student applicants. Quest's success is largely due to its effective use of computers and audiovisual equipment, which have long been known to double a student's learning. (30) Both of Carol's parents work and are easily able to pay her tuition at Quest. Some of Carol's classes begin with a professionally produced, entertaining video produced by a company that sells exclusively to schools. This company pays royalties to any teacher whose ideas for improvements or new subjects are incorporated. Continuous updating ensures that the videos use the best ideas and methods to maintain the student's interest. After the video, students go into one of several "query" classrooms where the resident teacher answers any questions the students may have. Different students relate best to different teachers; letting the students gravitate to those who "speak their language" facilitates understanding. Not all Quest teachers have advanced degrees, but all in-structors must facilitate students' learning. Teachers who can't attract students to their query sessions won't be at Quest very long. Teachers who do especially well are given bonuses and asked to share their techniques with other Quest faculty members. Teachers reap as they sow. When their questions are satisfied, students proceed through an interactive computer program that tests their new knowledge gained from the video. Students who do not properly answer the computers' queries review the relevant part of the lesson on the computer in a different format, and the student is retested later in the session. Students may then opt for more sophisticated problems or mini-lessons to extend their knowledge. The programming is designed according to a student's strengths and weaknesses. Carol excels in history and the social sciences and does poorly in math and the sciences. When she keys in her password on the computer, she accesses the math problems formulated in terms of historical events. Sometimes Carol finds the math video so confusing that she spends all her time in the query session, never getting to the computer at all. Since her family has a home computer, she can either take a disk home to catch up or stay after class, since Quest staff is available from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. This format lets ambitious teens work and go to school part-time. Some teens are actually placed in jobs by Quest. Students aspiring to be scientists or doctors, for example, cannot be sure they have made the appropriate choice until they actually find themselves immersed in the type of work they have chosen. Quest cultivates relationships with good employers/mentors to expose students to work environments (e.g., hospitals or laboratories) before students need to make definitive career choices. Before deregulation, students might be in their last year of college before they actually held the type of job for which they had spent so much time learning. The instructors enjoy working at Quest, Inc., because they can do what they were trained to do teach. The repetition is taken out of their jobs by the extensive series of professionally produced videos and computer learning programs provided for the students. Some teachers supplement their income by preparing audio-visual texts in their specialty. Teachers devote most of their time to answering students' questions, guiding them toward the curriculum most suited to their needs, or teaching essay writing and other skills that do not lend themselves to electronic instruction. The computer summarizes each student's progress, so teachers can monitor what each child is learning on a regular basis and give special attention when needed. Since they are paid partially in stock certificates and they share in school profits, teachers make sure all students meet their predefined targets. For example, Carol's counselor explained that her exceptional grasp of the socialsciences and her weaker understanding of math and the sciences gave her several options. She could spend more time on science and math to match her proficiency in other areas. Alternatively, she could elect to focus only on the basics in math and the sciences while earning college credit in her specialties. Most colleges expect applicants to take some of the privately administered national tests to be sure prospective students meet college standards. High school diplomas are a thing of the past. Instead, students continue until satisfied that their test scores indicate the proficiency level they had targeted. By age 12, most Quest students have the equivalent of an old-style high school diploma. Most also have at least one work reference from on-the-job training. Problems with drugs or violence are virtually non-existent, since students are suspended for the first offense and expelled for recurrence. If they choose to, expelled students can still get a Quest education through the home-study program described below. Social interaction is integrated into the curriculum. Children are instructed in how to tutor younger siblings and classmates, engage in constructive teamwork, and practice leadership by taking turns coordinating cooperative assignments. Some of this instruction is intertwined with physical education or work-study assignments. Quest is less expensive overall than the old-style public school system, for a number of reasons. Because of the advanced technology, students learn faster and spend less time in school. Teachers are able to give whatever level of attention is needed to maximize each student's learning. Bureaucracy is minimized, and teachers are discharged if they aren't proficient. Nevertheless, the yearly tuition is still beyond the means of many who would like to see their children go there. Pete's father, for example, never finished high school and works as a janitor for a small hotel. He wants his son to have the best education money can buy but he doesn't have the money to buy much. Quest enrolled Pete in the parent-student work-study program. The school assigns Pete's dad evening and weekend janitorial and maintenance work under the watchful eye of the full-time school maintenance supervisor. Most of the non-teaching function of the school is provided this way. Eventually, Pete will do his part by supervising younger children as they watch the teaching videos, working with the cafeteria staff, and tutoring less-advanced students. Pete will not only get a Quest education, but a work reference as well. Stephanie Baker's single mother wants her daughter to get a Quest education. Tuition, however, is beyond her means, and work-study is difficult because Stephanie's bedridden grandmother requires constant supervision. By providing the day school to three children with working mothers, Mrs. Baker pays for the rental of Quest video tapes and workbooks for Stephanie. Computer software is available too, but Stephanie's mother doesn't have a home computer. The children watch teaching videos, then use their workbooks to solve problems and test their understanding. Mrs. Baker answers their questions and helps them as much as she can. Every two weeks, the children are given a Quest test. Quest provides the children with recommendations for further studies. For example, one child had trouble with math and received a special series of videos and workbooks for his homework. As the children get older, they begin tutoring in their neighborhood to pay for the formal testing that colleges and employers frequently require. The children Stephanie has tutored got most of their schooling from one of the cable television stations that carry programmed learning courses. For a monthly fee slightly higher than the entertainment channels, a family can order the educational programs geared to the ages of their children. Some parents have gotten each child his or her own television, and learning becomes an all-day affair at home. Workbooks and textbooks come with the cable subscription, complete with answer books to test questions. A number of correspondence courses are also available for subjects in which a professional's evaluation is desirable (e.g., essay writing). Even less expensive are the TV-schooling channels supported by advertising. Many churches combine day care and education by providing space for volunteers to use. To keep the attention of the young people, the videos tend to be highly participatory. Children sing their alphabet to catchy jingles and march around the room chanting historical dates, names, and happenings. Madison Avenue techniques are used to produce stimulating programs so that the firms would pay top dollar to sponsor them. Some of this programming was pioneered before deregulation and was available in a few futurist locations. (31) With all of the options available at costs ranging from substantial to trivial, few children are unschooled. The exceptions tend to be children of parents who despise education of any kind. Since family background is a significant factor in a child's scholastic achievement, many of these children would not have benefited by any kind of schooling. Before deregulation, these children would have disrupted the learning of others with drugs and violence, while learning little. Now they do have a chance. The local Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs run newspaper advertisements asking concerned citizens to help them identify such children, hoping to get their parents' permission to get them special teaching assistance. With advertised educational TV channels widely available, few such children were located. People smart enough to want to learn are smart enough to tune the selector button to the channel that has what they want!
|
In no other industry in U.S. history has there been so little technological change as in the field of public school education. - National Center for Policy Analysis, "The Failure of Our Public Schools: The Causes and a Solution"
Only 20 percent of job applicants at Motorola can pass a simple seventh-grade test of English comprehension or a fifth-grade mathematics test. - Nation's Business, October 1988
Of the Aquarian Conspirators surveyed, more were involved in education than in any other single category of work... Their consensus: Education is one of the least dynamic of institutions, lagging far behind... other elements of our society. - Marilyn Ferguson, THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY
Historically, much of the motivation for public schooling has been to stifle variety and institute social control. - Jack Hugh, Cato Institute
...public schooling often ends up to be little more than majoritarian domination of minority viewpoints. - Robert B. Everhart, Professor of Education, University of California, Santa Barbara
A general State education is a mere contrivance for molding people to be exactly alike one another; and as the mold in which it casts them is that which pleases the predominant power in the government, whether this be a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy, or a majority of the existing generation; in proportion as it is efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism over the mind, leading by a natural tendency to one over the body. - John Stuart Mill, English philosopher and economist
Yet some parents are now saying that deliberate withdrawal of their children from compulsory schooling-an illegal act in most states-is not unlike draft resistance in an immoral war. - Marilyn Ferguson, THE AQUARIAN CONSPIRACY
...the Plain Peoples' approach to education may be one of the most effective yet devised. Their success in training the young to be farmers has impressed many agricultural experts. Unemployment, indigence, juvenile delinquency, and crime are surprisingly infrequent. Amish prosperity and self-sufficiency are legendary. These are not the characteristics of a preparation for adulthood that has failed. - Donald A. Erickson, Professor of Education, University of California, Los Angeles.
...when it (the State) controls the education, it turns it into a routine, a mechanical system in which individual initiative, individual growth and true development as opposed to a routine instruction become impossible. - Sri Aurobindo, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THOUGHT
Public educators, like Soviet farmers, lack any incentive to produce results, innovate, to be efficient, to make the kinds of difficult changes that private firms operating in a competitive market must make to survive. - Carolyn Lochhead, Insight, December 24, 1990 |
