Education Ideas Matter!
Ideas Matter! Volume 2
This rather lengthy segment is on Education. Alan’s comment about our educational system having been dismantled made me want to dig into a candidate’s position on education. Most of the crop of 2008 Presidential candidates sound like clones, but one stood out in my reading so I included it here:
I believe that every child should have the opportunity for a quality education that teaches the fundamental skills needed to compete in a global economy. …the business leaders I met weren’t worried about creating jobs, they were worried about finding skilled and professional workers to fill those jobs.
In addition, I want to provide our children what I call the "Weapons of Mass Instruction" – art and music – the secret, effective weapons that will help us to be competitive and creative. It is crucial that children flex both the left and right sides of the brain. We all know the cliché of thinking outside the box: I want our children to be so creative that they think outside the cardboard factory. Art and music are as important as math and science because the dreamers and visionaries among us take the rough straw of an idea and spin it into the gold of new businesses and jobs. It is as important to identify and encourage children with artistic talent as it is those with athletic ability. Our future economy depends on a creative generation.
Students with strong art and music programs have higher academic achievement overall, are far more likely to read for pleasure and participate in community service, and are less likely to engage in delinquent behavior. These programs have a powerful effect in leveling the academic playing field for students from lower socio-economic backgrounds. The study of music improves math scores, spatial reasoning and abstract thinking.
The success of our schools has to be judged by the results we obtain, not the revenues we spend. A focus on true quality rather than mere quantity requires us to set high standards for our students and teachers, measure their performance diligently, and hold educators and administrators accountable for the results in an atmosphere of transparency and efficiency.
We need to test teachers as well as students, replace teachers who aren’t competent, and impose reasonable waiting periods for teachers to gain tenure. We should provide bonuses and forgive student loans for high-performing teachers to work in low-performing schools. Just as there are executives in the corporate world who specialize in turning around failing companies, we need teachers who are "turn-around specialists" for failing schools.
Typical employment procedures provide a disincentive for teachers and often discourage potentially good teachers from entering what I consider to be a noble profession. Educators and teachers should be involved in the design of compensation initiatives that encourage training and promote performance based on merit, so that our children can have the best education in the world.
As President, my education agenda will include working towards a clear distinction between the federal role in assisting and empowering states and in usurping the right of states to carry out the education programs for their students. While there is value in the "No Child Left Behind" law’s effort to set high national standards, states must be allowed to develop their own benchmarks.
As President, I will use my broad and deep expertise in education policy to lift up our children and America’s economic future.
Is this a candidate that you would want in charge of your children’s education?
Edit: The candidate highlighted here is Mike Huckabee.
There is so much I could say about this issue that it is almost impossible to comment! There are many fundamental things that need to change before our system of education can improve. Some of the candidates touch on one or two of the needed changes but not in any realistic or substantial way. Here is just one of my opinions for today.
We need to change the classroom setup that groups kids by age instead of ability, to one that groups kids in each subject area by their level of achievement. Simple to comprehend, but difficult to implement because of things like bureaucracy, inertia, and political correctness.
If a student is in 6th grade and working at the 10th grade level in math, the 8th grade level in science, and the 6th grade level in history, then he or she should be in a classroom that teaches them at their level of achievement. Traditionally schools have allowed kids who excel in one area, say math, to move ahead a year in that subject. That is not enough. Kids need to be able to progress at whatever rate they can and not be held back just because they are an 11 year old who is ready for algebra or calculus. And more 11 and 12 year olds than you might imagine could be working at this level if they were allowed to move along at their own speed right from the start.
Unfortunately the tide is turning in the wrong direction. AP and honors classes used to be very common in high school. Thanks to big money donors like the Gates Foundation that give money to certain schools and then demand a say in the curriculum of those schools, these advanced classes are disappearing.
Our local school district has received a huge amount of money from the gates foundation to implement the Gates Small School Initiative. Part of this is to stop removing the top students from the regular classrooms. Instead of allowing those students to take honors and AP classes they are kept in the normal classes with the idea that “having them there will raise the level of all the students in the class”. Read: the smart and motivated students are needed in the regular classrooms to help teach the slower students. This is the BIG thing in public education right now and will do our highly motivated and high achieving students a great disservice.
Many parents immediately complained about this change to our school district administrators. Initially we were told that we were “elitists” and ignored. When the clamor continued, the school district brought back “honors” classes, but with one change. Any student, regardless of motivation or achievement can be in these classes. Sometimes the only class offered is labeled and “honors” class. It has become a sad joke among parents that their kids are in honors classes. Sad and discouraging for those parents that want their kids to get the best education possible.
Will’s last blog post..Bloggers Unite to Stop Whale Slaughter
I need to get more sleep.
Christine: I had already announced it in a comment… Those quotes were from Mike Huckabee.
“Weapons of Mass Instruction” cute.
People who make connections between education/schools and businesses really get my goat. Could be a republican or somesuch. But just for fun, creative aspect of answer i going to guess Kucinich? But i think he would never allow “NCLB” to stay intact AT ALL.
I can’t get started on education… my original career choice which was quickly abandoned, for now, because of my extremely passionate, and extremely progressive, views on the subject.
Cutting myself off from any further comment.
By the way, the education policy I quoted was from Mike Huckabee’s issue paper on Education And The Arts.
It’s not as bad as Ron Paul’s position. He says: “I want to abolish the unconstitutional, wasteful Department of Education and return its functions to the states.”.
I grew up in a rural area in South Florida and the school system was a small fiefdom of local demagogues who ran it the way they wanted. It was only the state and federal guidelines that kept them remotely in line. I think people in wealthy areas, suburbs and such, who have great schools would benefit from putting control in state and local hands, but inner cities and rural areas would suffer.
As far as the quote in the post, I find it interesting that he mentions all these ideas he has for improving education, and creating a workforce with the creativity to meet future labor force demands and then at the end claiming he supports getting the federal government out of the way of the states running education the way they want.
I am not sure who it might be, but I can’t say that I agree with each state being left to decide their children’s educational needs. What we need instead is a national standard for education, and for the educators, so that there is no question about what should be taught, and how it should be taught.
Interesting. I didn’t really notice a firm anti-union bent to it when I read it. What caught my attention was the phrase “Art and music are as important as math and science”. There are a lot of artistic elements to many engineering related fields like architecture and product design but saying that Art and Music (which I do feel are important) are as important as Math and Science really kinda disturbed me.
the firm anti-union lines and states rights rhetoric mark the politician who spoke them as a Republican. My guess is McCain