30 down, 45 to go.
And here's where I am completely and truly serious -
A lot of you know that educational equity is an extremely important issue for me. The most important issue, in fact. This goes far beyond NCLB criticism. The educational achievement gap in the United States is a very serious threat to the future prosperity of our country. It starts during early childhood, and because the school system does nothing to combat it, extends over the course of a lifetime. The statistics are available, and we all know what is going on. However, we really don't have a solid strategy for resolving this.
After 30 credits of coursework (that's an M.A. from a top-five program in the country, mind you), and numerous all-night discussions with like-minded graduate students, I am convinced that even though we all have the moral aptitude and collective resolve to use our degrees to effect change (albeit, on a very small scale) we lack the practical strategy to actually reverse the situation on a national level. We deal in theory. That's what we've been taught. Whatever conclusions we form are about what not to do, what won't work.
So now I am trying to think in terms of expediency and practicality. I have 45 credits to go, what can I do? I mean, really do.
This is an open thread. I will read all the comments.
9 Comments:
i think you have to learn as much as possible during your time in school, and use your own heart and mind to do the right thing. i know that this isn't the practical advice you are looking for. the best i got is that your credentials will give you more credibility when it counts.
why can't your ambitions be simple, like year-end bonuses, or a promotion up the corporate ladder?
i'm glad you assume the high moral ground. i'm even more glad that you are so genuine about it. in all honesty, i am pessimistic about it. i don't think there is much that you can do, besides change the life of a few people for the better. and you are already doing that.
bummer.
does htat mean that you don't usually read all the comments?
I am not a fan of NCLB. At all. I'm in the high school classroom everyday and it hurts to see what is being done to these kids. I'm going into teaching with the express goal of making things better, dodging around NCLB whenever possible.
As far as what can be done on the national level, I have a lot of ideas, but they are very un-PC and will not happen in the US. It involves leaving children behind.
I think a lot of this has to do with the vast city-suburb funding gap, and the various anti-urban policies that have led up to it since busing. New York is the exception right now with a resoundingly decent school system, but the city's in a prosperous period that isn't repeated elsewhere.
The district where I grew up spent about $6500 per student per annum, 1% drop out rate. Five miles away at Central High, it was $3500 and 53%. A lot of that is socioeconomic and related to local conditions, but I have a tough time believing that it all was. People identify regional prosperity with local prosperity and can't understand that the strength of their metropolitan area is much more important to their continued success than the strength of fenced-off suburban school districts.
Of course, I blame everything on the suburbs... but this is where I got the idea. There are districts in MA that spend over $10,000 annually, and some that spend less than $3k. I don't know how this plays out in states with county funding, but I bet it's similar.
we have talked about this already. i think that we need to start with health reform. it has been statistically demonstrated that children from low income families have significantly worse vision - this is because they watch too much TV and don't get sufficient healthcare. it can also be because they didn't get good nutrition as infants, and still don't. either way, they go through school without being able to see well, and this results in poor literacy.
so, if we start somewhere, let's make sure that everyone gets good healthcare and good nutrition.
I've taught in many different educational environments, including public schools and Ivy League universities. I stopped teaching in public schools because I grew tired of listening to parents who expected the school system to transform their children into model students and citizens while they refused to acknowledge the impact (positive and negative) they have on their children.
We are products of our environment. Unless the socioeconomic conditions change in order to create an egalitarian society, dumping more money into any educational system/policy will produce the dismal results.
Hi, I was out blogging and found your site. It certainly got my attention and interest. I was looking for Travel Guides information and even though this isn't a perfect match I enjoyed your site. Thanks for the read!
The problem is not in how much is spent on the educational system, the problem is the system itself. Gotta take the "public" out of "public education". That's because socialism's problem is there's no economic calculation. That means the prices are not indicative of the underlying demand of the consumer. So you can spend the entire GDP on the educational system and it'll get you just about the same result as is now, although the pencils and some books will be newer.
But to be completely serious, there is a whole body of literature on the economics of public goods. Here's a very small snipet: http://www.mises.org/story/1425
You can search that site for many more articles, books, and other scholarly materials.
vovochka05@yahoo.com
Post a Comment
<< Home