Making Hamburger out of Tofu

As I am a teacher, people often ask me, "What's wrong with education in America? What can we do to fix it?" Okay, so no one has ever asked me that, but it is a question I think about a lot. I am convinced that that is the wrong question to ask.

The American educational establishment has, to its credit, continually experimented, tinkered, tested, gone back to basics, and thrown money at the problems of K-12 education, and the problems have only gotten worse. Americans are concerned about education. The increase in educational spending since World War II has been incredible. Every few years a new panacea is introduced as the cure-all to the educational malaise that infects our nation. We have tried block scheduling, cooperative learning groups, teaching to learning styles, drugs, year-round schooling, online schooling, giving notebook computers to students, teacher training, couches in the classroom, ergonomic design, student-centered learning, and a host of other ideas. None of the these can change the raw material of education: the students. Teachers can have only so much influence on the development of their students' lives. The parents and the society and culture in which students are raised are immeasurably more important to the success or failure of education than the way in which a student is taught.

Imagine a school as a giant intellectual meat-grinder. The meat-grinder is designed to make hamburgers. Put in some lovely, fresh chuck and, after some blood and sweat, out comes eight ounces of ground chuck, ready to be shape for the grill of college or career. Put in a chunk of tofu and no amount of adjustments to the grinder or spices mixed into the tofu will produce a grill ready burger. Either the grinder will have to be replaced by an all new device, or you will have to stop stuffing tofu into the machine and expecting something that won't fall through the grill in messy glops onto the hot coals. Our society and culture is sending tofu to school and expecting schools the school to transform it into a half-pound bacon-cheeseburger with a grilled bun and side of fries.

That being said, I see three significant problems affecting the efficiency of the limited time given to education: the professionalization of high school sports, the hijacking of all aspects of teaching and teacher training by modern psychology and trends in psychological research, and the control of education by at least three levels of government.

I shall expound on these ideas over the course of this school year. Until then, I have to get to pre-planning and try to focus on the start of school on Monday while awaiting the birth of my twin boys on Tuesday.

Peace