Education editorial by Gail Bray

Posted on Mar 22, 2011 in News, Uncategorized

Educational Fly Tying or Craps?

Superintendant Luna’s school reform proposals imply that educators are not “putting students first”.  I was unaware that teachers spend their school day “playing craps or tying flies” in their classrooms rather than focusing on the subjects and the young people they instruct, but apparently that is the belief of many policy makers and policy shapers.  I believe that few of them have visited our schools for any length of time lately.  Only a handful have ever actually taught a single day, so why must they consult with educators whose profession they are in such a rush to “reform”?

Teachers historically were as revered as clergy and judges.  They were esteemed in their work and trusted with the youth of the community to help them become productive citizens. The reform “quartet” (corporate Idaho, Legislature, Governor and Superintendent) would have us believe that “teachers unions” are the root of education’s alleged demise in Idaho. It is much easier to take the teachers to task than to make the hard decisions to truly improve schools.  I believe the major obstacles to educational excellence are ineffective, incessant testing, three month vacations, age level grouping, artificial grading, school hours, lack of staff and, ultimately, the lack of conviction by Idaho leaders to quality education.

“Discovery learning” is proven superior for enhancing the zeal for knowledge, teaching life-long-learning and independent research skills, the tools most needed for solving 21st century workplace problems.  There is, however, insufficient time in the school day to “teach to the test” AND to instill a love of learning and quest for information. Tests are generally counter productive, geared towards retention of factoids rather than to the ability to think and question.  They are a grainy photograph in time, distracting teachers from teaching and students from real learning. Real learning is guided exploration, experimentation, forming hypotheses, analysis, evaluation, and being encouraged to try again and again to uncover answers….not the regurgitation of spoon fed information on paper!

If we REALLY wanted to improve education, we would:

  • Lengthen the school year, eliminating 3 month vacation with its loss of much of the years’ gains.
  • Have longer school days for remedial tutoring, arts, music, life-long sports, community service and apprenticeships.
  • Group students together by aptitude and by interest, not necessarily by age.
  • Teach to all 7 learning styles in every subject and in every class.
  • Require projects for students to prove their understanding of the course concepts.
  • Have growth goals set for each and every student.
  • Pay teachers commensurate with their work, training and importance to our future.
  • Have staff for the teachers who each have anywhere from 25 – 130 students (and their parents) but no secretary, no assistant, no researcher, no help!
  • Encourage teachers who work well with learning disabled students rather than penalize them over teachers whose more able students “test” better.
  • Have peer evaluations by independent master teachers, assessing teachers based on innovation and demonstrated applied learning by students.

These changes require money.  Policy makers have not proven willing to do for education what it would take to truly transform it.  To think that reducing the number of teachers, increasing class size and resorting to “on-line” classes is a reasonable way to free up money so worse cuts don’t further eviscerate schools is bizarre. Our future prosperity depends upon quality learning.  We need MORE individualization, more focus on each and every child, not less, so that we insure real learning by every child.  The cost of NOT doing so is too high.  SLOW THIS REFORM TRAIN DOWN, INVOLVE THE TEACHERS AND DO IT RIGHT!

Gail Bray is a former 4 term State Senator, member of the Senate Education Committee, and a History government and Economics teacher.