As Paul Revere bellowed over two hundred years ago many dinosaurs of education are screaming through the halls of their schools that there is a mighty change coming and this change has nothing to do with improving the status of public education. Where there once were classrooms filled with students learning the basics of disciplines in order to be prepared for post secondary education there are now rooms filled with councilors and programs that have more to do with how well our students feel about themselves.
The only education concerns instructions of how our students can improve their scores on state standard tests. The alphabet state standards of GLE's and GFE's have replaced curricula standards of mathematics, science, literature, and history. Whole curricula have been changed in order to follow a group of standards few teachers can understand. Instead of working in the classroom in order to improve instruction teachers are now asked to perpetually change their curricula in order to align with ever changing state and national standards. The student is instructed on how to fill in the many thousands of tiny ovals with number 2 pencils in order to have the administrators of their schools show the state that their's is the best of them all.
There is another round of changes coming to the concept of public education. Many schools are now taking the teacher out of the classroom and replacing them with computer programs like VHS and VLACS. These have our students working in front of a computer in order to receive the education the state insists is necessary. No longer is there an exchange of ideas in a classroom filled with enthusiastic and sometimes argumentative students. There is now and soon will be a single student staring at a morphing light answering questions multiple times until he or she answers them in the way the computer wants them to answer them.
Students are now being taken out of the classroom in order to participate in mandatory field trips in order to prepare them for their future lives in the work force. These trips are now being considered more important than any instruction that could take place with a teacher. I clearly understand many of our students will not go on to post-secondary education. In today's competitive world this is a problem. When I use the term post-secondary education I am talking about college, two or four year programs, the military, all technical schools, and yes, even the workplace that offers training. As part of a secondary school system I find it difficult to understand how the teaching of a discipline is losing importance to a motivation program whose responsibility is to show the student what jobs are available to them after they complete their secondary education.
The problem is most of these jobs need a post-secondary degree in order to be considered for employment. This degree has to be backed with competence for without this it has little to no value. In order for our students to get this degree they need a basic foundation in mathematics, science, and literature. In other words, if the ends overwhelms the means the positive dreams of our students will never be realized. The entire world clearly understands this. The bureaucrats of education never will.
We have become a society based on nothing. We used to make everything for the world and thus became the most powerful land in the world. This has nothing to do with military power but has everything to do with how well educated and competent our children are. The private schools seem to be lagging in comparison to the public schools in that they still teach the basic disciplines and are not concerned with the social career and other social programs that plague our public schools.
Many of my colleagues question why I am so negative about the systems that are in place or are going to be put into place in our public school system. They question why I just don't go with the flow especially since I don't have too many years of teaching left in me. I tell them we have been doing just that since the 1960's watching our proud profession lose credibility and stature. If we just sit and watch our school system being accountable to tests instead of our students; our children will be the ones who will suffer. They will not be able to compete in this competitive world and will not live in a better world than their parents. In fact, this may be the first generation to not have a stronger life style than their parents had. The way things are going they won't even be close.
So I will continue to write about what I believe is wrong. I will continue to discuss problems produced by people who do not understand what the teaching profession is. I guess I will continue to rant until some policies change or until I am asked to no longer be a teacher.
The bureaucrats are coming ! The bureaucrats are coming! This is no longer a fact. They are already here.
Jim Fabiano, a teacher and writer who lives in York, Maine and is a past recipient of the Maine Press Association's award for Best Weekly Column. You can read more of his rants on his blog entitled: Dinosaur of Education. You can reach Jim via E-mail at: james.fabiano60@gmail.com
