What sports fan would try to make all basketball players equal by drafting, training and spending the same amount on each player no matter his height or skill? And yet this is the approach of the US school system. The entire focus is on ‘closing the gap.’ To this end, the best and brightest students, upon which society is highly dependent to create wealth, jobs and technological innovation, are largely ignored while the less intelligent and less bright students are given a great deal of attention and resources. In fact, from my experience, far more money is spent on the less gifted students, including those students with severe handicaps who will never be able to achieve or produce much in the real world. If you were trying to undermine the future success of a society you couldn’t do much better than to inflict upon them an educational system like we have here in the US.
Imagine the disaster to the sport if basketball were approached as education is in the United States
The above logic is absolute heresy in the education field. It’s largely why after a brief time I quickly lost interest in teaching in the US system. I have no desire to spend all my time in an impossible attempt to ‘close the gap’ between intelligent and unintelligent students. The reality is that we are not equal and no amount of money spent by the school system can change that fact. In fact, some of the absolute lowest performing cities, regions and States spend the most on education. Nor is it true that everyone can learn the same things. Some people will never be able to grasp certain concepts. That’s just reality. Spending lots of money on people who are unintelligent is a waste. And ignoring the best and brightest to do so is criminal, in my view. The US educational system can not be reformed because it is based on false ideas. Until those ideas are given up, any attempt at reform is doomed to failure.
Thanks for posting about this. I see it first hand. Education is simply not valued in the US. It’s viewed as a jobs program for liberals.
Michael,
Everything you’ve said is true, and I’ll take this one step further.
Having been in this game for nearly thirty years, I believe I am seeing something even more sinister a foot. It has taken me all these years to see it, but hear is my theory.
Most teachers I know are dedicated, hard working folks. They get up early, work hard during the day, and bring home things to work on at night. Many take extra classes or coursework in the summer or they are busy prepping for the upcoming school year. However, when you turn on the television and listen to politicians on both sides speak about education, the state of it is dismal. They say “Test score are down, we need brighter and better teachers in the field, etc., etc.”.
Why do they say this?
While the government has a lot to say with federal dollars being pumped into state and local education already, I believe the feds want more. My belief is that this is just the tip of the ice burg, and that in the next fifty years and beyond (Maybe even sooner), you will eventually see the government having complete control over education, all the way down to your local school board. They will have guidelines for everything, including stipulations for how and what kind of people should be running for your local governing body, all curriculum will be uniform, and massive amounts of money will be withheld, or worse yet, criminal charges filed if you don’t comply. Teachers will be told exactly what to teach by the feds, without any shred of individual teaching or creativity whatsoever. Also, if an individual teacher deviates, not only will firing take place, criminal charges will be levied at that teacher as well.
I believe those days are coming.
Overall, teachers today are better trained, spending four or five years obtaining their degrees (As opposed to older teachers I knew in the beginning of my career who had two year degrees), know all there is to know about the latest technologies, etc.. Yet teachers feel the squeeze on both sides, from the feds who are telling them what standards to meet and bashing them in the public eye, and a much cruder and violent culture walking through the school doors in the form of students and parents on the other side.
However, federal politicians are playing a smart game. They sell the folks the idea that teachers are rotten and Joe Q. Public, like a bobble head doll, shakes their head and says “Yep, Yep, Yep”, and in the end, unknowingly, will actually hand over complete control to Orwellian, Communist, Uncle Sam.
The day is coming, and it is not a matter of if but when.
Third paragraph.
“Test scores are down”
(Sigh)
Third paragraph.
“here is my theory”.
I’m not helping my own cause!
Did not the USSR try this with their education and sports system? I believe it did not work.
Deo Vindice