It has been interesting reading the letters to the editor from various educators – and a few students – concerning the reason for schools doing poorly. All the writers have communicated a common theme reminiscent of Han Solo’s constant declaration to Princess Leia as they face imminent capture: “It’s not my fault!”
While I do sympathize with the plight of the public school employee who has been forced into a 1950s process with 21st-century students, I am convinced that the letter writers are attacking the wrong thing and in so doing are just as guilty of protecting that 1950s process as are the bureaucrats who run all these school systems that do not work.
The letter writers are part of the problem as they continue to blame parents and lazy students for poor school performance. They perpetuate that American method of education that was predicated upon a solid, middle-class, June-and-Ward-Cleaver family background in order to function. We will never again have that foundation. Society is what it is, and those in the schools should stop looking at what was and instead look at what can be done with what we have.
All those letter writers who bemoan the quality of the students coming into the schools made me think of the medical profession. If that profession held the same attitudes as education, i.e., you cannot be serviced until you have the “necessities,” then we would all suffer. Thank goodness my doctors take me on in spite of my consciously unhealthy decisions. We all expect to be treated for our medical infirmities regardless of our personal responsibility in creating those infirmities. Educators should have that same attitude toward students who are coming into the schools from a ruptured social system. They are what they are – and they are what we have – so now what do we do with them to maximize their God-created potential?
American students should be on a pathway of discovering personal potential, not on a journey to be like everyone else seeking an artificial definition of success on an artificial timeline. And that might require a massive change in the way we do school – actually, we might even have to start making it a place where learning happens – as opposed to a place where we do things for grades.
Keeping – and fervently defending – the same process that has been in place for 100 years is not the answer. Creating and promoting private, charter and parochial schools isn’t either because they are all just variations on the same basic theme.
The article “High Performance in High Poverty Schools: 90/90/90 and Beyond” by Douglas B. Reeves, needs to be read by every educator. Reeves looked closely at 130,000 students in 228 buildings that fit the 90/90/90 definition, which means: More than 90 percent of the students were eligible for free and reduced-price lunch; more than 90 percent of the students were from ethnic minorities; and finally, more than 90 percent of the students met or achieved high academic standards, according to independently conducted tests of academic achievement (emphasis is mine). In a nutshell, “The prevailing hypothesis that poverty and ethnic minority status are invariably linked to low student achievement does not conform to the data,” writes Reeves, founder and CEO of the Center for Performance Assessment and a faculty member of leadership programs sponsored by the Harvard Graduate School Education.
The letter writers usually imply (as opposed to directly saying so) that public schools, particularly urban ones, are forced to deal with poverty-stricken minorities and therefore cannot be held accountable for their students’ academic failures; Reeve’s 20-page paper refutes that totally. Schools that are committed to the growth and development of their students produce highly successful students regardless of the measure and regardless of the home background of the student. We have no excuses in Fort Wayne for failing to produce high-achieving young people.
So we can either continue to whine and cry, a la Han Solo (“It’s not my fault!”), or we can take the students we are given along with the resources allotted to us and commit to our task. My doctors do that with me. In a similar fashion, the American military in an unconventional war such as Afghanistan must deal with less-than-ideal circumstances. The troops, like the doctors, don’t have always optimum conditions in which to work, but they take the hand they are dealt and accomplish their mission. American educators should be able to do that as well.
