"Up in the morning and off to school,
The teacher is teaching the golden rule,
American History and Practical Math,
All day long I've been wanting to dance!" - Chuck Berry ("School Daze")
Reality Check - I'll bet that you the reader thinks that I am blaming our public education woes on teachers or students. No, sorry. Let us take a quick reality check before going on.
First of all, are our schools really that bad? The media portrays our schools so negatively by focusing on the faults. In reality, the vast majority of students that graduate from public schools turn out to be pretty capable law abiding adults. Like I said in part 3 of this essay, 90% of the problems are caused by 5% of the students. Many of the problems we hear about in our schools were there a generation ago. Students have always been rebellious. Students have always hated learning. Most students have always hated math class. There have always been students who never did homework. There have always been students with violent tendencies. Students will be students.
Second of all, it is not the teachers at fault. Most teachers I know are intelligent, professional, and organized. If anything, the teachers of today are better trained, at the very least, compared to their counterparts a generation ago. Some on the outside say teaching is an easy job. Anyone who says so ought to try it. Substitute certificates are easy to come by if you have a college degree, try substituting for a day and see if you still think it is easy. If you are a parent, try volunteering at your kids school, just observe how much work a teacher does.
I left teaching due to the stress. My evenings and weekends were spent doing teacher stuff. The summer break was absolutely necessary just to keep my sanity. Now I work in the private sector, handling tough problems every day without breaking a sweat. My coworkers wonder how I do it. "I taught High School Math," I tell them, "I know what stress is, and this is not stress."
Teaching is hard work, and they are grossly underpaid, and they are doing a damn fine job.
Defining the Real Problem with Our Schools
That being said, the truth is our schools really are getting worse. Students are graduating, knowing less than they used to. Standardized tests prove it. Students are more troubled emotionally, more violent and more prone to cheating than they used to be. Psychological surveys prove it. Teen pregnancy, drinking, smoking, sex, and drug use all continue to rise. Over the past 30 years, we have more than doubled the amount of money spent on education per pupil, and that is adjusting to inflation, and it has not helped.
So, am I lying when I said students are the same and teachers are better than before? No, I am merely saying they are not the principle source of the problems in our schools. Society is the problem. Our schools are not a means of shaping society, as I pointed out before, they are merely a part of society. As society declines, so do our schools. It is as simple as that. Public education is a mirror of society. Show me a country with good schools, and I will show you a healthy and stable society.
Lets get the cause and effect straight: Bad schools do not create a bad society. But, a bad society will create bad schools. Got it? Good.
Just a Few of the Social Ills
Here then are what I consider the top 5 outside sources of declining education quality:
1. Television
I know what you are thinking, another lecture on sex and violence on TV. Sorry to disappoint you, but TV's influence on education is far more severe. It is not Buffy the Vampire Slayer that is messing up our kids in school, it is Sesame Street.
The primary effect of television on education is the lowering of attention spans. Teachers giving lessons simply cannot compete with the flashy entertainment kids find on television. Shows like Sesame Street and Bill Nuy The Science Guy assume children have less than a five minute attention span, and instead of lengthening attention spans, these flashy shows end up shortening it.
I can imagine a day in the not too distant future, when teachers are replaced by videos. There will still be a need for people to monitor behavior and assist student progress, but lectures will be replaced by videos. This is cookie cutter industrial revolution education at its worst, folks. But, that is the direction society will take the classroom. Yes friends, we are no longer a society of thinkers (actually we never were), we are a society of consumers.
We wonder why there are so many kids diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD). While there may be a lot of over diagnosis, a lot is real. And, the increased influence of TV can be blamed for a lot of it.
2. Parenting
Never in the history of America has there been so many students raised by single parents. Worse than that, most of those who are lucky to have two parents usually have two working parents. Sad but true, most children today spend more time with their teachers than their parents.
As a teacher, you quickly distinguish those students whose parents care about their education, and those who do not. It shows in their general attitude in the classroom. The good students cross all social classes and races. The main thing the good students all have in common is good parents.
(A terrible generalization emerges: The only thing worse than ignorant parents are rich ignorant parents. The worst parents tend to be those upper middle class, two working parent households. The students responsible for Columbine High Massacre fit this category, one set of parents is suing the Sheriff's Office for not informing them that their kid hangs around with other bad kids. These so called parents apparently do not realize their lack of involvement in their son's life is more to blame than anything else. Another example: One of the worst students I ever had was a son of a celebrity.)
I have stated all of this before in previous chapters. Parenting makes the student, not the teacher. It is not too late, I have seen some High School Juniors and Seniors really start to improve when their parents started taking an interest in their progress. And, it was not just natural parents, it was guardians, step-parents, and even single parents. I have also seen the opposite when parent involvement started lacking. Of all the social problems that affect our schools, this is one we can really fix.
3. The Culture of Sex
An article appeared in the July 8, 1999 edition of the Washington Post about a junior high school meeting for parents to discuss the latest fad: oral sex. No, I am not making this up. Click here for the full article.
Just three decades ago, oral sex was practically a taboo, even for married couples (the movie Summer of Sam set in 1977 is an example). Then it became a "safe alternative" during the AIDS scare '80s. Now it is considered the new "third base" in the popular metaphor (the movie American Pie set in 1999 is an example). At least this was the opinion of our own President, it was his central defense during his impeachment that oral sex is not real sex. So, now we have legal precedent to back this view up.
This increased social openness about sex at the adult level has an obvious influence on the thinking of our adolescents. Teenagers are facing relationship decisions and emotional stresses they should not need to face before High School graduation. Sexual harassment in our schools is, not surprisingly, way up. All just adding to the list of outside distractions that affect student performance.
Studies have shown that putting girls in their own classes improves achievement, especially in math and science. Boys in all boys classes ironically do about the same as those in coed classes, but their behavior improves (not needing to prove your superior maleness in front of the girls makes it easier to concentrate). Despite these studies, there is no movement to segregate boys and girls in our public schools. That would not be politically correct.
4. Mobile America
Not too long ago kids grew up in the same neighborhood their whole lives, grew up with the same friends, the same parents who had the same jobs, the same house, and the same school.
Not any more. Most of today's students live in at least three different cities during their school years, having to make new friends and get accepted at each new place. This is not even including the rotating parent situations mentioned before.
This lack of stability affects the students (obviously) both from an emotional stand point, and having to get adjusted to school curriculum. Do not think this is trivial, the states with the highest growth rates also have the highest crime rates and highest divorce rates. Our new service and information economy means people change jobs all the time. Which means changing cities away from the friends and family network we go to whenever we are having problems. So it is not a coincidence that divorce and crime are a result.
It also affects the schools. When I was still teaching, I taught in a highly mobile region of the country. I lost and gained students almost weekly, and for every student lost, I had to fill out paperwork and calculate their current grades. Every student gained required extra time getting that student caught up with the rest of the class. All of this extra work cuts into teacher preparedness, which hurts everybody.
5. Chemical Agents
It should be obvious that the increase in illegal drugs, smoking, and alcohol hinders the learning process. I do not have to go into detail.
What many probably do not know about is the increase of students taking legal prescriptions, especially anti-depressants like Prozac and anti-hyperactive stimulants like Ritalin. While these drugs improve the students behavior in school, which is why they are so popular, they do not improve student comprehension. In fact, they hinder comprehension. More attentive does not mean smarter.
When I was a teacher, I had some students who were on Ritalin. The days they forgot to take it, they were extremely disruptive. I had to call Security more than a few times for one student who hated taking Ritalin due to the side effects.
As great as these drugs are for behavior, I wonder if they are not just masking the real problems these kids have. Ritalin and Prozac are controlled substances for good reason, they are narcotics. While I would strongly disagree with those who say that Attention Deficit Disorder does not exist, I very much agree with those that say it is over diagnosed. Much of the behavior often considered hyperactive, is really just kids being kids. Ritalin and other drugs should be a last resort, not a primary solution.
Conclusion
Many of the problems we have in our schools are a result of outside forces, most of which cannot be controlled in any way by the schools themselves. Before we start saying our schools suck, we better acknowledge that society sucks as well.