The 6th crisis
A few days ago I came across an article titled, We're Dealing with Five Crises at the Same Time. Those crises are, 1. Global Pandemic 2. Economic Injustice 3. Racial Injustice 4. Threatened Democracy and 5. Climate Change. It is a well thought-out argument, which I agree with. There is a lot going on. But I also think the author missed a crisis: an educational one.
If the pandemic has done anything, it has highlighted some real issues in education. The first is the inherent inequity. If you can afford to have a parent stay at home when school has gone all online, your child will have a much different experience than a family where both parents need to work in order to provide for the necessities of life. If you have computers and wi-fi at home, then it is possible to participate in e-learning; learning that becomes completely inaccessible for anyone who cannot afford these things. The system was already inequitable. When schools are funded by property taxes, then inequitable is the only thing it can be. Then when you add in a history of racial injustice and red lining, causing generational trauma, which, if you have read this blog for any length of time makes learning significantly more difficult, you see how the inequity is compounded.
Secondly, with schools being closed due to the pandemic, the heavy emphasis on testing seems to have disappeared. I would like to point out that the world did not stop spinning. Children did keep learning, even if it didn't look as everyone was used to. In fact, anecdotal accounts were that children who were anxious about school were calmer and happier. Maybe all that testing wasn't actually necessary. Maybe all that standardized learning didn't actually help anything or anyone. Some teachers, with pretty much a moment's notice did manage to create e-learning that was valuable. You know, because they are trained to do that when their hands are not tied by excessive oversight and interference.
Thirdly, parents have had to have far more input into their children's education than they ever have. Whether it is to help their child navigate the remote learning or taking over completely because the medium was a poor fit for their child. For so long, our system has taken the parents out of the equation except to deal with the awful thing called homework. (Sorry, have to pause for a rant. Never has something done so much ill. It takes away from the children's free time, which is precious after having given the better part of the their day to school. It convinces the parents that they cannot teach their children because they are being asked to help with work presented in a way they don't understand to children who are tired and cranky at a time of day when parents are also tired and cranky. And it serves no purpose for anyone younger than high school. Everyone... teachers, parents, children... end up resenting each other over it, and all for a stack of busy work. Not that I have an opinion about it or anything.) The parents have little to no say about what their child learns, how they learn it, or when they learn it, even though parents really do know their children best and care the most about them. It is the perfect scenario for significant learned helplessness.
Fourthly, the teachers are underappreciated... again. Good teachers are amazing. They can take a topic that a child didn't think was interesting and open up a brand new world to that child. A good teacher can help a child find possibilities that the child didn't even know existed. Yet too often, teachers feel as though they are treated as glorified babysitters. It was only at the beginning of the shut down that people began to fully appreciate what a teacher actually does. Until they all forgot again and decided that teachers were suddenly the front line of getting life back to normal regardless of how the teachers felt about it. I might not be pro-traditional school, but I am certainly pro-teacher. I am amazed at what some of them manage to do given the constraints of a top-heavy testing and standardized culture. I would love to see what amazing things could happen if their hands were untied and they were allowed to use their skills and training to their fullest.
So here we are, our school system really is a mess and in crisis. Currently, as different districts try to figure out how they will make school work in the fall, they are faced with situations where absolutely no one wins nor is happy. I do not envy them. I do not envy families trying to sort out what is best for their individual children with less than wonderful options.
I would love it if we could use this as a chance to completely rethink what education could look like. I've always believed that public education should function like a library. You are free to use the library as much or as little as you like. The library and the librarians are there to help you find the information you need. It is (usually) a place where groups can meet together for various reasons... classes, book groups, public information, and in major cities, they also act as social service providers. They do a lot. What if we created schools like this? The teachers would still be public employees, teaching what was desired. There would be no age sorted grades, instead it would be whatever level each person happened to need at that time. There would be no set curriculum, because not everyone is interested in the same things. There could be visiting teachers for special subjects. Older children could teach younger children and vice versa if someone had a specialty. There would be no constraints about attendance or truancy or grades because those things are not really about learning, but about control. What I don't know how to do is to make it equitable. I do know that things are broken. So very, very broken. But if we are going to talk about equity and justice, let's not forget that our children deserve that as well.
If the pandemic has done anything, it has highlighted some real issues in education. The first is the inherent inequity. If you can afford to have a parent stay at home when school has gone all online, your child will have a much different experience than a family where both parents need to work in order to provide for the necessities of life. If you have computers and wi-fi at home, then it is possible to participate in e-learning; learning that becomes completely inaccessible for anyone who cannot afford these things. The system was already inequitable. When schools are funded by property taxes, then inequitable is the only thing it can be. Then when you add in a history of racial injustice and red lining, causing generational trauma, which, if you have read this blog for any length of time makes learning significantly more difficult, you see how the inequity is compounded.
Secondly, with schools being closed due to the pandemic, the heavy emphasis on testing seems to have disappeared. I would like to point out that the world did not stop spinning. Children did keep learning, even if it didn't look as everyone was used to. In fact, anecdotal accounts were that children who were anxious about school were calmer and happier. Maybe all that testing wasn't actually necessary. Maybe all that standardized learning didn't actually help anything or anyone. Some teachers, with pretty much a moment's notice did manage to create e-learning that was valuable. You know, because they are trained to do that when their hands are not tied by excessive oversight and interference.
Thirdly, parents have had to have far more input into their children's education than they ever have. Whether it is to help their child navigate the remote learning or taking over completely because the medium was a poor fit for their child. For so long, our system has taken the parents out of the equation except to deal with the awful thing called homework. (Sorry, have to pause for a rant. Never has something done so much ill. It takes away from the children's free time, which is precious after having given the better part of the their day to school. It convinces the parents that they cannot teach their children because they are being asked to help with work presented in a way they don't understand to children who are tired and cranky at a time of day when parents are also tired and cranky. And it serves no purpose for anyone younger than high school. Everyone... teachers, parents, children... end up resenting each other over it, and all for a stack of busy work. Not that I have an opinion about it or anything.) The parents have little to no say about what their child learns, how they learn it, or when they learn it, even though parents really do know their children best and care the most about them. It is the perfect scenario for significant learned helplessness.
Fourthly, the teachers are underappreciated... again. Good teachers are amazing. They can take a topic that a child didn't think was interesting and open up a brand new world to that child. A good teacher can help a child find possibilities that the child didn't even know existed. Yet too often, teachers feel as though they are treated as glorified babysitters. It was only at the beginning of the shut down that people began to fully appreciate what a teacher actually does. Until they all forgot again and decided that teachers were suddenly the front line of getting life back to normal regardless of how the teachers felt about it. I might not be pro-traditional school, but I am certainly pro-teacher. I am amazed at what some of them manage to do given the constraints of a top-heavy testing and standardized culture. I would love to see what amazing things could happen if their hands were untied and they were allowed to use their skills and training to their fullest.
So here we are, our school system really is a mess and in crisis. Currently, as different districts try to figure out how they will make school work in the fall, they are faced with situations where absolutely no one wins nor is happy. I do not envy them. I do not envy families trying to sort out what is best for their individual children with less than wonderful options.
I would love it if we could use this as a chance to completely rethink what education could look like. I've always believed that public education should function like a library. You are free to use the library as much or as little as you like. The library and the librarians are there to help you find the information you need. It is (usually) a place where groups can meet together for various reasons... classes, book groups, public information, and in major cities, they also act as social service providers. They do a lot. What if we created schools like this? The teachers would still be public employees, teaching what was desired. There would be no age sorted grades, instead it would be whatever level each person happened to need at that time. There would be no set curriculum, because not everyone is interested in the same things. There could be visiting teachers for special subjects. Older children could teach younger children and vice versa if someone had a specialty. There would be no constraints about attendance or truancy or grades because those things are not really about learning, but about control. What I don't know how to do is to make it equitable. I do know that things are broken. So very, very broken. But if we are going to talk about equity and justice, let's not forget that our children deserve that as well.
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