GRIZ BEAR COMMENTS

Fears about the plight of public education

I have a concern. It’s troubled me for several years but I haven’t really written anything about it in the newspaper, though I may have given off a few hints here and there.

Before I begin, let me say this. I respect the hard work and efforts of the teachers in our public schools. I also respect the hard work and efforts of administrators. This is not meant to belittle their work or job performance in any way.

I share my concern after attending more than five-years of school board meetings and hearing countless reports on educational progress, and my concern is this: Are teachers really able to teach and inspire their students to study and learn? Or, are their hands tied by federal and state mandates and meeting certain expected criteria in test results?

My fear - and I invite teachers and administrators to set me straight if I’m missing the mark - is that government (federaland state) has teachers and schools by the throat and is choking the life out of them. Teachers must teach certain materials in a certain way at a certain time and with an expected outcome or they will face disciplinary action and likely termination. Schools and administrators are held in the same grip and told if students don’t meet government-set standards, funds will be cut, government will take over and they will be replaced.

I’m sorry to say it, but school board members are in the same paddleless boat. Their hands are pretty much tied and decisions must be made to toe the governmentmandated line and in fear of state take-over.

Where then is the freedom to educate or even the freedom to think and learn? Can a history teacher teach his students how to do historical research and discover what life was like and how people lived and thought in another time? Or must he teach certain bits of information students must know to pass an evaluative end-of-course exam? Can a math teacher take the time to have students apply algebraic or geometric equations to real-life situations or must it remain in the abstract because the course must remain on course for testing purposes, of course? Can an English teacher take the time to really encourage students to read and write or are they bound to certain core materialsthat every student “must know”?

Incidentally, I have often been tempted to reprint submissions of teachers and administrators without editing so that readers may judge their spelling, grammar and writing skills. Some would score less than proficient, but then we all have room for some annual yearly progress and none of us is perfect.

Are students taught to think for themselves, to research and learn, to test ideas and information, and to arrive at their own conclusions? Or are they made to fit the mold established by the government, to accept the spin of the day and to conform to the mandated norms?

Being raised in a familyof teachers and school administrators, the thought of teaching has often intrigued me - I did teach photography at the college level before - but I’ve shied away from a teaching career and continue to do so, even at this late stage in my working life, because I don’t think children or adults can be educated in an assemblyline fashion - with this part put in here, that part plugged in there - and the final product being, well, pretty much standardized even if that standard has to be lowered so that students can pass the test.

Randy Moll is the managing editor of the Westside Eagle Observer. He may be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

Opinion, Pages 6 on 11/02/2011