What No One Says About Why Education is Failing

I've read all kinds of explanations about why our public schools are "failing" our children, and why SAT scores are down, but two of the biggest reasons for it are rarely mentioned, if ever.

I had a series of outstanding elementary school teachers, and nearly all of them were what we used to call, in those politically incorrect days, "old maids." They were intelligent, committed women who had to support themselves and had few career options open to them, primarily teaching, nursing and office work. That meant that teaching attracted a lot of them, and they put their hearts and minds into it. They devoted themselves to their careers, and that meant they devoted themselves to their students, who were "their kids."

At least in my city, at that time, they also lived in the school neighborhoods. I still remember showing up at wonderful Miss Rose's apartment door with a jar of snails and crayfish I had fished out of the creek in the park. I'll love her forever for teaching me to read!

These women weren't all "sweet." I had a very strict fourth grade teacher who didn't approve of my reading adult novels, though to her credit, she didn't take them away from me. There was no nonsense in Miss Risser's class, and although I'm sure she did, I can't ever remember her laughing. I do remember her reading to us, especially Ben and Me, about Ben Franklin.

Miss Lambotte had us do all kinds of amazing hands-on activities in second grade; churning butter and making bread when we were studying pioneers, and making a large model of a covered wagon. We constructed a papier mache sleigh and reindeer. Can you imagine the mess of flour and water paste and paint? We cleaned it up.

She also taught us useful ditties that I still think have value, though I don't hear my grandchildren learning them. Like, "When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking."

Miss Jerrard taught choral music in all the elementary schools in town. In each one, she produced a creditable chorus that put on a full Christmas pageant.

Miss Socolofsky taught art. How I wish we'd gotten those lessons more than once a month! Her projects were interesting, fun, and everyone had a finished product they could be proud of.

Yes, in those days, not all kids were good students. Some weren't interested and some were less capable, and some had difficulties. No one was "diagnosed" as having dislexia or Attention Deficit Disorder in those days, and kids weren't medicated to make them sit down and be quiet and focus, yet the classrooms were orderly and most kids did learn. I think individual differences were more accepted then.

These teachers must have spent many extra hours and I'm grateful to each of them. I got a first rate education from them, even if Miss Rose did have to use the Dick and Jane books to teach us to read. Anyone who started on them won't ever forget "See Spot run. See Spot run, run, run. See Jane run. See Jane run, run, run. See Dick run. See Dick run, run, run. See Spot and Dick and Jane run." Argh! Boring, but we soon graduated to better stuff!

We didn't have much of any homework in elementary school until reports in about fifth grade. We graded papers in class, so we found out immediately whether we did them right or not, and had to correct them. This seems to me to be a much better way of reinforcing learning than handing homework in, waiting to have it graded, and then just getting a grade. (I know not all teachers do that, but I certainly saw a lot of that with my sons.) And, homework might not even count much, or just get a checkmark for being done. That wasn't the case in my elementary school. You knew it all counted!

Now for the second part of the equation. Parents. Particularly Moms. While I'm not saying that Moms should have to stay home to raise kids (and I didn't always, myself), I do think it is very difficult as a working mother to have the time to invest in children's school work. There just aren't enough hours in the day. This is particularly true now with kids getting more homework. Some kids do it on their own, but many don't. And even if they do it, without a parent checking it, they might just be practicing doing things wrong, which is hardly a good educational result.

Also, some parents don't support the school, and just want their kid to get good grades, regardless of the work they do.

I remember wondering how some of the kids whose parents either didn't have the time or the interest (or even some extra cash for supplies) could possibly do a science fair project. Even if the child is doing the work themselves, someone has to help them get supplies at the very minimum. I remember my son wanting to construct a chlorophyll molecule model. It ended up being over 6 feet long and nearly 2 feet in diameter. He might be able to tell you how many styrofoam balls were required and how much paint to color the various types of atoms, but I just know it was mighty impressive when finished and he never could have done it if I hadn't been willing to get the supplies and transport the giant thing to school -- where his science teacher ended up mounting it on the wall.

We've had several teachers in our family. Each has struggled with the lack of student reading and math skills and the lack of parental interest. They all say it's the parents of the good students who show up for parent teacher conferences, not the parents of those who are struggling or unmotivated. What kind of message does that send?

Parents need to realize that the school can't educate their children well without parental support, and that means more than telling a kid to do their homework. It means spending time making SURE it is done, and done right. I means tutoring the kid who "doesn't get it," not doing it for them. It means showing up at conferences and making sure kids know school is important.

Are grades important? Yes, they are. When my older son was in fifth grade in a German school, the school unilaterally decided not to give him a report card because they said they didn't think he could get good grades and they would not grade him differently. When he found that out, he said he didn't see the point in doing his work if he didn't even know how well he was doing. So, they agreed to grade him, and he did just fine. There is, or should be, some motivation to succeed, and there has to be some way to measure success.

Here's to the terrific teachers I had. I, and all my classmates, were the beneficiaries of their lack of other opportunities. We were fortunate! I hope they felt they were, too.