Most everybody in the United States has been to school at some point in their lives. This seems to result in everyone being convinced that they know the solution to our education woes. I am glad that people are interested in education, but I think we need to be careful to address this problem thoughtfully. As somebody who thinks about education all day, I would offer the following suggestions for discussing educational reform:
1. Don’t dump on the teachers.
It would be political suicide to attack almost any profession the way politicians and pundits are attacking the teaching profession right now. Imagine if a prominent politician talked about how firefighters don’t really work very hard, get paid too much and should bear the brunt of our attempts to cut the federal budget. That politician would be forced to resign within a day or two.
Teaching is not an easy, 9 to 3 job with summers off. Most full-time elementary and high-school teachers I know are at school by 7:30 a.m. and stay most days until at least 5 p.m. Then they go home and grade papers until late into the night. Middle-school and high-school teachers often are involved in extra-curricular sports and arts programs, which can mean that they don’t walk into their home until 9 p.m. The least we can do is see teachers as part of the solution rather than the problem.
2. Solutions take time.
Sometimes I think that all education initiatives should be required to run for at least 10 years before being evaluated, rather than the year that is generally given to most reforms before they are traded in for yet another program. Imagine a system instead where the teachers and administrators come together, decide on reforms particular to their district and schools, then work at implementing them for 10 years.
3. Solutions need to be for all God’s children.
There are many parts of America’s educational system that are not failing. Yet while there are many well-funded, high-performing schools (often in affluent, largely white suburbs), there are also many poorly funded, low-performing schools (often in largely African-American or Hispanic neighborhoods in urban centers.) As Christians, we need to make sure that the solutions we come up with would help all of God’s children.
On the one hand, school choice (also called vouchers) would seem like just such a solution. Average the amount it costs to educate a student for a year, then allow parents to take that voucher with them to whichever school they want. Yes, urban families could send their kids to a better suburban school, but given the realities of travel and work schedules, is that really an option? I am not opposed to voucher systems in principle, but rather I think whatever solutions are proposed need to be for all God’s children, not just the rich, or those who attend church, or those who belong to a particular ethnic group.
4. Want to get rid of teachers’ unions? Make them unnecessary.
The reasons unions still hold power is that teachers are in a bind in which they feel they have to fight to hold onto every concession they have gained over the last several decades. City officials wish to cut staff, increase class size and cut programs. Oftentimes the unions seem like the only voice for stopping such things.
Want the unions to go away? Then your course of action is clear - pay teachers what they are worth, thank them for their service with good health care and provide funding for professional development. In short, treat them like the hard-working professionals they are.
5. Solutions should involve parents.
Teachers should never forget that the children they teach are on loan for seven hours a day from their parents. Working together, teachers and parents can reinforce each other, be more creative about solutions to problems and keep the interests of the children in the forefront.
In fact, we could perhaps broaden this to say that if we are serious about improving our education system, we need to listen to each other. Listen to teachers, administrators, parents, children, politicians. Listen to try to find ways to make things better for all God’s children. If we do that, our discussions will surely bear fruit.
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Comments (25)
My wife working in Chicago for 10 years as a teacher. Unions, or the threat of union involvement saved several very good teachers from being harassed or worse by some very bad principals. At the same time they saved some very bad teachers from principals that were trying to really work for the best interest of the children. But my bigger point is that unions do not exist for most of the south east. In GA, where we have lived for the past 5 years, it is illegal to have a union for pubic employees. But it still is hard to get rid of bad teachers and there are still issues with good teachers suffering under bad principals. So unions are not really the issue. It is employment policies that are the bigger issue and those policies are true whether it is a union or non-union district. And frankly, the biggest issue from my experience is that the principals can identify the bad teachers, but they do not want to go through the work of documenting, so they try to pressure or intimidate teachers out instead of doing the actual work of managing staff.
js
While it's true that solutions do take time, I think we need a more nimble process for implementing reform. It takes so long to gather and aggregate data, decide what to do, decide how to implement the reform, determine how to measure it and how to allocate funds based on the measurement that by the time the reform is implemented newer and more pressing problems have arisen or better solutions have been developed. And trying to back out of a reform that's not working can be even more involved.
Lots can be learned when teachers lecture and students work alone, but classroom learning needs to reflect the collaborative and adaptive skills students need to function in 21st century work environments and social settings. On top of that students need better technology, schools need better technology support and teachers need better technology training.
While a recent Harvard study showed that students from states with teacher's unions out-performed students from non-union states, it's not all about the money. Private schools educate students with fewer dollars per student while paying teachers significatntly less than their public schools counterparts yet, according to a Time study, private school students consistently outperform public school students on tests like the SAT that measure critical thinking. Perhaps class size, teacher autonomy, professional respect, or teacher motivation are driving factors rather than money.
Private school students are generally from homes where education is highly valued and parents are more involved. The community and environment the student experiences outside school is influential. For many lower income students the information and experiences encountered at school fits nowhere in their social context. Studies show that equipping communities to support its students outside school walls is key. If solutions for all God's children need to be found then God's children need to donate, volunteer, mentor and pray.
My favorite point was #4. When you come to the fact that unions, in all honesty, are unnecessary for the economy to work, it becomes easier to live/work without them.
EDUCA'TION, n. [L. educatio.] The bringing up, as of a
child, instruction; formation of manners. Education comprehends all that
series of instruction and discipline which is intended to enlighten the
understanding, correct the temper, and form the manners and habits of
youth, and fit them for usefulness in their future stations. To give
children a good education in manners, arts and science, is important; to
give them a religious education is indispensable; and an immense
responsibility rests on parents and guardians who neglect these duties.When it says that "a religious education is indispensable", it's not talking about secular humanism, which is what you get in our schools today. People make such a huge issue of the separation of church and state and yet our tax dollars are being used to teach millions of children the religion of humanism. You can see the results of this indoctrination all around you in the crime rates, the loss of respect for life as evidenced by the fact that over 3000 babies are aborted in America every day, the growing antagonism towards Christianity and anything even remotely resembling an acknowledgment of our Christian heritage, etc. Our tax dollars are being used to teach our children about false gods, that there are many gods, that we are god, anything can be a god except the Triune God, especially the Lord Jesus Christ. We as parents will be held accountable by God for what we teach our children, whether we teach it to them or it's taught to them by whomever we choose to give our children over to, they are our responsibility, our blessing. I strongly encourage people to think about what you want your children to be learning. We, as Christians, are called to be holy, separate, set apart. Do not pursue the things of this world, don't do things the way unbelievers do them. Are we supposed to conform to the patterns of this lost world? Or are we to be transformed by the renewing of our minds?
Proverbs 22:6 ESV
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.How much time does it take to counter the false teachings of these schools that are becoming more and more antagonistic towards Christians and parents? Children are in these school settings for at least 6 hours a day, 5 days a week, for at least 13 years. They aren't just dipping their toes in the waters of humanism, moral relativism, and tolerance, they are existing in it like a fish in water. It's in the school, it's on the T.V., it's in the movies, it's in the music, it permeates their minds. Can you counter it with a few minutes a day, a few hours a week, a couple of Sundays a month? Think about it, Christian. What is God calling us to be and do?
Does anybody else believe that "education reform" needs to start with bringing the Bible back into the classrooms?
No. Not in a public school system in a nation whose founding document, the highest law in the land, proclaims that government can't establish a religion. Not in a nation where opinions about the Bible—to say nothing about opinions about religion itself—are widely variable and often mutually incompatible. Whose Bible do you teach? Whose interpretation? What of the many, many children who aren't Christian, whether they follow another religion or no religion at all?
2. There is only one Bible, I'm not overly concerned with the translation as long as it is a valid translation, not a distorted translation that denies the Godhood of Jesus Christ.
3. Therein lies the problem. If we, as a nation, turn away from God in order to appease unbelievers, God will judge us as a nation and will find us wanting. Look around and tell me that you don't already see the evidence of God turning this country over to a hardening of our hearts, judgement will come. There are no negatives that I can see in teaching all American children that there is a sovereign God to whom we are all accountable. It's a start.
Oh, and if you're going to seriously suggest that secular humanism is a religion, please support your claim. First, of course, you'll have to present a definition of "religion"—please define using scholarly, peer-reviewed sources from publications in the field of religion, anthropology, sociology, or culture studies, in order to put some authority behind your definition—and then you'll have to demonstrate that what is being taught in public schools does, in fact, meet that definition.
Yes, it is a war. A Christian can not deny that there is a war, not a war requiring violence and bloodshed obviously, true Christians know that they have no legitimate reason for pursuing violence in order to fulfill the commands of Jesus Christ. There are two kinds of people in the world, children of God and children of wrath, either you love God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit or you are an enemy. We are told to love our enemies, help them, tell them the good news of the gospel, pray for them. If we have to choose between what is right in man's eyes and what God commands, we must obey God, regardless of the consequences from men.
Is humanism a religion? See what you think:here, http://www.humanistsofutah.org... and here Paul Kurtz, in the preface to Humanist Manifestos I & II (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1973), p. 3
If it walks like a religion, talks like a religion, well...It's their own definitions that tells the story.
I would say more, but I'm pressed for time. Got to get to work. I'll be back, hopefully this weekend.
Again, please demonstrate, with references to works by actual, real historians (i.e., no David Barton) publishing in peer-reviewed journals or academic-press books.
Again, I say, get the government out of our schools.
And you propose to provide for the education of children whose parents can't afford private school tuition exactly how?
Yes, it is a war. A Christian can not deny that there is a war
I deny that there is a war. Are you suggesting that I'm not Christian?
There are two kinds of people in the world, children of God and children of wrath, either you love God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit or you are an enemy. We are told to love our enemies, help them, tell them the good news of the gospel, pray for them.
I know many people of other faiths, or no faith at all, and I do not consider them enemies in any sense of the word. In fact, most of them I consider friends, and some of them close friends. Do you know anyone of a non-Christian faith, or of no faith at all? Would you be willing to tell them to their face that they are your enemies, and you're only nice to them because God told you to be?
Is humanism a religion?
That wasn't what I was asking. What I was asking was for you to demonstrate that what's taught in public schools is a religion. You can't simply assume that we'll all accept your assertion that secular humanism is taught in public schools; you have to demonstrate it by showing evidence to that effect.
Whatever we do should bring glory to God, we should be seeking to do what pleases Him. Does our education system please God? Are our kids learing THE TRUTH in school? I'm not concerned about pleasing men. If we do what is pleasing to God and it's in His will, then it can only be good for men, though many will despise it.
Galatians 1:10 ESV
For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Romans 8:28 ESV
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.God bless you.
The constitution protects us from having to endure a particular religion taught in our classrooms. If this nation becomes 90% muslim, would you want the majority to decide that the Quran and the teachings of Muhammad should be taught to your children?
Brandon
And then there's scope. I am unaware that children who come out of the alternative CSI schools are any more resilient to this culture than those form the public schools. At a practical level, I don't see that there is this safe harbor.
But if there is no safe harbor, then that suggests that the initial hypothesis of "no Bible in school = secular degradation" may be incorrect. And indeed, if one were to become acquainted with any number of public schools (general or charter), one would find a host of committed teachers working to shape young lives, committed teachers who also play an active life in their congregations. Plainly put, you do not need a Bible on your desk to teach a biblical world and life view, any more than you need a Bible to function as a Christian accountant or a Christian doctor. The philosophy of Christians in education is far broader and deeper than that.
My favorite point was #4. When you come to the fact that unions, in all honesty, are unnecessary for the economy to work, it becomes easier to live/work without them.
See, I don't think that point is ever going to come, because of humanity's fallen state. Business owners will always have an interest in making more profit by paying their workers less, by cutting corners on safety, by creating situations where workers fear for their jobs because they can be fired for arbitrary reasons, by cutting benefits and pensions. And because business owners are fallen people, when they're given the choice between doing the moral thing and treating their workers fairly, or doing the immoral thing and exploiting their workers for a quick buck, they'll tend to choose the latter. Thus, I think strong, vibrant unions will always be needed—and, in fact, I'd suggest that more unions are needed, in every field of business, for every working person—in order to provide a counterbalance to the profit motive for business owners.
Is it possible for unions to overreach? Of course it is. But I'd suggest that 95% of the time someone's pointing to "union overreach" in this country, it's because management made boneheaded decisions (see: GM) or because businesses that treat their workers fairly can't compete with bad-acting competitors who didn't sufficiently respect their workers—the solution to which is more regulation and more intervention to ensure the existence of a level playing field in which all businesses are expected, by custom if possible but by law if custom fails, to pay their workers a fair and living wage, to give them benefits and a pension, to give them due process for the redress of grievances from either party, and to ensure that they have a safe working environment.
Bibles aren't as easy to hide behind when getting shot at. Other text books might work better.
If you desire bibles in the classroom, check out www.csionline.org and send a child to one of these places. Not trying to be mean, but that is where you'll find a bible in the classroom.
We need to get more parents involved in the lives of the students. We need to de-emphasize sports and re-emphasize education. Students now go because of sports programs, for extra-curricular programs. We are training students who are good at sports but bad at math and spelling.
Bibles won't help. You're involvement in the life of the classroom will. If you desire a Christian presence in the classroom, please volunteer to help the teachers who are overburdened with oversize classrooms and unable to meet the needs of the students.