April 30, 2000

Why All Candidates Should Pledge Education Reforms

If education is not the most important issue on which to reach political consensus by the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, it should be.

“Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.” So wisely said Herbert George Wells, the English sociological writer, historian and novelist after the First World War.

Reading, ‘riting and ‘rithmatic served Americans well enough until technology dragged us

fighting and screaming into the new millennium of globalization. Now we are convinced that reading and math are old educational skills that need to be updated if we are going to share equally in the rewards of hi-tech.

Studies indicate that the earnings gulf between well- educated and poorly-educated Americans is widening. There always will be such a gulf. No government can mandate equal wealth. Nevertheless, a compassionate government can make access to education equal.

The present crop of presidential candidates are dedicated to better education, but their methods of delivering opportunity differ in detail.

It should be stipulated that deficiencies in our present education system are not the “fault” of one political party or the other, or of teachers, or of school boards.

Traditional “public” schools – one size fits all – are still geared to an agrarian economy in many respects. We operate them part time, as if children must be excused all summer to help tend crops. In today’s society, summer vacation is license to run the streets. Perhaps worse, it is a break in the education process memory which has to be re-instilled every year.

Public schools have to contend with an influx of immigrant children. For the most part these kids are deficient in learning fundamentals and are unable to speak the United States’ national language essential to assimilation.

Also, cultural mores have been seriously altered by commercial entertainment geared to the lowest standards of taste and decency. Family function has been degraded by well- intentioned, welfare laws that penalize marriage. Minimum-wage laws cut off thousands of starting jobs, the first rungs on the ladder of success.

Considering the built in handicaps, public schools are doing a good job. Educators try to improve the system with learning shortcuts to bring along the difficult children. Politicians try to fix the system with money -- without changing system basics.

Gov. George Bush and Vice-president Al Gore have entered the education fray tentatively. They would move decimals a notch or two, build classrooms, hire more teachers, put gun detectors at school doors, monitor tests. All helpful, but wide of structural reform.

About the only differences in Bush’s and Gore’s platforms at this time are private school vouchers or not, amounts of new money allocated, how much federal participation in local school board decisions.

Parents want better grades for their kids, proficiency in real-world requirements, safe schools, shielding from sexual arousal, courtesy, standards of ethics, pleasant attitude.

Wannabe presidents and Congressional candidates are honing their education messages. We can expect firmer stands as the campaign progresses. In the meantime, school boards can wrangle over budgets and methods.

The current learning fads are “whole language” (down with phonics) and “constructivist math” (down with correct answers).

In whole language, the aim is to learn the shape of words, not letters and syllables which since antiquity we used to puzzle out words. Unfortunately, reading scores have gone down – whether by poor method or reasons mentioned above. It appears that scores go up when phonics are reintroduced.

Parents thought they had driven a stake through the heart of “new math” in the 1960s. Yet here it is again with another cloak. Pupils are supposed to “estimate” answers first, then work out correct answers by counting fingers or bird seed. Honest, I’m not making this up. Again, scores drift netherly. The hue and cry by Mom and Dad is for multiplication tables.

The time has come for bold reforms. Here are just a few that should be considered:

* Year round schools -- a big success in a couple of Charlotte County schools.

* A 3-3-3-3 system of separate schools for age groups – elementary, advanced, junior high and high.

* Uniforms for the first three schools, strict dress codes for high school.

* Non-sectarian morning prayer and Pledge of Allegiance.

* De-emphasize sports.

* Require regular classes in manners, deportment, ethics, and social values under a “personal development” banner.

* After-school and Saturday one-on-one tutoring.

It should be noted that these reforms for public schools are standard operating practice for private, parochial and charter schools.

Hmmmmmmmm.

PARTING SHOTS

If you think we’re getting too much government, be thankful we’re not getting as much as we’re paying for.

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Parents have mixed emotions when their children come home with an “A” in sex education.

Lindsey Williams is a Sun-Herald columnist and can be reached at linwms@lindseywilliams.org